Chronicle Online e-News
Profits, not poaching, is message Cornell food scientists are aiming
at Zambian farmers
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct07/FoodHygiene.kr.ht
ml
Oct. 16, 2007
By Krishna Ramanujan
ksr32@cornell.edu
In an effort to improve lives and at the same time save African
wildlife, Cornell researchers are helping farmers in Zambia, Southern
Africa, develop such products as peanut butter and tofu under the
It's Wild! brand name. The goal? Enabling farmers to reap more
financial rewards from the food they grow so they won't poach
threatened wildlife or destroy forests.
The effort is part of a partnership between Cornell and the Wildlife
Conservation Society to support the Community Markets for
Conservation (COMACO), a Zambian organization with a vision to save
wildlife by addressing human poverty and hunger that forces farmers
into poaching and cutting forests down for farm fields.
One of the main goals of Community Markets is to train farmers to
grow food using sustainable agricultural practices and give them the
expertise to make honey and rice and other lucrative products under
the It's Wild! label. With Cornell's guidance, Community Markets'
food processing facility was recently certified as a vendor by the
World Food Program (WFP) to sell a soy-maize protein powder
supplement to the WFP for refugees and HIV/AIDS patients.
"This now positions COMACO to provide high-energy protein supplements
to relief agencies," said Alex Travis, Cornell assistant professor of
reproductive biology in the College of Veterinary Medicine's Baker
Institute for Animal Health and a principle investigator in Cornell's
ongoing collaboration with the wildlife society. "The certification
represents a huge cost-savings versus importing high-energy protein
supplements, and [it] also contributes directly to the local economy."
With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development
(through its Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management
Collaborative Research Support Program), Cornell assistant professor
of food science Carmen Moraru convened a food safety and hygiene
workshop in Lundazi, Zambia, in spring 2007 to teach the Community
Markets food-processing staff simple measures to improve food safety
and quality, such as washing hands and utensils and wearing lab
coats, hairnets and shoe covers. Moraru also taught farmers about
microbes, for example, by using glow kits that illuminated residues
that remained under nails or between fingers after poor hand washing.
"They could really see with their eyes that even washing hands was
not that simple when working in a food processing facility," said
Moraru, who used posters and print materials developed with help from
Cornell's National Good Agricultural Practices Program to teach about
hygiene and hand washing.
Farmers also learned how to reduce the oil separating in their peanut
butter by grinding the peanuts less and lowering the heating during
processing and how to reduce rice breakages by modifying their
equipment.
Another goal was to help Community Markets diversify its product
line. The farmers are now experimenting with soymilk and tofu and
also plan on producing puffed rice and meat substitutes made from
soy. Growing soy has environmental benefits because the plant fixes
nitrogen in soil that is depleted by cotton crops. But, Moraru said,
new products must realistically fit with Zambian culture and the
local conditions. Zambians may not know how to cook tofu in ways that
suit their tastes, and soymilk requires large amounts of freshwater
and refrigeration, so right now the products are consumed soon after
they are sold.
In the meantime, Cornell economists are devising ways for
donor-reliant Community Markets to be financially self-sustaining.
"Family incomes have gone up dramatically, as have the prices per
unit," said Travis. "The value-added products are really the key to
the profitability."
--
Chronicle Online
312 College Ave.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607.255.4206
cunews@cornell.edu
http://www.news.cornell.edu
