[afro-nets] Essential Food List

[Dr. John Kiwanuka Ssemakula <jssemakula@medilinkz.org>]

Essential Food List
-------------------

I came across this while going through my email; in this case
from E-drug (http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug) titled "big
business vs. big farma?" The author wrote "...In the early
1970s, developing countries asked a similar question from the
World Health Organisation. How do we buy enough drugs when our
budgets are being cut and the dermands are increasing? And so
the Essential Drug Concept was born...."

The author was talking about drugs, but the title misled me, I
thought Big Farma referred to the very powerful farm lobby in
the West rather than the equally powerful pharmaceutical indus-
try. And it made me go hmmmm....

Everyone has heard of the Essential Drugs List
(http://www.who.int/medicines/).

But what about an equivalent list for food I wondered? Could a
similar concept be created? The Essential Food List (EFL). A
list of food stuffs that are essential for life, with an inter-
national agreement that these are a basic human right, and thus
exempt from trade laws, patents, tariffs and the like.

Are there "Generic Foods" where all research including biotech
would, should be in the public domain. What would such a list
consist of or what should it consist of? Should seeds be in-
cluded or will they become the domain of private biotech corpo-
rations. What else could be included?

With increasing hunger in the world, where more and more people
are starving because they do not have access to basic foods, is-
n't it time to consider such a concept?

Dr. John Kiwanuka Ssemakula
Medilinks
mailto:jssemakula@medilinkz.org
http://medilinkz.org/journal/