Description
Africa is confronted with continuing calls for greater food security at several levels. Rising hunger in situations of conflict, famine and other manmade and natural disasters remains a constant threat. At the same time, changes in indigenous diets brought about by various factors appear to be having long term implications for health on the continent. Who would have guessed that Ethiopia, for instance, would go from recurrent famine thirty years ago to a diabetes epidemic in this decade? This study investigates the various changes in indigenous diet that are evident in two cases: Ethiopia and Kenya. Based on both a literature survey and empirical data from these two states, it considers the likely long term cost for African public health care budgets and possible ways to turn back the onset of chronic diseases once thought to be the curse only of the wealthy societies of the world.
