Title:
An 'Image Problem' for a Food That Could Save
African Lives
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
People who do not get enough vitamin A in their diet
may develop night blindness. But in the developing
world a lack of vitamin A causes much more serious
harm to children. The World Health Organization
links vitamin A deficiency to as many as two hundred
fifty thousand child deaths every year. One
excellent source of vitamin A is found in sweet
potatoes with orange flesh. Orange sweet potatoes
contain high levels of beta-carotene, which the body
changes into vitamin A. Experts say orange sweet
potatoes specially bred for growing conditions in
Africa could help solve the lack of vitamin A there.
But, first, more people will need to be persuaded to
eat them. Jan Low with the International Potato
Center, a research organization, says the sweet
potato needs a better image in Africa. She said: "We
do have an image problem with sweet potato in
general in sub-Saharan Africa. It is seen as a crop
of the poor." Ms. Low explains that sweet potatoes
are mainly grown by poor women to feed their
families in case another crop fails. The sweet
potatoes commonly grown in Africa have white or
yellow flesh. But they are low in vitamin A. Jan Low
took part in a project to study how best to market
orange sweet potatoes to Africans. She worked on an
information campaign in Mozambique and Uganda.The
campaign included radio messages about the
nutritional benefits of the orange sweet potato.
They advertised its ability to "fight diseases, make
you strong, clear your skin and make you look
healthy." In areas without radio, the campaigners
spread the message through community theater. The
performances included singing, dancing and
storytelling.And everywhere they went, the
campaigners wore orange T-shirts and hats. They even
drove orange vehicles. Jan Low says the color of the
tuber made it easier to gain public attention. Dan
Gustafson heads the Washington office of the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He points
to efforts in the past to increase the popularity of
other nutritious crops. He says most of these
efforts failed because organizers of the campaigns
did not consider what people wanted to eat. But Mr.
Gustafson sees a better chance for the efforts to
increase the popularity of the orange sweet potato
in Africa. For one thing, except for the color, the
vegetable is similar to what people already use.For
VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
