Nutritional Security: Tech or Folk?

I decided to look further into the following article on WomenWatch:

Empowering Women through Food Security

The text there is a short statement about the relationship between this year's theme for International Women's Day, "Equal rights, equal opportunities: progress for all," and the need to improve the nutritional security of women, especially that of pregnant mothers. The source material for this statement is a longer article at 'The Huffington Post":

Empowering Women and their Communities through Nutrition Security

A particularly pertinent statement regarding pregnant women and newborn children from that article:

"One of the most serious health problems facing women that suffer from hidden hunger is anemia. Anemia is a problem for more than 40% of all women of child-bearing age, causing at least 60,000 childbirth deaths a year. In total, up to 2 billion people suffer from anemia globally. According to the World Food Program, it is estimated that iron deficiency, anemia and maternal short stature increase the risk of death at delivery and account for at least 20% of maternal mortality."

Here, though, is the statement that caught my attention for further inquiry:

"DSM and the World Food Program have led many efforts around the world to help households achieve nutrition security. One solution developed by DSM is a single dose sachet of vitamins and minerals, called 'MixMe', that can be used at home sprinkled over the food just before serving or eating. It provides the household with the full 'Recommended Daily Allowance' of all essential micronutrients as recommended by the World Health Organization."

Being interested in this current initiative on the part of WFP and the corporation they are working with, DSM, I looked to see what I could find out about MixMe.

I have yet to discover anything specific about it's nutritional profile, except the statement that it is meeting the WHOs full RDA, and that in seeing the other products of DSM, it is obviously a combination of isolated nutrients and minerals.

The more interesting information I came across is from one refugee camp in Kenya where MixMe is being trialed, and it seems that very few refugees are actually using it.

MixMe Nutritional Supplement Raises Questions

In particular to the concerns of women, here is one of numerous comments, this coming from a Sudanese student at the Kak**a Refugee Camp:

“I’m wondering why the UNHCR and WFP were campaigning for MixMe yet they did not campaign for all the other food stuffs. People don’t want this stuff, as it has created many different perceptions among the refugees. Women think that it’s a kind of family-planning drug and they fear that it may alter with their reproductive channels. It also has no country where it was manufactured, and expiration date is not visible clearly. If it is good for human consumption, then even Kenyans should be able to get it or buy it in the shops, but it is not in shops. Why?”

Whatever beneficial information can be said about MixMe, and without going in to the rather conspiratorial issues seeming to surround the product, I feel the following statement can best sum-up why there is and will continue to be little use of the product. Whatever the truth of the situation might actually be, this is why we are seeing little benefit coming from this particular investment by the WFP:

"Many refugees are asking questions about Mix-Me. Refugees at Food Distribution Center One (FDC 1) proposed wh***-food additions to the food ration rather than artificial supplements of Mix-Me. They appealed
for important foods not found in the food basket—such as milk, vegetables, or meat—to be added to rations in lieu of exotic pre-market-trial supplements." (from 'World Food Program Kicks Off 2nd MixMe Nutritional Supplement Survey')

Meeting the needs of pregnant mothers living in poverty first involves giving them nutrition they will actually eat! It seems apparent that the Peoples being targeted by the MixMe nutritional supplement would prefer that they be supplied with traditional foods, likely indicating that they have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to keep themselves healthy. In this case, what they are lacking is the resources, and the initiative to choose resources for them developed along the scientific/technological/industrial model is not working.

If the investment going in to the product from DSM was put in to remediating desertified lands for agriculture and providing pregnant and nursing mothers with traditional foods, I think we would see a much different situation in both peoples health and in their attitude towards the WFP; at the Kak**a Refugee Camp, and in such places all over the Earth.