Ep 150: Creating nature-positive nutrition from cacti with Dunia Bora

Lou Waldegrave 00:02

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Circular Economy Show. I'm Lou and today I'm absolutely thrilled to be joined by Vincent Muhoro, the founder and Executive Director of Dunia Bora in Kenya, just 24 years old straight out of university. Vincent recently signed up with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's Big Food Redesign Challenge, because he is determined to take the common cactus from its somewhat chequered history into a future that sees it as an integral solution to supporting the livelihoods of local farmers. Regularly documenting his progress for the Foundation's Big Food Redesign Challenge, Vincent left university not just determined to tell his community's story, but to try and change that story into one that creates regenerative nature-positive food, preserves biodiversity, and creates resilience to the effects of climate change, both locally and beyond. Hi Vincent.

Vincent Muhoro 01:05

Hi.

Lou Waldegrave 01:06

Listen, we, um, so we got to know you through the foundation's big food redesign challenge, which is calling on food businesses and retailers to design and redefine food that allows nature to thrive. And Vincent, you very kindly agreed to take part and create a video diary of your initiatives and your ventures throughout the challenge through to January next year. And through your blogging efforts, and all of our communication through zoom, we got to know you quite well. And we realised very quickly that your story goes far beyond this challenge. And well, to me anyway, it's it's quite exceptional, because you've taken the cactus, which was effectively an invasive scourge to your landscape. And out of that you have created a nutritious juice cookies, a leather alternative livestock feed, and I'm sure his other byproducts. We'll learn more about the products and how they're made shortly. But I want to drill down where the hell did this venture begin? Where did it begin? And what drove you towards this incredible innovation and the realisation that it could work.

Vincent Muhoro 02:30

The story of dunya Burano dunya Bora simply means a bit our linear bar is going from took saleyards duniya. And Bora dunya means world and Bora means better. So put together it means a better world. And that is all that I intend to do. Now through the social enterprise. Now I was born in Laikipia County, in Kenya, now lucky pointy classified as an arid and semi arid land. Now the case has it always been so when I was young, I remember we used to do a lot of farming villages and large scale farming stuff, like we had actors and actors of land. But we were able to plant a few maize, if you can, you know have occurred to end it just to put food on the table and basically able to be forced for my school fees. Now, as the more go to grow up and go to high school, the situation kept changing. Now, my parents are finding that, you know, doing this small scale farming was becoming quite expensive, and unreliable because it could go we could miss like two seasons of rainfall. And basically, if you really depend on rainfall for your agriculture, then if you miss the season or the seasons of rainfall, then you're basically going for loss because you have to incur the costs of planting the cost of you know, harvesting, and all that and so it is becoming quite untenable, the livestock are getting very skinny, because if there is no food in the land, then they also do not get the feed. And if the pasture lands are drying, then the livestock so by the time I was completing high school, we had sold all of livestock because it wasn't becoming it wasn't making sense, financially speaking, and they had resorted to stop doing the normal farming. And now this, I kept on witnessing this as when I was growing up. And when I joined University, I had a few goals. And one of the few goals for me was that I'm going to do media communication, and tell the story of my community. But the more got access to information and knowledge, I continue to understand that very bad, you know, numerous parts of the world are actually suffering from the same situation that you're facing. And that was climate change, you know, the seasons are becoming more erratic, and this is affecting most especially the small scale farmers who really depend on these natural season international season

Lou Waldegrave 04:49

fence and then shared his experiences mentoring high school students, and how their discussions on climate change and SDGs that sustainable development Gauss caused him to take a step back and reflect on the need for local solutions and systemic change.

Vincent Muhoro 05:08

You know, for these mentorship programmes, I got to realise one question that I kept on being asked by the students. The students kept on asking me, Vincent, I have spoken to us about SDGs, about climate action about the green jobs now. And symptoms, you seem so knowledgeable about these. So we look give us these green jobs you keep on talking about, right? You keep on talking about the issue of food insecurity. Now, we have given us all these talks and the you know, the uplifting of being able to think bigger, but where do we start from? And they got to realise that this was a question that most young people kept on asking themselves, where do we start from? We want to do this, but what is the first step towards this direction? And so I stopped the mentorship programmes, because, you know, it's like volcanoes, like, what you're doing is good, but then what really can be the long term solution to this? So for me, I was like, what is the solution that you can put forward that can be able to initiate systemic change, because they are talking about the food sector, we need one a plant that can really be resilient to the drought. And when I was thinking about this, it took me back to the days I used to graze when I was young. When I used to graze as a young boy, I used to be sent to the pasture lands. And I remember because we could go for many kilometres away. And at times, you could really calculate we go back home for lunch, or do we find somebody who can eat in the bushes and I was like, we used to eat the cactus plant. And you know, something really unique about the cactus plant is that regardless of what came we eat, floods, be drought, the cactus was always the end of a coin, or what really are we doing the plant? So I started reading about the plant and I got to realise that this plant is actually an indigenous sort of an indigenous plants in around this region. However, the reason we have so much of it is not by natural causes. So in the 1960s, in the 1940s, and 19, that is 40s and 50s. That was a team that Kenya was having the struggle for independence. Well, this is not usually a very fun story for people to tell. And so, what the cactus plant was essentially used for it was used for the marketing the land. So most of the Kenyans have put in the results where they were like, This is a believing. And since more people had this, and you know, the pastoralist communities have this habit of relocating, and moving to greener pastures when it gets dry. So what has done is that the colonialist is the cactus plant as a fence as a natural fence. And so for them, it was a deterrent it you know, it is really thorny, and so they were like in five, six years, one won't be able to cross across this land. And so from having a very small amount of practice in the land, the numbers really grew exponentially. And it is huge, huge amounts of land are covered with weather characters. And so for a long time, people know had this resentment for the characters, because for them, when they look at it historically, it was used to subjugate us. So when people call it invasive it has because one, they have a historical background of it that is not so pleasing. Secondly, like I said, they're mostly pastoralist communities. And so since it grew, we live in an uncontrolled space. So when the livestock feed on it during the dry seasons, they often develop sores in their on their tongues, if they eat unprocessed, and at times, they lose the eyes. So most of the communities around the hour like we don't really like the characters and the things some people found an opportunity rather than looking at the cultures and asking themselves, can you do value addition for it? Is there a way we can change the story? They started looking for funds to eradicate the characters. So for me, I was like, it doesn't make sense. All of the plants aren't doing well. What is doing well, is the characters rather than eradicated? How do we do value addition for it? How do we make it your food that will not only sustain us during the dry period, sustain our livestock, but also get on the shore shelves of global supermarkets? You know, we have products that you can say it's from Kenya, you know, from invasive to bring a plant that is this rate, it's really resilient. So I was I kept on reading into it and doing some experiments and I started with creating a few juices giving to my neighbours at home and they were like it's really sweet that thought that everybody would remember it and they said yes, we know we used to treat treated as kids but you never knew that once you take away the dawn and you make a new package it will it can be this delicious. And so the feedback keeps on growing and people are like like the juice to begin with.

Lou Waldegrave 09:41

But he wasn't just stopping at the juices. Vincent quickly moved on to making cookies using the cactus juice and ground down Cactus Flower. Any sin leftover is then safely processed into livestock feed or used as vegan leather, which is no mean feat when you Consider the enormity of the challenges Vincent in his community continually face use of faced climate change. He said, when we went against the effects of climate change, what did that look like, in your area for your communities?

Vincent Muhoro 10:16

Wow, that was it was really, it was really bad, to be honest. You know, when you're talking like, oh, to go and talk about food insecurity, I think the people who are on the forums that talk about climate change, going to cop whatever's all the time, but they really have not faced climate change. Past and you know, that we talk about drought and starvation. But for me, I've witnessed and seen one of our cows literally, you know, shrivel and actually die, because it the, you know, the the veterinary said that the intestines are so together. And so even if we quit trying to predict it really quickly take up any more food, because it's inside was already gone. Literally seen children having to drop out of school because they go to school, and they don't have food. And so, you know, you really don't expect them to concentrate in class and a hungry stomach. Yeah, so we've all had children who have been like, we'd better go and look for livelihood, and try to hustle and they end up in the quarry that is the mind for the rocks. And that is, that is a situation of some of my friends, I'm a bit fortunate that I actually even go to university because they have neighbours who dropped out in primary school, in high school along the way, we really hope that we can be able to at least improve the situation. I've seen parents who have literally resorted to begging and, you know, you find parents who are outside the gates of politicians as early as 4am in the morning, waiting for the politician to wake up at around 7am so that they can get some handouts and at least go and get some food. And so their lands are really dry, and they have got nothing. And now after the dry season attempts, the rain comes and it's poor as to hit some of the roads that will literally go to the farms right now have all been wiped out. And it may take years for them to wait to be reconstructed. So in as much as those when we harvest the food right now, the food might not even be able to get to the markets because the roads have been swept off by the floods. So once again, we'll be in the same cycle because the rain switch wouldn't be here forever. So the food if the food is not being is not able to be utilised, we'll have a lot of food, you know, we'll have a lot of harvest losses. And what this means is that food insecurity will be a recurrent issue. And the saddest part is that we've got people, you know, you've got so many corporations, you've got so many organisations, who would rather have this to be continuing. Because If this situation continues, then they are assured that they will continue getting funding for the operations, you know, they will be out there saying, hey, we want donations so that you can go and pick the people. It's it's such a noble, but for me, I feel like it's it's not really a long term solution. It's good people get food for today. But what about tomorrow? You know, what about the next time they're floods? But then what about the next time drought decides to eat for six months? You know, in that time? For me, maybe it's not the perfect solution. But I think the characters in it's really resilient. It's able to put some, some some better form of hope. Because they're saying no, you're not you're not going to be a monopoly went to the farmers themselves to be able to do some of what you're doing ourselves.

Lou Waldegrave 13:37

And I think you're going way beyond from I'd say so offering just an economic opportunity, but you're also and correct me if I'm wrong, educating them on how to create a regenerative future and ensure this biodiversity thrives. How were you doing that?

Vincent Muhoro 13:55

So at first, it was about getting to the places that I usually that I used to seek out just growing up in university and I was able to travel the country a bit. So I got to those areas and I'm like, I guess no, I see how a lot of a lot of these plans, you know what it is? And they're like, hey, yeah, we know it's got us but it's really a terrible plan to just use it as friends you know. And if only there was a way of getting rid of it, we will you know, I'm like really do you know, you can you know have a taste of this. That's a I used to make a lot of samples and go with them and they're like it's really good and I'm like this is made from the cutters. Now there are a lot of things you can do is we can choose to go the way that you prefer we get rid of the characters or we can try to make something out of it. And so for me it's such a piece you know, when most people go to pitch they only consider pitching to the investors. So the pitch to the farmers is usually like we don't really need to get rid of this plant. Now what is the what are the some of the points you need to consider one you have to till the land. You have to do a lot of you have to use a lot of pesticides to make To Kill the weeds to get rid of the insects and such, you know, that you need to have a lot of water to cultivate the maze and other plants now in comparison, or do you really need to cultivate the cactus plant? That is usually my question they're like, you know, we really don't even know, you know, the plant just sprouts regardless of the condition. And it just grows, we've written literally never attended to it. And then I'm like, rather than it being a headache for your team with it can be the source of your smile, we really don't need to cut up the grass, we don't need to cut it up to cut any trees for the culture. So right, we can have this ecosystem that flourishes, we have the cactus plant, because I've done a lot of reading on it, I understand that it is able to sequester almost the same amount of carbon as the bamboo, if not more, that means and you know, throw it in the soil. So if we have this plant, where he's touching a boat, or serving communities that will be able to benefit from the carbon credits. I'm not really far against the carbon credits, but if it is an opportunity for the communities to get some more income for them to be able to regenerate to regenerate them their soils, and hopefully in the future be able to do some intercropping. That is that that shouldn't be beautiful for me.

Lou Waldegrave 16:15

Can we go back a bit? Because sure, correct me if I'm wrong, you started by making with the cactus, the leather alternatives? Are you still knowing that?

Vincent Muhoro 16:27

Yes, you're right. Um, so at first I was like, after the foods, I realised that the foods I wanted them to work to be open source, like I've said, for me, making the foods has always been about my community being able to improve, you know, to to get rid of food insecurity. But then looking at it from a business point of view, we really cool in Sally's food products for a lot of money. But she is another side of the industry, which is the fashion industry, which is really polluted. If we're talking about the results of climate change. And climate change is three, which is really affecting us. The fashion industry is one of the biggest perpetrators. And people are really willing to spend a lot of money in this industry. And so for us, I was like, I'm glad maybe through the participation of the big, you know, big four is a design challenge, we'll probably get to see the food industry as being a bit profitable for us. But then, initially, we formators like, it's really not, it won't bring back money for us to scale up. So maybe we need to focus first on the leather. But now we are able to make these leather from the cocktails with like I said during our drink process, some of the cactus pods we really can't be used, we can't use them to make the flower. You know, food grid really needs a higher standard of higher higher quality. So the west from these cactus pods that maybe get spoiled in the drying process. As you make the cookies, the juice, we are now able to translate it and create vegan leather from it. So that is our whole model. Currently, we like I said we have not been able to sell it. Because when we calculate the cost, yes, maybe we can be able but the local market still hasn't been able to embrace vegan leather.

Lou Waldegrave 18:07

I wanted to know what blockers Vincent has currently faced in in getting these products to market.

Vincent Muhoro 18:13

And so for us the vegan leather and also it comes about certifications by the Kenya Bureau of Standards. I recently went and inquired, can we get that you know, can you be able to mark you know, give us the the stamp of approval that you were able to trade the letter within the country, you know, enrich ourselves into a lake. Now what you have to do is actually have to set up a committee and now start creating the standards that people will need to follow for big leather because it's quite a new industry. The same case also for the cottage foods, but then for the chair, which manoeuvre on it. And you're almost getting the approvals and certifications. Now for the vegan leather that has been one of our challenges getting the certification and also for the foods. But for the foods were able to go and have a chat with them. Unfortunately, the process is going very smooth and hopefully in a few weeks time we have the certifications for the food product.

Lou Waldegrave 19:03

Oh, it's just gonna say please tell me you've got the certification. Yeah. That's such good news. However, while the vegan leather may be on hold for the moment, Vincent is certainly not lacking buy in from his local communities for the food products.

Vincent Muhoro 19:22

Yeah, so currently we're in we're in three countries in Kenya or you're in Laikipia County, in a place called dodo ill Palais. We are also in a place called it's YOLO. County around people who if you ever visit Kenya can travel from Sierra to Sunbury there. It's a very beautiful landscape. But when it dries it, it can make you cry. But we also have some farmers around there who and they have actually been able to open a collection centre on there. So we go there twice a week and you're able to collect what people have been able to harvest and we take it to a processing plant, which is really small and so at times we have got the farmers are like we have Have more produce, you know more than what you're able to process in a day. So it's that that has been the challenge because people know willing, but then we have logged the class capacity. So we'd like to go and take it all up. And you know, but you can only take as much as you can which 100. Currently, right now, the temperature was raining, like I said, we are currently just setting up our solar dryer, before we had the solar dry, we are drying in the open sunlight. And so during the rainy seasons, when it was raining, a lot would find that we could not be able to dry and so most of the produce was or wasn't trying well. And so just touch the animal feed. And so when we were chatting about making foods, it wasn't a template isn't sustainable, because we need to scale up and be able to take up most of the parties, when it comes to the willingness of the farmers of the communities, I can say we have got gotten, you know, a much more positive response that you can either enjoy, or you're like, we need to cool down on going to the farmers until you're able to take up more products, because every location you've gone, we've had a lot of success. So

Lou Waldegrave 21:04

what's also needed now to drive this incredibly ambitious venture forward and see it through to its successful fruition.

Vincent Muhoro 21:13

One, we needed to get our story to be heard, and I'm glad you are helping us with that getting the word out about this is what dunya Bora is about, we are about using de vos ingredients, you know, using local resources and trying to minimise the carbon footprint. You know, we're all about creating a circular economy, we need a different financing mechanism for different parts of the world, because I'm not sure if that will be which apply to us. And so some of the team that I work within, they're like, you know, we read the newspaper. And I'm going off the topic, I'm sorry about that. But read the newspaper and everyone's you know, after every after every month, we read about startups that are closing down in Kenya. And surprisingly, these startups have received funding over $150 billion. And most of them are ag tech cleaner. We are bringing technological solutions to the farmers and we are bringing technological solutions to small scale business owners. And the times I'm like, these are cute ideas. But I wish funding was going to people who have actually who actually know the problem and not basically someone who comes to Kenya for it for vacation. And then they go back home and they're like, we know the problems of Kenya's we're going to create this app that should be able to revolutionise this, they get funding on for about $200 million. And in one two years, they realise Oh, this is a tragic. Yeah, yeah. So there is that disconnect. And that is something that maybe you're going to get we are watching to adults are growing. But the other challenge has been natural factors really can't control climate change. And, and the last few months, it's been raining really heavily. So some of these things we cannot control. But for what you can control, we were trying to get to learn and improve our knowledge. For instance, when it comes to matters of accountability, some of the farmers who deal up who deal with or mostly people who do not who have not even started banking, they mostly attempt things mobile money, or they prefer getting cash. And so when you're going to send back our reports about how we've been able to utilise your funding of $10,000, of which it's a bit hard to account, because we'll be like, we won't go and tell the farmers, you know, can you sign here that she actually paid you? I think it's we are growing and learning. Maybe it's because I'm also really young in the game, and don't know how people actually operate. But for me, it's it's an interesting thing, and I love what I'm doing. Once you've

Lou Waldegrave 23:46

got the certification that you need to take us forward, what will the creative process look like the creation process of these products?

Vincent Muhoro 23:55

So for Dunia Bora as a social enterprise, what do you hope to do is to have a number of factories, currently we are operating where we are operating as a cottage industry, actually, we are on full operating space we are we have been given some you know, we have been doing some landscaping, which set up some nurseries, you know, we have, by the end of the next of this week, we'll be having a solid dry ready. So we are really operating small. But the end goal will be to have at least five or so factories in Kenya in different countries that arrived in semi arid, and hopefully be able to expand into the largest of Eastern African region because when you talk about Ethiopia, we have got people already started reaching out to us. And so we're trying to create sort of a learning module that different people can be able to adopt, so that you can be easy to scale and replicate. We understand that you may be the guys who will be looked up when it comes to the standards of these new the new players really matching up to the standard. So at some point we know that you're going to grow and we don't intend on gatekeeping these In the industry in the manufacture of the cutters, we intend to have as many people as more people in the world coming up with unique ingredients. Let us see more people in the homes making cutter salads making cocktails delicacies, you know, on tick tock on YouTube, we see people posting and if we are able to achieve that touch will be our greatest happiness natural. My, my personal goal was that, but if you're able to make money in the process, be able to create more jobs, people working in the factory, you know, be able to see our product on shelves in the UK in the US, you know, in Zanzibar, that will be a delight, knowing that it's catching on and the world is really embracing it.

Lou Waldegrave 25:39

I can't wait to see your products on the shelf and the UK. All the very best of luck. Vincent, thank you so much for this and no doubt I'll see you in another vlogging Zoom meeting in the next week or two.

Vincent Muhoro 25:53

It's been an absolute pleasure.

Lou Waldegrave 25:58

And thank you for joining us today for the circular economy show. Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. See you next time.