Demand for milk and meat continues to rise in developing countries (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

The New Agriculturist recently reported on a Safe Food, Fair Food Project led by scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

‘Rising demand for livestock products is providing opportunities to improve the livelihoods of smallscale livestock farmers across Africa. However, with generally low levels of hygiene throughout the value chain, this new market opportunity for farmers could come at a high price in terms of food-borne disease. In response, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is implementing a ‘Safe food, fair food’ programme, to improve the safety of livestock products, maximise market access for livestock keepers and minimise the risk of food-borne disease.

Safer food can generate both health and wealth for the poor, but attaining safe food in developing countries requires a radical change in food safety assessment, management and communication,’ explains Delia Grace, Safe food, fair food principal investigator. ‘We are doing this by adapting risk-based approaches, successfully used for food safety in developed countries and international trade, to domestic informal markets, where most livestock products are sold.’

‘The project has conducted national workshops to engage policymakers to raise awareness about the potential food safety hazards that exist along the entire value chain, from farm to fork. “Use of participatory methods at a community level provides ways in which better food safety management in informal markets in sub-Saharan Africa can be promoted,” Grace adds. . . .’

Read the whole article at New Agriculturist: Safe food, fair food: Improving livestock health and livelihoods, Nov 2011.

Watch a short photofilm on this subject: Dying for meat, which is narrated by ILRI’s Delia Grace and features small-scale butchers and consumers interviewed in Nairobi about issues that connect animal and human health. This film was made for ILRI by duckrabbit, a UK-based multimedia production company.

Or read a chapter written by Delia Grace and her colleague John McDermott, Agriculture-associated diseases: Adapting agriculture to improve human health, which was recently published in a conference proceedings volume titled Reshaping Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, edited by S Fan and R Pandya-Lorch, Washington DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), pp 103–111.