Are population dynamics driving greed in the food industry?

Globally, the number of people joining the middle class is rising. It is estimated that more than 2.2 billion will join the ranks of middle income in the next ten years. 

This newfound status is supposed to herald greater economic empowerment, but it is the bane of new pain – pressure on food security – that is increasingly pouring fraudulent foods into the market. 

The insatiable demand for food has brought about unimagined greed.

Mandy Oaklander’s article, "11 Most Fraudulent Foods", says that the foods we eat every day are packed with things that aren’t supposed to be there — a practice known as “food fraud” — according to a recent report from the United States Pharmacopeial Convention.  

It is emerging that these fraudulent activities are prevalent in Kenya as highlighted by Mwaniki Wahome in his September 9th 2014 exposé in the Daily Nation. Another article by Kiprotich Koros of The Star details how unscrupulous businessmen use cancer-causing chemicals to ripen fruits. 

Some of these fruits, especially bananas, are pushed on to unsuspecting consumers on the highway. Some informal outlets are injecting sugar syrup into watermelons to make them sweet.

Food fraud is defined as "the intentional adulteration of food with cheaper ingredients for economic gain," and is a well-documented crime that has existed in virtually all countries for many years.

Most countries are searching for ways of curbing the crime given the fact that bioterrorism is in the rise. Our vulnerability is magnified by the fact that we have a single view of terrorism, when our doors are left ajar for bioterrorism to take root. 

MULTIPLE REGULATORY AGENCIES

Hundreds of canned foods in some of our supermarkets are expired goods from other parts of the world brought into the country by unscrupulous businessmen. What we purchase as real honey is sometimes just syrup with a tinge of real honey.

It is easy to blame the government for a weak regulatory framework, but the problem persists even in advanced countries. It requires a collective effort, including each one of us becoming their “brother’s keeper”, enhancing our own ethical behaviour and leveraging technology to identify counterfeits.

While most countries have a clear food regulatory agency, Kenya has multiple and often tangled regulatory agencies. They range from KEPHIS to Pharmacy and Poisons Board to the National Authority for Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada). 

The recent consolidation of parastatals did not see the need to bring all these agencies into a single and strong food regulatory agency.

COUNTERFEIT OLIVE OIL

Numerous cases of intentional food fraud have been discovered over the last few years, according to Wikimedia:

• In 2008, US consumers were "panicked" and a "media firestorm" ensued when Chinese milk was discovered to have been adulterated with the chemical melamine, to make it appear to have higher protein content. It caused 900 infants to be hospitalized, with six deaths.

• In 2007, the University of North Carolina found that 77 per cent of fish labelled as red snapper was actually tilapia, a more common and less flavourful species. The Chicago Sun-Times tested fish at 17 sushi restaurants and found that fish being sold as red snapper was actually mostly tilapia. Other inspections uncovered catfish being sold as grouper, which normally sells for nearly twice as much as catfish. Fish is the most frequently faked food Americans buy, which includes "...selling a cheaper fish, such as pen-raised Atlantic salmon, as wild Alaska salmon." In one test, Consumer Reports found that less than half of supposedly "wild-caught" salmon sold in 2005-2006 were actually wild, and the rest were farmed.

• French cognac was discovered to have been adulterated with brandy, and their honey was mixed with cheaper sugars, such as high-fructose corn syrup.

• In 2008, US food safety officers seized more than 10,000 cases of counterfeit extra-virgin olive oil, worth more than $700,000, from warehouses in New York and New Jersey. Olive oil is considered one of the most frequently counterfeited food products, according to the FDA, with one study finding that a lot of products labelled as "extra-virgin olive oil" actually contained up to 90 per cent soybean oil.

However, in the US, where the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the primary regulatory body for food safety and enforcement, they admit that the "sheer magnitude of the potential crime" makes prevention difficult, along with the fact that food safety is not treated as a high priority.

ADULTERATED 'CHANGÁA'  

They note that with more than 300 ports of entry through which 13 per cent of America's food supply passes, the FDA is only able to inspect about 2 per cent of that food.  

Although inspection data is not available in Kenya, our porous borders should be a source of great concern for adulterated foods coming into the country without inspection.

In the past two years we have lost more than 500 lives to adulterated chan’gaa (literal meaning: "kill me quick"). The brew never killed people in the past until scarcity of resources due to population growth started to impact the rural areas, forcing the brewers into adulterating it with methanol (cheaper than maize or millet that are the primary resources for making chan’gaa).  

The problem is further compounded by the fact that Nacada, too, has largely played politics, often confused as to what their real mandate should be. 

However, this is not the time to blame any person or organization. We must all own the problem as a basis of starting the long journey of rescuing our people.

RANDOMVERIFICATION

Every Kenyan has the responsibility to report any activity that undermines the lives of innocent people. It is through a collective effort that we can all become our “brother’s keeper”. Research institutions as well as media should conduct random verification exercises to point out outlets that allow fraud foods onto their shelves. 

If one such outlet is identified, a collective will to boycott its products should be enough punishment to deter others from wilfully endangering lives of innocent people. There is also a need to establish whether the high levels of cancer in the country are attributable to food. 

Although our Constitution stipulates the ethical behaviour that governs our actions, many think these ethics are more cosmetic than practical. Behavioural change is a function of culture. 

The 1989 Encyclopaedia Britannica defines culture as "the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behaviour... language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of arts, rituals, ceremonies and other related components...". 

KENYANS ARE 'UNSURE'

As such, Dr. Naomi Kipuri thinks that our Constitution is failing us given the fact that “Kenya has inherited diverse cultures, comprising agriculturalists, pastoralists and hunter-gatherers, all speaking a multiplicity of languages: Nilotic, Bantu Cushitic, etc. Yet the Constitution does not properly reflect this diversity”.

Kipuri concludes that “awareness of our origins and experiences and beliefs that have moulded us is more important than ever. Understanding one's past and present context is a crucial precondition for choosing what to take with us into the future, what we leave behind, and the point at which we seek to build something new and merge with other cultural expressions.

"To grasp other's pride in their history and culture we must know and be proud of our own. Every community nourishes the cultural manifestation of its own identity. Yet in Kenya, we are unsure of whether or not to respect and uphold our cultures. We are at the lowest ebb in our ethics and our ideological position seems to be always shifting.

"It would be a relief if the new Constitution could clarify our position in relation to the fundamental question of culture.” From this angle, we are still confused on ethics but in other countries religion played a key role in consolidating a common view.

FEAR OF GOD

On ethics, the majority of our religious leaders have let us down. Their culture comes first and their vocation second. They are irreparably and irreconcilably conflicted. That is how they are as confused as any ordinary person out there. There is power in the fear of God and it is that power that will control our behaviour towards those we interact with or sell our products to. 

If I know that I have used a harmful chemical to ripen my bananas, I am supposed to be overcome with guilt, which can emerge if our relationship with God is genuine. Wikimedia notes that “most religions have an ethical component, often derived from purported supernatural revelation or guidance". According to Simon Blackburn, "For many people, ethics is not only tied up with religion, but is completely settled by it.”

There is a greater need today to leverage technology than ever before. If broadband were universally available, traceability of all manufactured goods would be possible. We need to create global open data, where global citizens can verify products manufactured in any country.

At the national level, we must build a culture where the farmers provide full disclosure with respect to whether chemicals are used or the produce is organic. In my view this will be a value addition not just to the farmer but to the outlets that sell the produce.

LAND NOT TILLED

The good news from this rather sad presentation is that agriculture is becoming more lucrative and an obvious new source of employment and wealth creation. Research shows that youth are leaving farms for urban centres in search of employment. As I write this piece here, at the Maropeng Resort in South Africa, I am told that South Africa, too, imports chicken and other foods from Brazil. 

The route to Maropeng reveals the South Africa that I have never seen before. Pockets of shanties that would make Kibra look like a suburb litter the way. Strong, dark-skinned men idle around. Across the road, another factor of production — land — lies fallow. Land, of which not an inch is tilled, runs as far as the eyes can see. 

My eyes tear as difficult questions pound my mind. What is wrong with us Africans? Can we not raise free-range non-adulterated chickens on these fields to meet the insatiable market for chicken in Africa? Should we not leverage land availability and prepare ourselves to feed the world? Could a greater supply of food lessen the greed that is engulfing us?

The demand for food will continue to raise and drive greed, but there is also a great opportunity for Africa to leverage its resources, technology and fear of God to grow wealth. And when other people wish for Africa to rise, it is the people to rise and build their own capacities in tandem with future requirements.

Dr Ndemo is a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi's Business School, Lower Kabete campus. He is a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication. Twitter:@bantigito