By Hank Bruce and Tomi Jill Folk
According to Bread for the World 1.2 billion people on this planet are malnourished, and this number has increased in the past 5 years. That’s 15% of the world’s population, and many of these are children. In fact, every day 16,000 children die from hunger related causes. But this doesn’t have to be.
What if there was a way to grow our way out of malnutrition and hunger in many parts of the world including much of Africa and Latin America? There is. It’s called the moringa tree and it will grow in the same parts of the world where malnutrition is the worst.
Tree of Life International has put together presentations about the benefits of the moringa tree.
Click on this page and scroll down on the right-hand side to access a Powerpoint presentation and a .PDF download.
You may not think of tree leaves as a part of your everyday diet, but take a look at the nutritional value of these moringa leaves. And they taste good, too. These nutritious leaves can be dried and powdered for family use.
Moringa leaf powder, ounce for ounce, has:
7 times the vitamin C as in oranges,
4 times the calcium, 2 times the protein as in milk,
4 times the vitamin A as in carrots,
3 times the potassium as in bananas, and
3 times the iron as in spinach.
What if moringa trees were a part of the family or dooryard gardens in some of the poorest parts of the world. It’s happening in Kenya through the efforts of some great organizations like Judy Phillip’s African
United States Partnership Fund where thousands of women are planting one or two moringa trees along with the other vegetables.
Joshua Machinga is working with Common Ground to establish moringa for household use and income in areas where the over 70% of the population is malnourished. Paul Kilelu is working with a fantastic organization, the
Maasai Emayian Women’s Group is providing schooling for girls, encouraging family gardening, school gardening and moringa cultivation. These are dynamic grassroots projects started by the people themselves. In a short period of time moringa can have a powerful impact on malnutrition, hunger and the diseases caused by poverty and malnutrition.
Safe Drinking Water
A billion people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America are estimated to rely on untreated surface water for their daily needs. Of these, two million are thought to die from diseases contracted from contaminated water every year, with the majority of these deaths occurring among children under five years of age. But, this doesn’t have to be.
What if there was an environmentally friendly way to provide safe drinking water in some of the most difficult regions of the world? There is. It’s the same tree,
Moringa oleifera. It can be used on a small scale, with a few crushed seeds able to purify a bucket of water. Impurities are absorbed in a colloidal flocculent effect, making the water safe to drink and use for cooking. This could be a micro-enterprise project with local production of packets of the moringa seed powder (in biodegradable packets made from paper made from moringa branches). Moringa seed powder for water purification is low-tech, very inexpensive and environmentally friendly.
Micro-enterprise and Fair Trade
What if there was a sustainable resource that could provide both food for the growers and marketable fair trade commodities for export in some of the poorest regions of the world? There is. And again it is the moringa tree. It is fast growing under even very harsh conditions.
The range of potential moringa products includes: Life saving food sources from leaves, nutritional juices and drinks, seed powder for safe drinking water, both at the family level and larger scale, vegetable oils, renewable fuel oils, artist oils, paper products, plant growth enhancers, soaps, cleaning compounds, cosmetics.
Moringa tea has the potential to be as successful a fair trade item as coffee and chocolate. This is a flavorful, healthy, environmentally friendly drink. This tea has a natural, spicy flavor, either hot or iced. It can be made in a variety of specialty flavors including; ginger, cinnamon, licorice, apple, orange, strawberry, basil, rosemary, lavender and many more flavors. This it the kind of tea party we can all support.
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Hank Bruce |
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Our hope is that we can create an awareness and cultivation in family and dooryard gardens for use by the families, then help to develop a market for moringa products including teas, leaf powder capsules, bulk leaf powder, oil and some of the cosmetics that can be made from this great resource.
If these could be produced as a fair trade product line in Africa and Latin America for distribution here, everyone could benefit. Moringa products are being offered through direct marketing in the United States, but fair trade sale of these items in our health food, nutrition and grocery stores can benefit everyone.
The growers can make a living and the consumers can add healthy and tasty products to their diet.