A forgotten ancient grain that could help Africa prosper | Pierre Thiam

Forget quinoa. Meet fonio, an ancient "miracle grain" native to Senegal that's versatile, nutritious and gluten-free. In this passionate talk, chef Pierre Thiam shares his obsession with the hardy crop and explains why he believes that its industrial-scale cultivation could transform societies in Africa.
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[@brendarua01]

What a wonderful presentation! I applaud his vision and drive. The background he provides gives a context of local problems and how they can be solved locally, but in a global market.

[@habydiop8594]

I 'm a african but I never know all of this about this grain,this is definitely stunning. after this epical illustration,the implementation of his ideas could be indeed the solution of the Africans issues

[@smgjeanmarie6298]

Amazing!!!! What a beautiful soul. We need more people like this in the world. Wishing him and his project the best!!!

[@medickril6371]

I love this man. He deserves to be on that stage.

[@nicksfix8609]

Great Vision I pray they will see it done with exceeding success!

[@jeisonfabiancastelblancoro4714]

I really felt identified with him, cause in my country, colombia, there are some comparison problems, we don't have a drought land, but the young population prefer to emigrate to the cities or to other countries, and in spite of colombia is not as rich as other countries, it have the potential in kind of food, production and techniques. But that has been lost due to the competitive imported products have gaining space, and it's bad because our food is more tasty than the other. But I always have wanted to do something about it. he is really strong to try to do something.

[@dioubairoumbaye1885]

Am really proud of you Sir Pierre Thiam !!! 🇸🇳 this presentation need to be shown by these seneglese who even dont know the value of our local foods thx for inspiring me.... Great Pierre Thiam

[@everythingispolitics6526]

What a brilliant and edifying talk. Africa is everything! My love language! May the continent continue to prosper and triumph above its adversaries. Ase!

[@elhadjiamadoujohnson4166]

Senegalese American and proud!!!

[@lapeul]

Fonio is one of my favorites foods. I grew up with it, but It was hard to find in Dakar, Senegal. My parents had our supply coming from Guinee year round.

[@lostboys_uk]

Pierre is an incredibly inspirational chef, visionary and speaker, he is changing lives with his work

[@mouhamedlaminebah1852]

Excellent presentation Mr. Thiam

[@chadoftoons]

Interressting Its not him talking about a vision but him doing it and just wanting to tell us about it Well lets hope it works out

[@abigailhall7980]

Wonderful presentation! Now, I plan to try fonio for myself.

[@annjuurinen9484]

Seems like a plan to solve many problems. Those who are looking to get into a new grain market might want to look at this grain. We need new answers to increasing drought in many parts of the world. This is one answer,

[@Apostate_ofmind]

What most people dont understand here in the comments is that starving countries are MORE prone to unstable government! When you solve the problem of people getting desperate because they are hungry, you solve almost the whole problem. The rest can be worked on with less pressure if have one less problem (the survival of your family) to think about. Desperate minds become violent.

[@cedrickulacz8468]

Well, it won't almost solve the entire issue but stable supply of food and safe water are required first steps to other issues.

[@MrDiarukia]

With one exception: North Korea. It uses propaganda and low food supply to get to only thinking about the next meal. Overthrow the government? No more food supply. Escape? Be told that elsewhere it isn't going to be better.

[@lloydgush]

Yes... but the problem as he accidentally stated is water. But at least with this we can get resources for africa, a somewhat stable infrastructure. Anything to make it better counts.

[@swordwaker7749]

This is called "vicious cycle". You can fix them from anywhere and it would help. Support low taxes and accept this as a tradable thing (with low bureaucratic process). To get the maximum result. It's lame that people rob themselves to go to wars in order to solve their own poverty.

[@midnight8341]

The best thing we could do is to help them help themselves. Give them hightech solutions to their problems. GMO crops that are drought and insect resistent, water vapour collecting membranes, low-maintanence wind turbines (like those new ones from Festo) together with some old fashioned car batteries to safe some electricity for later... If we help them solve their hardest problems for survival, they will suddenly have all the time in the world to go to school and become part of a global society. The rest of the country would follow the uprising economics.

[@nurseshyntia_yourluxuryrealtor]

Loved this presentation 👏🏾👌🏾

[@chrisomoding9890]

This is great! I have heard of fonio but have never seen it. We need to promote our ancient African foods. Thank you for this research.

[@LogicPTK]

Nature plays such an important roll. Being at one with the world! I hope people recognise the challenge of life and how much we can help each other in the process. If the Governments & businesses who created the these situations would back down, and let life prosper, over wealth! I hope these solutions will encourage productivity & wealth among the people in countries of hardship, who deserve the truth and realistic analysis. And relative but equal justice for each cause.

[@itshoma]

nature is an important "roll",go learn how to spell.

[@emawerna]

I like this guy a lot. He doesn't get political or play the blame game. He mentions colonialism but only to lament how it engrained in the minds of Africans that their native crops were substandard. He mentions migration but only to take about the tragedy that the migrants felt compelled to risk their lives to leave Africa. If someone were to grow a new grain into the U.S., the political and agricultural institutions in place would make it relatively easy. You'd have access to professional farmers who know how commercial farms are supposed to run even if they had to be trained for a new crop. Potential buyers would be reassured by government inspectors that your operations followed basic sanitary procedures. You'd call up an already established processing plant to see if they could expand and modify existing procedures to handle processing a new crop. So on and so on... Your financial success is inter-dependent with public institutions and other private enterprises. It is very difficult to be successful without this inter-dependence. Imagine taking potential investors on an inspection visit to the African farms. The inspection is supposed to reassure them that you can deliver product as promised. They come back and tell you that they wouldn't be able to accept your product even if it is delivered because it does not meet food safety standards. It's hard enough to build a successful business let alone a successful business in a vacuum. When the Europeans colonized Africa in the late 19th Century, Europe already had this inter-dependence of private business and government. Major European cities were in the process of getting electricity with modern automobiles just around the corner. For decades, there had been telegraph wires, railroads, and a very large number of industrial factories everywhere in the West. Sub-saharian Africa, by contrast, did not have any native written languages, was untouched by industrialization, and had few or no large cities. There was a massive pre-existing gap in development. Africans became permanent consumers and not producers. We will never know one way or the other if Africans would have become producers if colonialism hadn't happened. I tend to think Africans would NOT have becomes producers. The beneficial interdependence simply wasn't there at that time. I also base my assessment on the current buying habits of Africans. Right now, Africans are buying Chinese products rather than taking the opportunity to build up their own industries. The path of least resistance is always to line someone else's pockets until you are out of money rather than to find your own success. It is sad to see.

[@paulc1527]

Those things you wrote about Sub-saharian Africa, " Sub-saharian Africa, by contrast, did not have any native written languages, was untouched by industrialization, and had few or no large cities." are largely untrue especially about the regions discussed by the speaker. They had a large history of written language, had many large and prosperous cities (timbuktu for example). It is true industrialization was not developed in that area, but part of the problem was due to political instability caused by the introduction of firearms by Euorpeans during the 18th century which helped fuel the slave trade. The Africans were slightly less developed, their culture at the time was more medieval, to use an easily understood reference, but it was not as undeveloped as you seem to imply.

[@sTreek90]

emawerna you are wrong. The nok civilisation in Nigeria was advanced and predates anything Nordic or European

[@sTreek90]

emawerna also your comment is so patronising - it's like "I like him because he didn't focus on the real issue of white colonialism and didn't make me and other whites uncomfortable " it's such a backhanded comment - as a white man you have the privilege of being able to blame black people for there own victimisation under white supremacy, so for you to say "you like this guy" holds no weight.

[@emawerna]

@Anthony, Africans are resentful because they are poor. This is technologically based poverty as shown by technology's ability to fix the bulk of the issues on the continent, including agricultural issues and medical issues. Africans developed NONE of this technology themselves. The basic reason for the division between white European "haves" and African "have nots" is because Africans didn't develop it and because Europeans didn't give it to Africans for free. Colonialism was insulting personally and culturally, but CURRENT poverty is the reason TODAY'S Africans are upset. While its true that a culture is worthy even if it doesn't have a written language or technology, it is also true that non-industrial cultures don't spontaneously start building railroads, cars, and the internet. This resentment is jealousy and should be dismissed as such. The only racism involved is the anti-white racism too many Africans like to wallow around in.

[@sTreek90]

@emawerna You saying it as if you believe it is irrespective of history - Either you are choosing to not want to believe in the alternative or you are ignorant and the fact is you simply have not been taught. Let me give you some key information here, The only reason Africa was even colonised in the first place was because there was heavy inter fighting before europeans came which was an opportune time. The medieval mali empire traded globally as far as china and was the first empires to do so as well as reaching the americas. And as i said it has been recorded that the NOK civilisation of 2000 BC Nigeria surpassed any nordic empire in terms of technology. The french treasury alone STILL receive around 500 BILLION dollars a year from African nations it forces them to pay for it's own conquest, so for you to blame Africans for there own upset is simply illogical. "colonialism was insulting personally and culturally" < You are just another white racist who can dress up paragraphs without conjuring anything of worth or that's historically accurate but your own personal gripes and coughing up your own racist filth. Heres a tip, at least know your history first.

[@chocoflan6672]

WHY FORGET QUINOA we can have BOTH! Cant wait to try fonio

[@weedlander]

i saw this fonio in my store other day .... just realized this is 6 years ago .. glad u made it hope its all good and well :)

[@okaygworl]

I love this concept! I just worry of Western civilization draining Senegal of the crop, stealing the crop and then making it for ourselves for a lower cost.

[@farhiyaa4880]

already happen

[@joshbonds0073]

@@farhiyaa4880 thats who they are not a surprise

[@wilcoxdaniel9825]

See what happened to teff.ethiopian grain.

[@alcadieasplay5276]

Great vision which purely reflects his concern towards the condition of his home country

[@sammavitae114]

Very informative and polished presentation. For all of us who wish the devastations of migration to be averted, let us buy this grain and help the sub-Saharans develop their economies.

[@GirlDADart]

Idk if it was mentioned. But the second I saw this I was worried. Because Africa is already rich in minerals and resources but it's being extremely exploited. Mentioning another forgotten substance. Worried me.

[@SLACKLINEDUDE]

I love how this totally sounded like click bait, oddly refreshing.

[@sagrodasia]

In Kuala Lumpur met Sayed Izham talking about Forgotten Food. Here Ibrahim Seydi of Senegal origin too will be making an impact Hopefully you will be coming here soon

[@sunnysuzanna]

t seems like a very good solution and nessecary too to feed the world in the coming decade. But to wash of adhering grit and sand demands up to 10 liters clean water for one kilogram of fonio. This seems to me like a problem because of the watershortage this man also mentioned.

[@kettlycharles4312]

Tropical life is life

[@womanpowerdoledjiguenewpdd3138]

Excellent, so inspiring ❤️

[@Kabodanki]

The amount of extrapolation is outstanding

[@rahilmohd4938]

I am from India I knew about fonio since ten years but nobody to help me for collect fonio seeds for cultivation so please help me

[@noviceprepper5397]

great idea. I'd buy that product for nutrition and also because it would help the crop producers, small farmers

[@dolom1868]

Beautiful presentation. Go for your dreams

[@BilianaBiBiShiBiBiShaN1111]

Bravo Pierre!!! Save our Senegal People !!!

[@mikeaskme3530]

The crops grown in any region of the world, should be dictated by the climate it was discovered in. Meaning if you grow corn, then your climate should be symbionic to that crop. If a crop needs a lot of water, it should not be grown in a area that doesn't get a lot of water.

[@estevanastorga9027]

Does a version with French subtitles exist?

[@perad1895]

Yes

[@satisharockiaraj8706]

Really an inspiring talk! what about fonio opportunities in country like India?

[@Taric25]

14:15 I thought the entire time he was saying "foño".

[@Kobe29261]

Makes you think twice about 'that chef' in 'that restaurant' -- in an age to come we'll reward people based on the passion they bring to their craft and not how much they owed in student loans after their education!

[@kenna9836]

This man is knowledgeable, morally and ethically motivated and knows what he is talking about. Let’s support ethically sourced products from Africa and vulnerable populations.

[@kettlycharles4312]

Afrika will be great again

[@anthonyclementines2010]

This is amazing

[@brobrah4595]

You know what would help africa prosper? Having their own farms and stop accepting foreign aid. Foreign aid totally destroyed africas food supply.

[@הדרהלוי-ב1ה]

And you say that as a Phd in economy or agriculture? Either one will shape your perspective.

[@brobrah4595]

i say that as someone that can research any topic on the internet/encyclopedias unhindered by opinions and politics just historical facts. Are you incapable of forming original thoughts? Why must a human have a phd from a for profit government education center to "know" something? I feel sorry for you and how you seem to lack intellect.

[@necromancer2367]

Yeah, stop giving them aid, make them immigrate to richer countries and then get furious because there are too many of "them", trying to actually get decent lives.

[@vdpamulapadu994]

Fonio.. rich in Methionine and Cysteine

[@carterbell-perry8241]

So this man devised a genius plan to help the economy of Africa and then says to himself “I’m gonna share this idea to white westerners, that seems like a good idea”

[@BRAINSBEAUTY206]

My sentiments exactly..

[@Essa5225]

He's a humanist he doesn't care if they are white black brown western or eastern he is sharing it to the world cuz he said he wants to help the planet from global warming

[@liamduval4059]

i find this grain interesting. hope i can have some for our research farm

[@yelenayegorova9836]

I can't figure it out why Africa is straggling before now days??? It is beateful continent with tons of resources!!! And in spite of that, a lot Africans are trying to migrate. So many resources and so suffering live. What happened?!?

[@nope4528]

Yelena Yegorova resources are there but are being exploited by foreign investment and leaders of these countries are corrupt depend too much on foreign aid to make decisions that rarely benefit they're well being

[@tokyo_taxi7835]

Desertification is happening everywhere. Where is everyone thinking they're going to go?

[@kettlycharles4312]

Tropical agriculture must be great again

[@domingo2977]

I bet grain prices in the stock market will have a few spikes to ride out the wave of FONIO.

[@RENOAE86]

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestor, but borrow it from our children , quote of the year !

[@Thytos]

I want to taste it now!

[@awasall3806]

fonio is yumyum 😍

[@dejgreen4843]

WHATS THIS?!?! A BLACK SPEAKER THAT DOESNT GET DISLIKES FOR NO REASON?!?! WOW WHAT A DAY

[@farmsalot1233]

Dej Green here's your attention

[@LLK7962]

#VivaLaAfrica! #VivaLaRasa!

[@erickdewit]

Sounds great...! Just don't let Monsanto get it's gready fat fingers on the patent..!

[@armadillopillo9888]

You'd to watch this Ted talks

[@qwertyplm13does51]

Grain of truth?

[@Peacepov]

You should put it on amazon

[@monster_king]

Eeee ted is here

[@monster_king]

iPhone notifications wins :D

[@aliceyingshan2725]

Seed bank has this?

[@memoryhero]

E.T. Fonio

[@ebonylilyofzion177]

I am so moved once again hearing traditional teachings of fonio. It held so much sacred medicine for my people as I have come to learn. But I must interject, in the description box. It should not say "forget quinoa, meet fonio." There is no need for that. This represents sacred medicines and traditional foods as just FADS for the masses. And it disregards exploits and disrespects yet again contributions to indigenous peoples lands and cultures that have been colonized and assimilated with medicines and foods deemed as exotic for your superfood needs until you find the next exotic superfood that have fed its people for thousands of years. That part, in my humble opinion, should be taken out.

[@aservantsoftheownerofdeath3952]

😘👍

[@chrisXcross318]

I'm guessing you not that bright. You the only one in this comment section that commented using emojis

[@aservantsoftheownerofdeath3952]

Ce'Christopher Rhosead Span I didn't say I have a bright head, but one thing I know, bright people is not person's who's bothers about others just because of emoji's, ney.. instead he doesn't even know what it is happy, what a poor guy he is...

[@b_uppy]

Is this a perennial grain???

[@darknativity42]

I too, just watched that MinuteEarth video.

[@ЗинаидаЗайцева-й2к]

Similarly until double lbkqfa boyfriend withdraw document

[@ArifulIslam-qw6lf]

WE

[@Perfectivestv]

@terryrajsombath

[@kettlycharles4312]

the Neanderthals don't grow or eat what we eat in our tropical world

[@kettlycharles4312]

Racism in healthcare or in agriculture is great

[@benpearce9330]

Sixth

[@XDynamite68]

First

[@yudritewak9188]

Yes it's great, but who cares if it is gluten free?

[@CestLimee]

because the gluten free community are the ones who start using new crops. you would not know about quinoa without them (unless you are from where quinoa comes from). They have become the "food hipsters" who bring new foods into the spotlight and then other people catch on to the new "cool and trendy" food. I'm sure he has looked at what happened with quinoa becoming popular in order to make his strategy for fonio, and the gluten free people did play a large role in that.

[@yudritewak9188]

SunnivaMA Wasn't aware of that. Thx for info, but I was just trying to point out the pointlessness of the statement. Good to know that hipsters can be useful sometimes.

[@CestLimee]

Yeah, I totally see why it seemed very random and irrelevant.

[@marebe000]

Wouldn't a strictly enforced one-child-policy be much better for Africa's development?

[@PolishBehemoth]

How would that possibly develop a nation? Having only one child does not grow a grain. Having one child does not give u a job. Having one child does not give u an education. You can do all those things with multiple children.

[@Taric25]

PolishBehemoth, Africa has supernormal growth with respect to developed nations. Population control would spur economic growth IF it is feasable. In most of Africa, it is not feasable. Instead, of a one child policy, which is only possible in urban areas with significant government enforcement possible, condom use and STD education is a much, much more effective strategy.

[@MajkaSrajka]

Good luck policing black people in Africa.

[@josecarloscosta5220]

No. Balanced and checked governance will lead to responsive and all-around better institutions.Good institutions will make wonders, in Africa or anywhere else.

[@giorgiofontane2655]

no child at all would be better for africa

[@maxgorden499]

IT'S THE USA'S JOB TO FEED THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!!!!

[@geophph4324]

Zach Jordan Why?

[@SLACKLINEDUDE]

is this a reference to wasted food?

[@AtheistCitizen]

why not produce it anywhere that the environmental conditions[think climate change] make it the optimal crop? add in the US SW?

[@CestLimee]

because he doesn't really care about the crop. he cares about helping poor people in africa. the goal is helping the local economy, the means to reach that goal is the fonio. Straight up stealing the crop from africa (like white people always do) only make things worse.

[@webkilla]

Great video - for the first half - about Fonio and its interesting properties... but then it turned into a pro-migration video which pretty much ruined my interest. I came here for an interesting video about an ancient grain, not about immigration. Sorry

[@mdheartsuju]

webkilla it was a necessary part of the speech because it explains why it is important for fonio to enter the international market.

[@BlackStarrSoul]

White men's opinions don't matter. Sorry.

[@elhadjiamadoujohnson4166]

webkilla really?

[@MBYa7ya]

FixedAlgorithm Why do you have to play the race card, seriously?