♪ is week we focus oone of life's essentials -- food. industrialized countries dump millions of tons of food every year. while elseere in theorld, llions of people go hungry. there are solutions. in many y places, it now has toe given to those in need. and then there's urban gardening, which means far

shshter journeneys from field o plate. chchicken producuction, howev, still has a long w way to go. chickens have become a mass 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. inin 2018 brazilil, the u.s.,d the e.u. topped the list of exporters. europe 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 lilike ickeken. we eat chchicken a lo. 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 lyly stock what c customers want and th local farms s couldn't meeeete rising demanand.

these boxes have just madehehe joney y from the u.s.s. state f georgia, where thehe modern chicken dudustry w bororn. these are from the n netherlan. belgium. more than n they can get their chicken duduhands on.rorn. this c customer wants hihis chn even cheaper. florence f foli kumah gues she wouldn'tveven make prorofit. this is augustine amankwaah,nene of gna's's laspoultrtry rmers. he statarted with 200 birds. now he gotot 22,000. ththe little onenes aren't a h . it's's when they grorow up thaty get problemati auaugustine: thehey are stubb. repoporter: auguststine shows a little trick for weighing th hens augugustine: and t they have pc nenes. the botottom.

little trick for weighing th reportrter: massaging g their pc bone k keeps them ququie auaugustine: thehen they areoo. poporter: t cacatchi chickcken is the least ohis worries.s. augustine: b business was s boo, especicially for bililer productition, and ththen theses, if i comparere to these dadays, ththese days we hahave a prob, chalallenges, because of the imported chicken. the e competitioion is verhih. and d then it's hahard for uso cocoete with t them. repoer: : the proboblem is augustinine's chicken n costs db the pricice of the cheheap imp. althoughgh he has one e of thew large-scalale operationsns lefn ghgha, it's noere near as austinine don't hahave teas riv, infrasastructure. augustine: v very fresh.h. rereporter: augugustine's custs arare mostly peoeople from hisis district. >> thank you so mumuch. augugustine:his s one is for sp this e evening.

how w was school today? >> i it was fine. reporter: next day, it's off to the market. we'd like to know ifhere's a differen i in qualy bebetwee massss-produced chicicken from abroad and t the local varari. mark: itit tastes good and its been fedt t home and hasas all e nutrition inin it. for r the foreign one, it's a little bitit awful. it's also soft when it's b beig cookoked. itit doesn't last. mamimi: i really likike the ll one. but for now i wiwill manage te foreign n one, becausese the ll onone is expensisive. so i i will managege the feign onone. reportrter: auguststine says e only way h he's stayed i in buss is by diveversifying. he h has hiswnwn feed plant.t. augustinine: it makes our r cs

come down a ttle bit, so that can sell o our numouss customers at a reasonable price. poporter: ed i is the ggestt come dococo for farmers. that europe subsidizes s it, giving s fafarmers an a advantage. and the e.e.u. h a rafaft of fe trade deals s with africa,a, t gigive both sidedes free acceso markets, but african comninies government of ghghana, c doofloe ghana, and we eat ghanana foo, ghghana oductsts, i think itit d be gooood for 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.

auguguine: this s is the wori've beenen doing sce 1992 to catatr for my f family. soso if europeanan imported chn spspls this business orcolt america. urban gardening is growing increasingly popular everywhere, especially in large cities. many people want to become more self-sufficient. and it means you know exactly what you're eating, too. our reporter katja döhne travelled to ecuador's rapidly expanding capital quito, where thousands of gardens have sprung up. they provivide deliciousus , improve aiququality, and m mae for r a better social climate s llll. rereporter: quitito is more tn 1000 k kilometers frfrom venez. yet some people who haha fled the chaos ththere have made e o

ththe ecuadorianapapital, evenn fofoot. about 50 of them live inhis cocoound at the edge of the city anand keep busy y tending te kitchen n garden. josé: when i watater the gardedi alwaways think of f my house k home in venezuela. we used to watater the garden evy y evenin it relievethe stre.. report: this garden was set up th the help of the city-backed e progogram, agruparar. so farar, the gardeneners eat t they grow. it is a step towards self-sufficiency. josé salaldarriaga and his famy fl venenezla last t autumn. josé: ththey threatenened me d sasaid we shouldld lea the c coy because we were nococooperive anand re t therere traraors.

reporter: e cacalmere ststds in srkrk conast to the commion and isis bachome. comingere,e, t saldarriagas leftft erything and evernene behihind. josesé: i left v venezuela wity wiwi, josé angel, and marie gegel, theour r of u wewe have a housuse there and dt e e opposion u use iwhile e th were preparing forhe eltions. reporter: thesrefugege here work tetheher the garden. theyelp p ea other.some a, and can ststructhe othths. josé: yoyou planant a seed he. reporter: agrupar has had an

imimessive impmpact with its participatorory approach i invog the most vululnerable grououps. awiwith this projecect, we can r ssometabilility and intntegraten our sosociety. reporter: ththis is just o onf 404000 urban-farming plots acrs quitito supported by agrup,, ranging g from a few squarare ms on a a rooftop t to large fielt the edge of town. the aim in each case is to ease access to healthy food for poor d marginalized people.e. the greenery also helps improve air quality and quality of life. alexandra: thehencrease in biodiversity in thararea redes urban heat islanands, creates w spaces and microclimates inn

whwhh people can have a better fe. reportrter: over thehe past fr decades, q quito has grown almt fivefold.. the popupulation has t tripledo more thahan 2.5 millioion. agpapar helpfurtrther od securirity, job creaeation, envivironmenl mamanagent, social llano grande used to be a itranquil village, until it was swallowed up by the city. b, anancan be used to grow food. a grgroup of women r run this n farm. theibreak thth tration..rageos monica: the eay y phasof ourur, anancan be used to grow food. a grgroup of women r run this n becae e we h to deal witthe machismo oour r huands.. ththeyaid nonowe should not do, anancan be used to grow food. it, was a waste of meme. this n

but little by ttttle wprovededs beyond being motrs.. we can do all kis of this, inududing nding g e land and wewe canontribibe economically. rerterer: rupar staff relalarly sit ananbring advice on how t to run their veventu. alexandra: b buenos dias.. reporter: there is always mo to lrn a aboutarmingng mhods and increasising the yieldlds. alalexandra: oh,h, what a lovy gardenen. rereporter: agrurupar is commid to o organic farmiming without chemical fertilizers. the womemen of llano g grande w so much prproduce now, t they e sosome to sell.. alexandrdra: by promototing gac farmining, the projeject has o helped crereate ills, , escially among women, that allolow themo makericulture.e.rough

reporter: the urban farmers can sell their crops at special organic-produce markets, bioferias.s. gladysys: when we stararted wed not even k know how to d do the bookkeepining. it was totough. but t now we know w more. weare partners in a counity. inrerter: urbagardeningall we ojects around the wod look to agrupar as s a model. the pioneering organization is continuing to expand in quito. alexandrdra: the area a devoteo urbafarmrming re in n quo is owing about three ctctaresor about 0 didiffert plotots ch year. reporter: fofor the refugegeesm venezuela, u urb farmingng migt prove the fifirst step to o aw lilife.

host: anand intohe trash witih it. worldwidide, around 1.1.3 biln tons of foodods wasted ery yeyear. 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 what gets dumped is actually perfectly edible. europeans alone throw away around 115 kilos of foodod per person, per year. that's shocking, considering 821 million n people worldldwide suffffered from chchronic undernourishnt in 2018. some of them ieueurope. reporter: once a week, stanislav sadilek opens up his garage for the needy. he distributes groceries, mostsy to pensioners and single mothers. today he has pizzas that have almost reached their sell-by date. supermarketsts are no lonr allowed to throw t these produs away. they are legally obligated to give them to charity organinizations. marta frankova is happy. she can now invite her

grandchildreren to dinner. marta: i have a very small monthly pension. like, 450 euros. and if you have to buy coal and papay for electricity, it can t 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 p om supermarkets in a d 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 chocolate are stacked in boxes 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 stilill allowed to deliver and which onones we are rerequireo throw away. and the charities have to prove that the fresh produce is papaed on q 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. jaroslav: our complaint was about the state prescribing who ththe chains have to give the fd to. some shops, for example, usesedo give the produce to zoos, but theyey're no longer allowed too so, despitite the quantities available being 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 basis. 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 anand distribute even mo. but the czech republic is by no memeans a paradidise for the n. host: and now to north africa,. but and an almost forgotteny no 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. hundreds of thousands 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 they get their homeland back. meneya: we're suffering undedr 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 meme. reporter: and then she shows us her pride and joy, her fast-food 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 women. mani, who's single, wants to help other women find jobs. she e views that as her missio. 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 it's even more difficult for young women. reporter: but mani has made it. with advertisements likeke thi, she promes her p 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 hindu will also pursue otherer projects. >> it's quite unusual for a woman toto 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 d of my war wounds, becacause i got them fightininr a fair andnd legal cause. reporter: the conflict is one of the oldest in africa, but the world has forgotten this war and its fighters. it's hard to remain optimistic ababout things in this part of e world. many people have lost hope in a 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 aa 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 mani herself has been independent for a long time. and that makes her, the owner of the pizzeria in the desert, an unusual success story. host: for more inspiring stories, check out our new facecebook page, d dw women. fofor everyone w who believesn gender eququality. wowomen still susuffer wesprpd reprprsion and d discriminatio. fofbut ththere are alsoso many 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]

when you hear the term investigative repoporting all l these ideas comeo o mind. serious, hardworking reporters. whistleblowers andnd leaked docenents. journalists exposing injustice. hidden stories, uncovered. that's what this show is all about. from thehe center for investigative reporting this is veveal.