According to Science Direct, the appropriate measurement of food security is critical for targeting food and economic aid; supporting early famine warning and global monitoring system.
Sometime in June 2023, I was listening to a program on CBS Emmanduso called, ‘Eyeeterekera’. The show, which airs on Saturdays from 9:30 am - 10:00 am, aims at encouraging people to save and primarily promoting financial literacy as a lifestyle. During the show, the host mentioned a very interesting point about saving, which was more about food security as part of saving and preservation. The program’s name is derived from a Luganda Proverb “Eyeeterekera butera okukya,” which is loosely translated as the one who saves faces a new dawn.
Saving & Investing Vary
In this particular context of okwetegekera/saving; saving and investing is not only in the form of money or material things, but also food security wise; our ancestors also invested in other ways like food security. For example, amatooke bwegengera, you have backup of bukupa kubanga bumeera nebuzaala more backup because bukula for years so you know you’re covered in terms of food. The same reason applies to food like balugu, endagu. Meaning, they never focused on growing their staple food only, but also diversified by growing yams, which take a while to grow, but in that way they would be saving and investing for the future with these yams to avoid famine.
How our views about food change as we age
Another interesting perspective from the same show: The presenter gave an example of Uganda’s population and how the majority are between 0-40 years. People of this age group eat anything but from 40-50 years upwards, they’re picky of what to eat. You find they don’t say “webale kufumba (thank you for the food), but “omunyo gwayitiridde” (the salt was too much) they make comments on what they eat; they know what they should be eating and not due to their age. Their body may be rejecting certain things and with wisdom, they stay away from certain food.
Brief Present-day Context
The World Economic Forum says rising commodity prices, risk of food shortages, as well as the lingering impact of the pandemic, have triggered a concern for the availability and accessibility of food around the world, investors play an important role in providing much-needed capital to bring down the cost of food at scale, and one-third of all food produced globally is lost between farm and fork, presenting an opportunity for investment in capital-intensive links of the food value chain. Thus, the investment opportunity begins on the farm. Collaborating with farmers to adopt crop and regional best management practices that benefit both their operations, the planet and retailers helps balance issues of sustainability and scale.
Concluding Thoughts
One thing about our ancestors, they were wise. I found this saving context to be truly intriguing and had me questioning my idea of saving; and how to diversify saving mechanisms in other areas of life as opposed to monetary measures only.
The second perspective about how our views about food change as we age exemplifies the key to being in tune with your body, you eat what your body wants. The body takes over and makes decisions as you age, which reminds me of what a friend once said, what we do to our bodies determines how it will take care of us in our senior age.
Two key takeaways: Food was used as the analogy to drive home two messages, one being food security as a preservation measure and and the the other, listening to your body and feeding it what is best for it.
Are you using preservation and saving as a food security measure, if so, how? Or better yet, what knowledge systems does your culture use to curb food security?
Photo Credit: Asian Inspiration