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Photo background information
This information on the photos in the photo gallery is principally
intended for teachers. It provides background information on some
of the issues raised in the photos.
1. A market stall in
London, UK
A wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables are available in markets.
A diet with a lot of fruit and vegetables can prevent deficiency
diseases such as scurvy and may reduce the likelihood of developing
heart disease and cancer. A balanced diet contains at least five
portions of fruit and vegetables a day (Health Education Authority).
The last 20 years have seen a huge rise in supermarket shopping
in the UK. Supermarkets offer consumers a huge choice of different
foodstuffs under one roof and customers can choose from many different
brands or varieties of the same product. Supermarket chains exert
great power over the farmers from whom they buy their products in
the South, for example by only buying vegetables that are a certain
size and shape.
2. Fast food in Cairo,
Egypt
The photo shows an Egyptian family eating fast food on a visit
to the swimming pool. International fast food is now widely available
in Egypt, as in most other countries of the South. The presence
of multinational ‘hamburger’ firms may not benefit local
people, as such companies tend to import most of their ingredients
(such as wheat for hamburger buns) and fast food may replace a healthier
and cheaper local diet.
3. Pounding
millet in Mewell village, Senegal
Senegal is the most westerly country in Africa and is just a little
bigger than England and Wales. Grains such as wheat, rice, maize
and millet provide the staple diet for much of the world’s
population. A grain is a grass which gives starchy seeds suitable
for food, and grain must be pounded, or ground, into a flour before
it can be cooked and eaten. In the South this work is usually done
by women. Millet is well known for its ability to grow in poor soils
with little rainfall and, once harvested, can be stored for many
years. Men own the land in Senegal, while women do almost all the
work and produce the food the family needs.
4. Cooking injera in Eritrea
Eritrea is a small country on the Horn of Africa. Injera is a special
kind of bread eaten in Eritrea. It is similar to a large, flat pancake
and is made from teff (a local grain crop), wheat or sorghum. The
grains are ground into flour, made into a sloppy dough, left for
two days to ferment, and then fried in a large pan. Injera may be
eaten with vegetable stew or zigni (a spicy meat stew), and here
Golunge is cooking it over a wood stove.
5. Harvesting coffee in
Peru
Peru is a country on the west coast of Latin America. In Peru coffee
is grown high up in the Andes on small farms or chacras. Whole families,
including young people (such as Gisela, aged 10 who is pictured),
are involved in the harvesting of the coffee cherries. Coffee is
a favourite drink in the North, yet the people who grow it in the
South often live in poverty.
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