The article discusses Africa’s food paradox, poised between fast food, industrial farming systems and sustainable agroecological alternatives, to conclude that it is the Global North -not Africa- that is backwards. 

Imagine a country defined by deep inequalities that determine how the population live – right down to what they eat. One section of society has easy access to fresh local produce that is organically grown, diverse, and nutritious. The other half largely turn to ultra-processed food that’s been produced on a huge scale thousands of miles away.

For many people across the world, this basic description will be familiar. And yet, depending on where they are, the particular countries and dynamics being imagined may be entirely different.

Readers in the West will probably read the above depiction and picture poor sections of society relying on cheap junk food and wishing they could enjoy – and afford – organic produce like their middle-class compatriots. People reading from Africa will likely imagine the complete opposite: poor communities eating low-cost local veg while fantasising about trying the kinds of processed imports associated with high status.