There are many efforts made to promote better nutrition in Africa, with the hope that it will improve health concerns ranging from chronic malnutrition that causes mental and physical impairment, to non-communicable diseases to cancer. However, the focus of these efforts is often very narrow and addresses the symptoms rather than the cause. They do not look at the underlying problems in industrial farming and the widespread use of chemicals to grow food and then process them.

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) has recently published a mini Barefoot Guide on Nutrition as part of its Agroecology series entitled ''Surviving Covid-19: the neglected remedy''. This presents an agroecological approach to nutrition, which celebrates the many traditional cuisines across the continent, all of which provide the basis for good nutrition. It also recognises the importance of diversity both in how food is grown and what is eaten and links the health of the soil to the health of the stomach, helping us to understand that a diversity of microbes is the basis to good health in both areas.

The event was part of the ''Oxford Real Farming'' Conference in 2021.