Ethnic Kachins observed the anniversary of the FAO's (Food and Agriculture Organization) of United Nation’s ‘World Food Day’ today in the Christian tradition on the Sino-Burma border in Northern Burma, said organizers.
The small ceremony was held in the border between Burma's Kachin State and China's southwest Yunnan province with about 15 local Kachin participants and church leaders, said Awng Wa, Chairman of the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG), the organizer.
At the hour-long ceremony, Awng Wa explained the formation and current activities of the FAO, World Food Day and the World Food Program to participants as well as the World Food Day 2009 theme: "Achieving food security in times of crisis", according to participants.
This is the first time that the KDNG held a ceremony on the anniversary on World Food Day on the border, added Awng Wa.
Most people in Kachin State eat cheap Chinese food like cakes, breads, biscuits, children’s milk, eggs, garlic, orange, apples, soft drinks and vegetables imported from the border rather than domestic food and the food imported from Thailand and India, said local people.
Residents of Myitkyina and Bhamo, however expressed their doubt about Chinese food and felt it could be harmful to health. Yet they eat it because it is cheap.
In Bhamo, local shops and stores sell Chinese food beyond their expiry dates with no mention of manufacturing and expiry dates, a resident told KNG today.
A father of two children in Bhamo told KNG, "I don't know what diseases can be caused by eating Chinese food but I have stopped my children from eating Chinese food".
The Chinese are known to use unidentified chemicals in Chinese food to make it tasty but people, especially children are known to have fallen ill after consuming Chinese dishes.
Early this year, import of Chinese oranges to Bhamo was banned by the city military authorities after TB, B-disease was detected following the result of examination in Bhamo hospital, the hospital sources said.
In the beef markets, healthy cattle are sold in China where cattle traders earn more than from domestic sale. Cattle with infection like ‘Foot and Mouth’ disease and virus are slaughtered in the domestic markets.
The military authorities, however, do not keep a check on domestic and imported food, said local consumers.
Following increasing food prices and poverty, the people in Kachin State are unable to have Indian and Thai food, which are thought to be healthy but have to rely on cheap and unhealthy Chinese food, said locals.
