Nairobi, 16th October 2018 – Consumers and small scale farmers have today handed over a petition to Parliament and the Ministry of Agriculture calling for an overhaul of Kenya\u2019s food system. The petition, signed by over 1000 farmers and consumers demands healthy food for all Kenyans.<\/p>\n
The crowds marched from Uhuru park to Parliament and then to the Ministry of Agriculture to express their discontent over the recent food related scandals in Kenya as world commemorates World Food Day under the theme a #zerohunger world by 2030 is possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cKenya\u2019s food system is broken and food safety has become a major concern. I no longer trust what I eat. The system is controlled by a few rich people and large corporations from industrialized countries. The industrial, chemical-intensive agriculture system is deeply unfair, and unsustainable. The government must reverse this situation to restore citizen\u2019s control over food production and consumption\u201d, said Samuel Omesa, a concerned consumer.<\/p>\n
According to the World Health Organization, more than 10 million people in Kenya suffer from chronic food insecurity. This number is projected to increase if urgent measures are not put in place. Zero hunger means working together to ensure everyone, everywhere has access to safe, healthy and nutritious food. This can only be achieved when we adopt a more sustainable farming and food system that put farmers and consumers at the forefront.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am passionate about food; it is a basic necessity essential to human health and wellbeing, but I am losing control over it. The industrial agriculture corporations are making huge profits at the expense of small-scale farmers. Chemically-free food is not readily available in supermarkets, food stores and local markets. As a result consumers cannot benefit from healthy organic produce and I am not able to feed my family and have a livelihood,\u201d said Samuel Wathome a farmer from Machakos county.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ministry of Agriculture must create opportunities for the adoption of ecological agriculture at scale \u2013 this is a model of agriculture that protect people and their environment. This will enable my community and I to feed our families and contribute to the breadbasket of the nation,\u201d continued Wathome.<\/p>\n
The past few months have seen an immense violation of Kenya\u2019s right to food. From mercury laced sugar, expired rice, sub-standard cooking oil to aflatoxin infected maize and calcium carbide ripen fruits. Food safety and quality control are issues of national importance that require swift intervention. Our current agriculture system depend on the use of vast amounts of chemicals, as well as fossil fuels. This predominant model prevents Kenyans from exercising the ability to define agricultural and food policies in line with sustainable development and food security objectives<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here today to support consumers and small scale farmers as they call on the government of Kenya to ensure that safe and healthy food is produced within Kenya\u2019s food system. This can be achieved by having the right policies in place and shifting investments in agriculture away from industrial agriculture to up scaling ecological farming\u2019 said Greenpeace Africa\u2019s Senior Food For Life Campaign Manager, Renee Olende.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call upon the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and irrigation to support local farmers who practice ecological farming thus ensuring access to healthy, indigenous, chemical- free food to consumers. It is the government\u2019s responsibility to safeguard food sovereignty, \u201d concluded Olende.<\/p>\n
Notes to the Editor:<\/strong><\/p>\n Online Petition to the Ministry of Agriculture can be found here<\/p>\n Media contact: Hellen Dena, Communication Officer, Mobile: + 254 717 104 144<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nairobi, 16th October 2018 – Consumers and small scale farmers have today handed over a petition to Parliament and the Ministry of Agriculture calling for an overhaul of Kenya\u2019s food…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":4297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,37,64],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-4181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-farming","tag-food","tag-kenya","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4181"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4300,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181\/revisions\/4300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4181"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=4181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}