April 2012
Thirty kilometers east of Serengeti National Park, a cluster of people draped in red ‘shuka’ (the iconic red checkered cloths often worn by the Maasai) dots the golden acacia woodlands and short grass plains.
Following the 2008 global food price hikes and riots, national governments and transnational corporations are increasingly interested in investing in large-scale African agricultural projects.
Over the past twenty years non-governmental organisations have shown increasing interest in setting standards with an overt agenda for social or environmental change.
We were in Da Loc commune, a sleepy part of Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province. It’s a place that on a single day witnessed both the fury and the protective power of nature.
It might talk about the people living in the cave thousands of years ago. We know from the archaeological remains that they were eating fresh water seafood, such as molluscs and snails, before the sea began to lap the rocky shores lying a few metres below it.
I have no weather forecasts to predict regional rains so I don’t know if I need to invest in crop insurance or not. I gamble and lose.