Put precisely, food systems structured around powerful vested interests do not have a good track record in feeding people. These large trawlers sail into our fishing grounds, destroy our nets, catch all the fish and sail away. In the past, we caught a lot of omena and mbuta, and the local fishmongers distributed the catch to the local markets and fish processing firms in Kisumu and Nairobi. Today, these firms avoid us and undertake these jobs themselves,' says Ochieng, a local fisherman. The threat to local employment is real here.
Food security is undermined in two main ways.
This, in essence, reflects the very nature of the market economy preached by the Bank. When access to food depends upon money, poorer people are inevitably excluded from food markets. Second, the fish processing firms respond to market signals rather than human needs. The firms have abandoned us. They are not concerned about our well-being.