Morenike Taire

Lebanese Nigerian Layane Makarem is a graduate of Law from a French university and has worked at jobs she considered “boring”, including investment banking. Eventually, she succumbed to her one true passion: farming, processing and distribution of organic food.

The decision was the easiest part, as the quest for the single ideal of eating organic food became the impetus behind her transformation from a business woman to a food activist of sorts in a journey that has spanned three continents and her project from a business to a movement.

Layane Makarem

Opening an organic store in France, where people were sophisticated enough to appreciate her offerings proved not to be as simple as envisaged. She then returned to Lebanon and encountered new problems. It was in this new terrain that she began to organize and educate the small farmers into a little army over 900 men strong and still in operation. A whole value chain has evolved out of this, from packaging to branding to processing to exports.

It is this feat she hopes to replicate back home in Nigeria, where she has already started   gathering   and training organic farmers as well as kick up the activism to ensure there is a policy framework to accommodate their products and services. For her, Nigeria ought to be keying into the already developed global organic market.     

Not exactly a great believer in conspiracy theories, she nonetheless decries the over commercialization of the medical and pharmaceutical industries, which she considers    altogether too impersonal in their approach and not committed enough to ensuring good health. She also urges the    National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control  (NAFDAC)  to review its regulations to accommodate the shelf life of organic food, which is usually free from preservatives.   

What were the challenges you had running an organic restaurant in France?

I was not in the right frame of mind. It didn’t work out like I wanted it to work out so I decided to go to Lebanon and I realized that there is nothing like organic in Lebanon. That was 10 years ago. I started and my family still wanted me to be a lawyer but I’ve always been so concerned about helping people, nutritional health. There is so much you can do with natural foods . I think it’s a pity that people are always going to doctors and medicine. That has been my objective- promoting the idea that people can cook healthy and also growing organic. It’s not just a question of food that is appealing but also environmental issue. When you choose organic you are also making a vote for future generation. We don’t know what is happening but people don’t have concerns anymore. They think, ‘it’s not my generation, I will not bear the consequences at the end of the day’.

I am concerned about the over commercialization of food…

It started 70, 80 years ago when they needed to create food quickly and cheaper. The prices of vegetables started going up. You can buy a whole sandwich, soda and fries and for you to buy a lettuce is more expensive. It doesn’t make sense. Food is supposed to be accessible to everybody not burgers and sodas because these are not real food and full of preservatives and colourants.      We are used to cheap food everywhere you go. Don’t ask yourself why good food is expensive; ask yourself why junk food is so cheap. We have a crazy amount of    disease. Everybody is sick- cancer is skyrocketing, mothers giving birth to leukemia. It didn’t start overnight. A lot of people tell me they’ve always eaten like this, it’s not going to affect them. I tell them that’s the problem. This is the vicious cycle we are in. People don’t want to pay money, they want cheap cheap. If you cannot produce a lettuce at 5 or 6 dollars how do you expect to have a whole meal for less than that? Big supermarkets, big industries, big corporations at the end of the day rule the world, fix the prices. Look at the cancer industry. Cancer has been treated many many times by holistic doctors but why is it not in the public eye. They make so much money out of you being sick. Everybody, let’s go do breast exams…

Mammogram!

Mammogram creates cancer, putting yourself through radiation. It’s a whole industry. People talk about conspiracy theories when it comes to politics; why is it so difficult to believe when it comes to the food industry especially pharmaceuticals. It’s the same thing. When you go to the doctor and tell him you are not feeling well does he ask you how you are feeling? They give you antibiotics, tell you to come back after one week. They don’t treat the problem.

But there seems to be a lot more awareness of these things so why are people still not growing organic?

Basically let’s say I am a conventional farmer, you are an organic farmer. Okay, me I decide to put fertilizers and pesticides and insecticides. I grow my tomatoes. You organic farmer you are worried, oh, the weather is not good this year. I have insects. Instead of having two tomatoes I have six hundred. You little farmer are suffering, you are battling.

Some people are against GMOs while some are saying there is no evidence that GMO crops are harmful

GMOs are genetically modified crops. For example the corn, which is already insecticidal. It defends itself against attacks but don’t forget that this is the corn that you are going to eat and you are swallowing with it insecticides into our bodies. When you look at mothers that have babies with tumour, where are they coming from? A lot of the problem is the processed food which we are eating packed full of sugars. Look at pre-obesity all around us and diabetes. Where does it come from? Organic is healthier and more nutritious. When we ingest chemicals and foreign bodies into our bodies do not know what to do with it.    If you don’t care about yourself, care about your family. I always tell mothers if you don’t care about yourself care about your children. You cannot give a kid processed food and junk food at a young age when he is still forming. It doesn’t make sense.

You were telling me about when you started with the organic movement. When was the turning point?

I went to Lebanon and I was expected after studying Law to start my career but I just realized it’s not what I want. I would go to job interviews and they would tell me I don’t look like I wanted the job.

So in Lebanon I was working in a bank then I met a guy that became my partner who was like what do I really want to do?    I told him about this project    for organic food and he said now that you work in a bank why don’t you make a business plan let me see how we can help you. I had no idea how to. He helped me, we found investors, we managed to raise the funds.

I was the first organic certified store. They have a lot of organic; they had excellent natural food but we wanted to do 100%    organic. I didn’t want to do natural foods.

 In Nigeria a lot of people are becoming aware but they are thinking who is going to make sure they do the right thing?

You are very right. When I came here and I started, I remember the first few years I tried to work with the local farmers. Actually there is a lot of people working with organic but the problem they had here was first of all the lack of technicality. Nobody taught them. They don’t have engineers here, and having to deal with the law of nature. You need to study it, know how it works. ‘

In Lebanon when I started I had little farmers who were trying to grow organic. One alone here, one alone there, no organization no intervention until they finally understood that what makes organic farmers strong is cooperation. That was when we started having rules, having regulations- they are working on it.

I have a lot of people come in. In Lebanon they certify local farmers. Here we don’t have anything like that. There’s a private certification body but it’s a beginning. They are trying to get enough power to be able to demand for some things.

I was talking to one of them- three brothers- “we are working, we are losing our crops, people are not buying”. This is where you really have to work together. You have to keep motivating them. I want them to know that there is help for them here. I need to back up my farmers.

So they are working really hard, I know we are going to get somewhere. Hopefully one day we are going to have our own distribution body and we are going to be able to promote our local farmers. The point of organic is to grow local and promote locally grown.

When I started in Lebanon I had few farmers. Now I have about 965 organic producers- tomatoes, ketchup, chips, different kinds of processed foods. We have to start somewhere and I always tell my farmers .

 But do you have clear Local Content plans?

The objective is really to have a strong structure in Lagos, Nigeria, of farmers, because I know what the customers want. We can help them package their products, delivery- I know what they need do, I know the specification. When they come with products I say, okay, let’s work on our labels. I need to    know where the food is coming from. That is why I am    working now with the farmers on a project called ‘know your food; know your farmer’. I want to bring them here to get them exposed; like a farmers’ market but really on organic. That personal touch is very important. There’s still a lot to do but we are getting there.

People are starting to be aware- what am I eating? Is this really good for me? They want to go healthy but they really don’t know what health is, they are confused. Everybody has his own idea of what they think healthy eating is so I am just here to help them achieve it, to help them make a decision.

Everybody knows what the problem is, they just don’t know how to deal with it. Your body tells you that something is wrong but you don’t listen properly, you just don’t want to hear it. I am here to get it out of you.

If you eat vegetables or broccoli everyday, that’s not going to help. There is the mental- the power of the mind to achieve a lot of things. You have to eat healthy, go out, read, exercise, work, drink water.

There are a lot of fad diets out there these days- keto, bone broth, lemon cleanse…

Yes. I was reading also about an Italian based community and they had never had cancer or heart problems . They started finding out that once the generations were growing up they drank wine. When those generations were growing old they live with their children and grandchildren.    They were very active. They were pounding yam, made their own bread, drank wine and were happy. The sense of community- they ate together. They were active. They would go in the morning to the farm, they come back early when women are still in their offices. There was fruits and vegetables for everybody.

We have to go back to the soil, reconnected to the ground- get germs on your hands, get your hands dirty. People don’t want to do that.