There’s a particular political barb attributed to the New Patriotic Party’s former General-Secretary, Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, better known as ‘Sir John’, that never fails to raise a laugh: “NDC abere so yi, mako koraa nnyɛ ya!” (“In this present era, of the NDC, even pepper is no more hot!).
Earlier this week, my mind was on food crops; the National Farmers Day; farmers education; the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference, which opened in Paris, France, on Monday – as well as Sir John’s quip, clearly a metaphor, implying that currently nothing is going right in Ghana.
Climate Change or ‘Global Warming’, is defined by one source as “the rise in average surface temperatures on Earth …. due primarily to the human use of fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air.” Another adds: “Other human activities, such as agriculture and deforestation, also contribute to the proliferation of greenhouse gases that cause climate change” with deadly global consequences.
President John Mahama is one of the more than 150 world leaders participating in the critical Paris conference, dubbed ‘COP 21’ (the 21st Conference of the Parties). They are seeking pragmatic solutions towards the world’s survival.
The 2015 National Farmers Day observance, the 31st, taking place today in the Upper East Regional capital, Bolgatanga, is under the theme ‘Transform Ghana: Invest in Agriculture’.
Well, I don’t know if pepper, or chilli, started losing, or has lost, its bite only in the National Democratic Congress period, but what I do know is that Sir John, noted for his caustic wit, was certainly right about pepper losing its pungency.
But was Sir John speaking from culinary experience? I know that he’s a lawyer in Kumasi, but is he also perhaps one of those men who are formidable in the kitchen and who can even win cookery competitions, as seems to be the trend these days on television?
However, I, too, have long made that observation. These days the amount of supposedly hot pepper that I add to my cooking is double or even triple what I used in the past, as I do love soup, particularly, to have bite, a trait I guess I inherited from my maternal grandmother.
Nana responded to all comments about the soup being too hot with the retort: “I’m not a ghost!” – a reference to the belief in some quarters that ghosts can’t tolerate spicy food. One wonders how those people came to that conclusion!
Well, I’m sure that my pepper complaint isn’t a symptom of some kind of strange illness. I have heard others complaining that the peppers of today are simply not like the peppers of the past!
What I’ve realised is that mostly it’s the organic or natural grown pepper that has bite. Although the fertilizer-grown peppers look very inviting and have a very ‘buy-me’ appeal, they’re imposters.
Incidentally, according to a writer in the Daily Graphic of Tuesday, December 1, an article in the British Medical Journal argues that “spicy food consumption may lead to a lower risk of death from cancerous diseases ….The active ingredient in most spicy foods is capsaicin (which) has beneficial effects (including) anti-inflammatory and anti-cancerous properties ….
“There is still some debate surrounding the fact that the consumption of spicy foods leads to longer life but … it can be concluded that … spicy foods may be beneficial in promoting longevity,” the article stated. Some spice for thought!
Anyway, just what is in the fertilizer that reduces pepper’s spiciness?
And it’s not just about pepper. Garden eggs and tomatoes grown with chemicals are also among the vegetables that have the ‘buy-me’ attraction but which are equally disappointing on the tongue.
I don’t know if yam farmers, too, use chemical fertilizer, but I suspect that some do because the yam of today is certainly not the yam of yesteryears, not even ‘pona’, which seems to be the most preferred yam. The present day yams, apart from being less tasty, tend to spoil quicker. Often one cuts open a yam that looked healthy only to discover black rot inside.
Given that most of our farmers in the small-scale food crops farming are not lettered or are semi-literate, are they applying the chemical fertilizers correctly?
Recently, at a National Fertilizer Stakeholders workshop held in Accra, a Ghana News Agency quoted Dr Francis Tetteh, a senior research scientist of the Soil Research Institute who spoke there. He said that “the fertilizer industry (has) many setbacks such as issues of quality, regulation, pricing, subsidy and proper use and application of fertilizers” (emphasis mine).
I don’t know if they also discussed the taste of fertilizer-grown crops, but for ages there has been talk in farming areas that chemical fertilizers make food crops less tasty. But I guess it’s not only in rural Ghana that there is that concern. For, in the western world organic foods are much more expensive than those grown with chemicals and I believe that taste is a major factor.
If our vegetable and food crop farmers are having to use more and more chemicals because the land no longer yields well, the experts say it is one result of climate change.
Indeed, just last Sunday, I heard a panellist on a BBC programme on Climate Change Perspectives saying that in the Philippines, climate change has resulted in the loss of farm yield by as much as 20 per cent.
Will climate change, land degradation and reduced farm yield feature in any of the National Farmers Day speeches today?
Any prizes for organic produce farmers?
Will there be any mention of a subject that has long been talked about in our farming communities, why most farm produce of the present is less tasty than in the good old days? More importantly, will there be any solutions suggested?
For, my main concern is still why our peppers have lost their hotness.
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