this week we focus on one of life'sssentialals -- food. industrialized countries dump millions of tons of food every year.while e else, millions of people go hungry. there are solutions. in many places, it now has to be giveven to those in need. and then there's urban gardening, which means far shorter r journeys from field o plate.

chicken production, , however, still has a a long w to o go. chickens have become a masseld o product. estimates suggest that there are now more than 22 billion of the birds on the planet. over 95 million tons of chicken meat were produced last year. it's often frozen, then shipped around the world. in 2018 brazil, the u.s., and the e.u. t topped the lilist of exportrters. eurorope is africa's main supplier. in 2017, the e.u. sold 135,000 tons of frozen chicken parts to ghana alone. high e.u. subsidies mean it's cheaper there than chicken

raised domestically. and local farmers are paying the price. ♪ florence: ghanaians like chchicken.e eaeat chken a lot. reporter: and this is where most of it arrives. tema port in the capital accra. as europeans prefer the breast of the chicken, the leftovers end up here. shipped in refrigerated containers halfway round the world. on our way from the harbor we visit the cold stores that sell it. they tell us they only stock whwh customersrs want and thtt local l farms uldndn't mt thee rising demand.

thtgegeorgia, wherere the moden chicken n industry wasas born.f ththe are fromom the netrlrlan. bebelgium. more than they canan get their hahands on. this customer wants his chicken even cheaper. florenence foli kumamah arguese wouldn't't evemake a prot. this i is augustine e amankwaahe of ghanana's last poulultry far. hehetarted with 200 birds. now he's's got 22,000. the little ones aren't a hase.e. it'shen n theyrow upuphat they get problematic. augustine: they are stubborn. ra little trick foror weighing te hens.. gustine: andnd they have p pelc bobones. their b bottom. rereporter: massaging their pelc bobone kee thehem qut.

augustine: then they arere coo. rereporter: but t catchi chihis ishe least ohis worrie augustin business was booming, auguesescially for broiler coo. production, anand then thesese , if i compare to o these days, these days we e have a problb, challenges, , because of t the importeded chicken. the competitition is very y h. anand then it't's rd for u uso compete withhehem. reporter: thprproblem is augugustine's chicicken costs de the e price of the cheap impor. although he has one of t f few rge-scale eratationseft inin ghana, it's nowhere nearar as effificient as its overseas ririvals. and like other farme, auaugustindoesn'n't ve thehe frastructuture. auguststine: very frfresh. reporteraugustine's customers are ststly people frfrom h distririct. thank youou so much. auguste:e: this one isis for sp this eveningng.

how was school today? >> it was fine. reporter: next day, it's off to the market. we'd like e to know if t therea difference i in quality bebetn mass-produced chicken from abr. mark: itit tastes goodod and s been fed at t home and hasas ale nutrition n in it. fofor the foreigign on it's s a little bit awful. it's alssosoft when it's's beig cooked. it doesn't last. mamami: i reallyly like the ll one.e. bubufor now i will manage e te forereign one, b because the lol one is e expensive. so i will l manage the f foren one. reporter: auaugustine says the onlyly way he's stayayed in buss is by y diversifyingng. he has his own feed plant. augustine:t mamakes our costss

come dowa little bit, so thatt we c sell to o n numerous stomers at a reasonable price. t costst for farmers. eueurope subsidizes it, viving s stomerfarmerers an advantatage.t and ththe e.u. hasas a raft ofe trade deals with africa,hahat ve b both des frfree access too markets, butut african comompas are e too small toto compet. flororence: if ghahana, the government o of ghana, canan do something about it, , the cal markets, butut african comompas one, s so thate reproducinpet. gha,a, ande eat t ana food,, ghanprododuc, i thinink would be good for r us. reporter: the government has announced new import restrictions, and says now local producers need to step up to the plate. but which producers? there are hardly any left. augugustine: this s is the worke enen doing since 1992 to catatr

for family. so if europepean imported d chn spspls this business or collaps s it, i n't t knowhat america. urban gardening is growing increasingly popular everywhere, especially in large cities. many people wawant to become me self-sufficient.t. and it means you know exactly what you're eating, too. our reporter katja döhne travelled to ecuador's rapidly expanding cacapital quito, whee thousands of gardens have sprung up. they provide delicious food, improve air r quality, andnd e for a betterer social climate s well. reporter: quito is more than 1000 kilometers from venezuela. yet some people who have fled the chaos there have made it to the ecuadoririan capital, , evn 1000 kilometefoot.om venezuela.

abou50 of th l live thisscomy and keepep busy tending g te kitctchen garden.. joséwhen i werer thearden,n, alwaysys think of mymy house k home in venezuela. we used to water the g garden every eveng.g. itit relieved the stress.. reporterthisis garden n was setp with thehe help of thehe city-bd participipatory urban n agricue itiogram, agrupar.stress.. rso far, thgagardens eat t whatp wthey grow. it is a step towards particiself-sufficiency.agricue josé saldarriagaga and his famy fleded venezuela l last autumn.. josé: they threaeatened me and said we shshould leave t the coy becaususe we were not cooperive d wewere thereforere traitors. rereporter: the e calm here sts in statark contrast t to the commotioand cris back ho.

coming herere, the saldadarris left everyththing and evererye bebehind. jojosé: i leftft venezuela w wy wife, josé angel, and d marie anangel, t fouour ofs. we have a hohouse there anand wt ththe oppositionon use it whiliy were pparing f thehe electis. reporter: these refugees heree work t tether in t the garden. they help each othther. somelrlready kw w aboufarmining, and can ininstruct the others. josé: you plant t a seed here. reporterer: agrupar hahas hadn

pressive iact with its participatory apoaoach invvingng the most v vulnerable grgroups. alexandrdra: our frienends from venezua neneedelp. with this projoject, we can ofs in our c country, so t they cand some statability and i integran our society. reporter: : this is justst onf 4000 urban-f-farmi plotsts acrs quito supppported by agrgrupar, rangnging from a f few square ms on a rooooftop to largrge fielt the edge of town. the aim in each case is to ease access to healthy food for poor and mamarginalized p people. the greenery also helps improve air quality and quality of life. eban heatatslands, creates new spaces andnd microimatates i which peopople can have e a ber life.

porter: er the past four decades, quito hasas grown almt fififold. the population has tripled, to more than 2.5 million. agagrupar helps s furthefood securityty, job creatition, enviroronmental mananagement, sl inclusion, and genender equali. llangrande ud to be tranil villageuntil it w swalallowed up by the city. but so o open spes s survid, and can be usesed to grow fof. a grgroup of womenen run this n farm. their work marks c courages break wiwith traditionon. moninica: the early y phase ofr organizatition wasery y difficu, because we h had to deal with e machisismo of our husbands. they said no, we shohould not o it, wasas a waste of f time. but little by little we proved that o our value as s women gs

beyondnd being mothehers. we c can do all kikinds of thi, inclcluding tendining the landd feedining our famililies. can contribute economomically. repoporter: agrupar staffre on howow to run theieir ventu. alexandrdra: buenos didias. reporter: there is alwaymomore to leaearn about farmiming mets and incrcreasing the y yields. alexandra: o oh, what a lolovy gardrden. reporter: agagrupar is comommid toto organic fararming withoutut chemical fertilizers. the e women of llalano grande w so mucuch produce nonow, they e some to sellll. alexanandra: by promomoting orc farming, the proje has alsls helped c create skills, especily ong g won, that allow th too make a living thugugh agriculture. reporter: the urban farmers can sell their crops at special organic-produce markets, bioferias.

gladysys: when we ststarted wed not evenen know how toto do the bookkekeeping. it wawas tough. but now we k know re. we are learnrning to grow w as indivividuals, and a above ale are partners in a community. reporter: urban gardening thpioneeri organizion islolook continui to expa in quitl. alexandra: the area devoted tos growowg about three hectares, or ouout 20differert plots each yearar. repoporter: for ththe refugeesm venenezuela, urbanan farming mt provove the first t step to aw life.. host: and intoto the trash w h it.

worldwide, around 1.3 billnn to of f foods waststedvery year. much of it ends up in landfills. some goes bad on fields, or if not properly refrigerated, in storage containers or on lorries. but a lot of w what gets dumpeds actually perfectly edible. europeans alone throw away around 115 kilos of food per person, per year. that's shocking, considering 821 millioion people worldldwide suffffered from chchronic undernouririshment in 20201. someme of them in n europe. reporter: once a week, stanislav sadilek opens up his garage for the needy. he distributes groceries, mostly to pensioners and single mothers. today he has pizzas that have almost reached their sell-by date. supermarkets are no longer allowed to throw thesese produs away. they are legally obligated to give them to charity organizations. marta frankova is happy. she can now invite her grandchildren to dinner. marta: i have a vevery small

monthly pension. like, 450 euros. and if you h have to buy coal d pay for electricity, it can get pretty bad. reporter: jarka kramarova drops by stanislav's garage every week. she's only 30, but is unable to work due to heart problems. she's eligible for a mere 160 euros of government support, not enough to get by on. stanislav gives her three pizzas and some beverages, which will keep the family going for about five days. jarka: at first, i was ashamed to come here because a stranger was just passing out food, and i had never done anything like that, asking a stranger for food, even though i know he helps other people, too. he explained to me how it works, that i should come every thursday at a certain time, so that's what i do now automatically.

reporter: jan cerny picks the food up from supermarkets in and around prague every day. the law requires stores to give him goods that are about to expire. and that's a good thing, says the employee at the prague food bank. jan: that's terrible. when you see how many people have nothing to eat, and then all these things end up in the garbage at the supermarket, it's just terrible. reporter: yogurt, fruit, and chococolate are stacked in boxs in the prague food bank. the charity distributes 10 tons of food daily to 22,000 needy people in and around the czech capital. almost nothing is thrown away here. the food is picked up directly or distributed to homeless shelters and soup kitchens. vera: the law now allows us to have much more food available and a much broader range. we now have a lot more perishables, including fruit and vegetables. reporter: supermarkets think the

law is wrong. they've already cooperated with aid organizations in the past. the guidelines merely increase the bureaucracy, they say. vaclav: the rules are pretty strict. sometimes we have to look very closely at which fruit we are still allowed to deliver and which ones we are required to ththrow away. and the chcharities have to pre that the fresh produce is passed on quickly. reporter: but it was not the supermarkets who took the issue to the constitutional court. senior politicians argued that it reminded them of communism and that other potential beneficiaries were losing out. jajaroslav: our complaint was about the state prescribing who the chains have to give the food to. some shops, for example, used to give the produce to zoos, but they're no longer allowed to do so, despite the quantities available beining enough for everyone.

reporter: it's not enough, says stanislav sadilek. due to high food prices, even regular pensioners are dependent on his help. in his opinion, the state is my pension, i don't need to earn money, and so i can help on a volunteer basisis. i don't earn anything when i do this. reporter: stanislav would not like a refrigerator in his garage, so that he can legally store and distribute even more. but t the czech republic is byo means s a paradise for thehe n. host: and now to north africa, and an almost forgotten conflict. since 1973, the polisario front national liberation movement has been campaigning for an independent state in the western sahara. for years, fighting raged in the desert. first against spanish colonial rule, then against occupation by

morocco and mauretania. hundrere of thousasands of militants and their families fled the area to camps in algeria. there has been an armistice since 1991, but western sahara remains divided. its westernmost regions are governed by morocco. eastern and southern areas are run by the polisario front. 160,000 refugees still live in camps in the algerian desert. reporter: this car is delivering pizza in the desert. hindu: it makes me proud to have established the first pizzeria in the refugee camps. and that i've done it alone, as a woman, using my own resources. reporter: a pizza delivery service in algeria's sahara desert with a young woman at the wheel. 28-year-old hindu mani is one of

the ingredients in this rather unusual story. hundreds of thousands of sahrawis, the indigenous people from western sahara, have lived in these refugee camps for many years now. they fled here after morocco annexed their homeland. mani grew up in a camp like this. it's all she's ever known. but now she can live her dream, having her own pizza service. she delivers to families like meneya sidahme's, whose daily routine is defined by this wasteland. they want to stay here until theyey get their h homeland b. meneya: we're suffering under these difficult conditions.. for 40 years we've lived in tents in extreme temperatures, with no livelihoods. hindu: i can help people with my service. it brings a bit of variety.

people are happy to see me. reporter: and then she shows us her pride and joy, her fast-fofd stand in the refugee camp. its specialty is pizza with camel meat, called pizza sahrawi. in the morning she meets with her employees, all young w wom. mani, who's single, wants to help other women find jobs. she views that as her mission. it all started with a cooking competition, which mani won. she used the prize money to buy her first oven, and then she got a loan through the united nations. since then, business has been growing, and she now employs eight pizza chefs. noga: i'm happy that i can work here. many women would like to because you can't get a job anywhere else, no matter how hard you

try. hindu: it's my goal to hire women. young people can hardly find work in the refugee camps. and d it's even more difficuculr young women. reporter: but mani has made it. with advertisements like this, she promotes her project and her camel pizzas. business is brisk in the evening at the refugee camps. you can get a pizza for the equivalent of two euros. many people are looking for something to spice up the monotony of life here. mani has something of a cult status, she's a young woman with her own business who travels the region on her own with her pizzas. that's earned her respect. >> i'm so happy that there's finally a pizzeria in the camp.

and i hope that hihindu will ao pursue other projects. >> it's quite unusual for a wowoman to open a pizzeria ally herself, and for her to work from morning till late at night. that's extraordinary. reporter: the next day, mani is out on the road again. she passes by reminders of the western sahara war. some of the most seriously injured war veterans live in a dilapidated home outside the camp. it's important for mani to show solidarity. she brings a free pizza for ahmed hatari, who was paralyzed when his spine was damaged in an air strike in 1980. ahmed: i regret nothing. i'm proud of my war wounds,

because i got them fighting for a fair andndegal causese. reporter: the conflictct is onef the oldest in africa, but the world has forgotten this war and its fighters. it's hard to remain optimiststc about things in this part of the world. many people have losost hope ia brighter future. but not mani. she shows us her recently-opened second pizzeria, which is, of course, staffed by women. mani's next plan is to open a bakery.. it's back to the main restaurant in the evening. mani is an inspiration for many. she cares about camel pizza, rights for women, and the saharawis' future.

hindu: i still have so many dreams. i hope our lives will change someday and that my people will gain independence. reporter: hindu u mani herself s been independent for a long time. and that makes her, the owner of the pizzeria in the desert, an unusual success story. host: for mo inspiringstoriw facecebo page,e,w women. for en genderer equality. women still sufferididesprea this week. we love hearing from you, though. write to us at global3000@dw.com, or via our

new facebook page, dw women. see you next time. take care. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

04/12/19 04/12/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from boston this is , democracy now! a arrest, the scandal, it is not just u.s. government. the british are cooperating, ecuador is now cooperating, sweden before had cooperated. the efforts to silence the journalist who was producing materialals that peopl p