Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Eating pig feed to survive

People who live in the slums of Kenya have taken to pig feed to keep from starving. Giant sacks of the pig feed called "Pollard" can be had for very little money.

Slum dwellers will mix the pig feed with a little bit of grain to make a bread. Although it keeps the people from starving it does give them diarrhea and stomachaches, for the pig food... isn't really meant for humans.

From this Daily Nation article that we found at All Africa, reporter Muchiri Karanja describes the use of the pig feed. You can also click on the link to the article for pig feed cooking tips!

Pollard - the brand name for animal feed normally fed to cattle and pigs - is easily available in shops for Sh1,200 per 90-kilogramme bag, compared to Sh3,000 for maize and Sh4,000 for wheat flour.

Now the animal feed has become a staple food in Nyeri's poverty ravaged slum villages of Muringato, Chania, Mathari and Githuri, where relief food is rare.

"The last time they brought relief food here was a month ago. I got three tins of maize and two of beans. They ran out within a week," said 65-year-old Ziporah Wangari.

The slum dwellers say, that unlike the relief food that runs out quickly, the animal feed comes in larger quantities, and at a cheaper price.

"One sack of Pollard feeds six families for more than a week," says 35-year-old single mother, Jane Wanjiru. She does odd jobs in town to feed her four children.

"We contribute Sh200 each. Then we send someone to the animal feed shop," confessed Jane.

At the animal feed shop, no questions are asked. The shop owner, they say, has no idea that the pig food he sells actually goes to feed human beings.

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