Saturday, September 19, 2009




Did you buy french beans beans or flowers this weekend?.....Did you see where they came from.....Did you care? Just look at the result! Just imagine if it was Britain, with water tankers being mobbed by folks desperate for water! Imagine if you will our countryside strewn with starving people and dying cows.....Of course it won't happen here will it?......most likely not to be honest, but neither should it be happening in Kenya. I went shopping in Sainsburys this morning and the African grown flowers and green beans are still there for us to buy and having seen the huge version of the above picture of dead and dying cows in the front of the Guardian yesterday I felt a huge rush of revulsion for a global market that insists that its ethical and fair to import green beans from a drought ridden country......Of course many argue that the bean(and other veg) growing improves lives, brings in foreign capital, uses less energy than freezing beans grown in Britain etc etc..........but at what cost to the lives of those cattle herders, and the Masai people, whose culture and nomadic life are almost at an end.....what of them? What of the cattle and goats that are dying....about 50% of Kenyas livestck are dead....the cost of a green bean or a red rose....thats what. We in the west, who cannot be bothered to salt our beans or preserve them by bottling, we who protest loudly about animal welfare ....... are stealing the lives of people..... mums, dads, grannies and grandads...... and little children by stealing their precious water to grow.......beans!
Progress, international trade, globalisation.....call it what you will its immoral!

10 comments:

Forthvalley scribe said...

Thank you for this post Val do you mind if I post a link on my blog (Luchair?)

Val Grainger said...

Yes of course! Share it with as many people who will listen!!!

Jenny said...

Excellent post, Val! I never buy stuff like this from places like Kenya and Tanzania, as I think that they should be using their precious water for themselves. I thought I was perhaps the only one doing this and it's good to know that I'm not!

Jenny said...

Excellent post, Val! I never buy stuff like this from places like Kenya and Tanzania, as I think that they should be using their precious water for themselves. I thought I was perhaps the only one doing this and it's good to know that I'm not!

Crafty Green Poet said...

well said, well said, I never buy veg from Kenya. i try to buy as much as possible from Scotland, failing that the UK and Europe. I'm desperately tryign to find an alternative to tea to be honest, so I can be even more locally focussed.

MrsL said...

Excellent post, Val, thankyou. I've never bought beans from Kenya or similar, and haven't bought flowers for years and years apart from one bunch of Fair Trade roses marked down in Sainsbury, but that would still add to the problem. Never did it again, and am always on at folk not to buy these things. What's wrong with British veg in season, and flowers from teh garden, or an honesty box bunch from a gate?

MrsL

xx

Blu said...

I have bought beans from kenya in the past. Thought provoking picture and words!

You shd post this on Facebook

Rev. Peter Doodes said...

Spot on Val!

julia said...

indeed, I watched a TV programme recently about the food and where it comes from and what struck me most was the realisation that we are not just importing beans, we are also stealing water, that most vital resource to a farmer in another climate. Well, I grew my own French beans this year and I froze the surplus.
Every little helps
(no, no thanks to That Store!)

Compostwoman said...

Agree 100% with you.

Don't do this, never have and never will...for those very reasons....