Institute For The Future

Chadians look to past traditions to survive food crisis

In IFTF’s first ever massively multiplayer forecasting game Superstruct (www.superstructgame.net)

players spent a lot of time and energy trying to solve 5 superthreats. One of them, Ravenous, focused on a hypothetical global food crisis. How do we restructure our eating habits and global food networks? Ideas ranged from rooftop gardens to virtual spaces that allowed people from around the world to connect over best practices and try out new methods, to seed ATMS and the idea that food is a right, not a luxury, and should be free. Someone even created a superstruct involving insects as our primary source of protein, insects4food. The superstruct won an award for thinking outside of the box, but not for practicality. Most of us think eating insects as out primary source of protein is taking it too far, but for others, it might not be that bad.

 

 

To many people around the world, a food crisis is not a hypothetical situation. I remember a friend of mine in Kenya in January of 2008 telling me one day he only ate one bowl of plain white rice as he could afford nothing else. Thankfully food prices have dropped since that time.

 

Chadians are apparently resurrecting an old practice to deal with higher cost of food. A diet traditionally rich in meats, people who are no longer able to afford meat are turning to ‘Vampires’ according to an article from the BBC, Chadians Get Fangs Into ‘Vampires’.

 

A Vampire is essentially a blood patty. "’I make it with peppers, salt, onions, spicy sauce and maggi [stock cubes]. I fry it all up like that; it's good,’ said Modestine Danbe, who lives in the N'Djamena.” She purchases big buckets of blood from her local butcher and sells the Vampires to locals for a profit. Nutritionists say blood is a healthy substitute when meat is not available.

 

While many of us might think this is a culinary adventure we would never want to try, I am reminded of my brother’s early love for Blood Sausage. Perhaps now Insects4Food is not such a strange idea after all.