Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
There was an item on the news this morning, saying that, while this may be inconveniencing a lot of passengers, it's a disaster for several countries in East Africa, whose economy is dependent upon selling fresh fruit and veg, and flowers, to Europe by air. Kenya, they said, gets 20% of its income from this, and employs a million people in the industry, and so far 6,000 tons of fruit and flowers has had to be thrown out, at a loss of £2m per day this problem persists.
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On a BBC Radio 4 interview the question was raised as to whether people might be surprised that Europe was importing food from Africa, and might it not be better if the food went to feed Africans.
The spokesperson replied that Kenyan farmers were growing mange tout; and Africans don't eat mange tout - "it's not in their diet".
It all seemed a bit odd to me.