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| The sweet potato can help ease malnutrition in Africa |
Bono and Colin Farrell undoubtedly have busy work schedules, yet neither man is so engrossed in fame, music making or acting, to ignore the world’s plight. That’s why together, Bono and Farrell are spearheading ONE.org’s newest charge: making certain that African farming regions and the leaders who rule over those areas have the tools and land to plant orange sweet potatoes, noted for their high nutritional levels of vitamins A, B6, and C.
“Forget celebrities,” says Farrell, “It's time to make the humble sweet potato famous.”
As Irishmen, both Farrell and Bono are familiar with the potato; the tuber has forever been part of the Emerald Isle’s diet. Yet, the orange sweet potato is altogether different – richer in vitamin content than its white, yellow or gold cousin, and sweeter to the taste.
In the quest to quell world hunger, especially in African regions, maximizing the nutritional effects of foods produced is an essential key to the survival and health of its young population. “As a dad, it's crazy to hear that over 170 million children are chronically malnourished,” writes Farrell in a recent ONE.org press release. “These kids aren't given a fair shot at life. If they manage to survive, they'll have a harder time in school, harder time finding a job - this affects them for the rest of their lives.”
The ONE.org website highlights the writings of Roger Thurow, an agricultural journalist and reporter for The Wall Street Journal whose books The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change, and ENOUGH: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, detail the detritus he’s witnessed and the changes he finds necessary for saving that nation’s food problems. He writes of a song he heard in Mozambique with a refrain that goes, “Always give orange sweet potatoes to your children if you love them. They are good for their health.”
Thurow's article, An Ode to Orange, goes on to discuss how greater plantation of the sweet potato crop would help to ease chronic malnutrition, and ensure that more of Africa’s inhabitants received valuable vitamin intake easily and more readily.
ONE.org is calling on world leaders to commit to reducing child malnutrition by 2016 - to add your name to ONE's petition click here.
Photo ©Glamorosi 2012
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 11:32 AM
