Who is investing in the food system and what are they investing in? What should the future of food, specifically protein, look like in sub-Saharan Africa? SCI Lecturer Jeremy Brice speaks on a podcast about his new report for TABLE.
SCI Lecturer Jeremy Brice was interviewed for the podcast FEED about his new report: Investment, Power and Protein in sub-Saharan Africa.
The place of protein in sub-Saharan Africa’s food system is changing rapidly, raising complex international development, global health and environmental sustainability issues. Despite substantial growth in the region’s livestock agriculture sector, protein consumption per capita remains low, and high levels of undernourishment persist.
Meanwhile sub-Saharan Africa’s population is growing and urbanising rapidly, creating expectations that demand for protein will increase rapidly over the coming decades and triggering calls for further investment in the expansion and intensification of the region’s meat and dairy sector.
However, growing disquiet over the environmental impacts of further expansion in livestock numbers, and growing sales of alternative protein products in the Global North, has raised questions about the future place of plant-based, insect and lab-grown proteins in African diets and food systems.
In the episode they discuss why the issue of protein is important in sub-Saharan Africa; unpack three different investor visions for this region; and reflect on the consequences of how little agricultural investment there is in the region compared to the rest of the world.
You can listen to the podcast and find an executive summary of the report here.
