Once upon a time, the French bean provided many Kenyan farmers an income to support families and buy homes. But food markets are fickle. Last year 60% of Kenyan French bean crops didn't sell, and instead farmers had to feed them to their cows.

Several aspects to the French bean in Kenya make it a disaster.

A) Kenyan's don't eat the French beans so it only serves as an export crop.

B) Europeans do eat the beans but are no longer buying.

C) The French bean monoculture (the top vegetable export in Kenya), leaves little room for diversity and, therefore, little food security.

D) People like Stephen Mbithi, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) continue to encourage food insecurity by saying crazy thing like this:

"Encouraging subsistence farming is another way of taking Kenyan farmers out of the international market chain and confining them to poverty. African countries will not become food secure by having enough food in their granary, but by having enough disposable income in their pockets to buy the food they need."

Perhaps if Kenyans diversify their export crops Mbithi has a point. But saying that growing your own food doesn't provide security is madness.

Some Kenyans have recently switched to crops like tomatoes, tea and maize--which they eat. Farmers saw their French bean money go down the tubes with fertilizers, pesticides, seeds and labor input costs—and then never selling the beans to recover costs. One idea: how about diversifying crops for export AND for subsistence farming?

Source: Agence France-Presse

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written by Robert Wood, August 25, 2008

How on earth did we get here? The idea that any country that has the capacity to feed itself through it's own agricultural production would choose to satisfy an overseas market first is insane.

People starving all over the world and because one market tanks, cows are eating the green beans that the Europeans do not want.

Anybody else see a problem here?

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