User:LRonHoover03/Fonio

White fonio, Digitaria exilis, also called "hungry rice" by Europeans, is the most common of a diverse group of wild and domesticated Digitaria species that are harvested in the savannas of West Africa. Fonio has the smallest seeds of all species of millet. It has potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development, and support sustainable use of the land.

Nutritious, gluten-free, and high in dietary fiber, fonio is one of the world's fastest-growing cereals, reaching maturity in as little as six to eight weeks. The grains are used to make porridge, couscous, bread, and beer.

Black Fonio
Black fonio, D. iburua, also known as iburu or fonio ga, is a similar crop grown in several countries of West Africa, particularly Nigeria, Togo, and Benin. Like white fonio, it is nutritious, fast-growing, and has the benefit of maturing before other grains, allowing for harvest during the "hungry season." However, it contains considerably more protein compared to D. exilis.

Black fonio is mostly cultivated in rural communities and is rarely sold commercially, even in West African cities.

Commercialization in the West
Fonio has been relatively unknown in the West until recently, when companies in Europe and the United States began to import the grain from West Africa, often citing its ecological and nutritional benefits in their marketing.

Italy
In December 2018, the European Commission approved commercialization of fonio as a novel food in the European Union, after submission by the Italian company Obà Food to manufacture and market new food products. These products include fonio pasta, revealing a desire to change fonio to be more recognizable to the European palate.

United States
In the United States, Yolélé Foods, led by Senegalese-American chef Pierre Thiam, started importing and selling fonio in 2017. Thiam hopes to not only introduce Americans to the grain, but support sustainable and traditional agriculture in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Senegal. What is considered to be a peasant's food in West Africa is now sold in luxury grocery stores in the United States.

However, Thiam positions his project as part of a larger movement to elevate the economic power of African farmers, who for centuries have been suppressed by Western hegemony in the global food system.