At first I thought there was some sort of continuing problem in Yemen where many men had extremely large growths sticking out from their cheek. So abnormally large they are, if it were on both checks it would it would look cartoonishly exaggerated, like a squirrel.

I knew what qat was well before coming to Yemen, I’d seen it in East Africa, but never realized its cultural equivalency of say, coffee in America or the omnipresent chai in Kenya or smoking in Paris. This bulging cheek I’m seeing everywhere is hours upon hours of build up of chewed up qat leaves. By the end of the day, the narcotic effects of these leaves have taken their toll on both their wallets and minds.

I spent over 5 hours today driving to a mountainous tribal controlled region outside of Sana’a and a large qat producing area. It should have only taken an hour and a half but because the region I was going into has been a relative hot spot lately. Westerners have been kidnapped in this area and used as leverage between rival tribes and just last week a rabbi was killed in the middle of the day in a market – even for Yemeni cultural standards, markets are off limits for any conflict.

After the twelfth military checkpoint and too many cups of tea to count I arrived in what could have been Afghanistan for all I knew; women in full burqa’s and instead of opium trade markets there were qat markets everywhere.

In my search to better understand the global food crisis, I came to this area to meet a small community that will be a recipient of the emergency food aid due to arrive next week and to better understand what high prices of food means to an individual and to Yemen.

Like most of the countries affected by the current global food shortages, Yemen’s increasing dependence on external food supplies has also been exacerbated by climate change and population growth. But Yemen is unique as it continues the cultivation of the cash crop qat and supplanting necessary food crops. Even as the price of food continues to rise, there is local resistance from a society that views the controversial narcotic as a traditional necessity.

Like most Yemeni householders suffering from soaring food prices, Hayeem Ya’esh, a 66-year-old Yemeni, is cutting back on other expenses to ensure his family has their minimum requirements.

What he isn’t telling me as we sit there after he receives his food ration card and a bag of qat in his lap is what he spends per month on this traditional habit that can cost of upwards of $50 a bag.  

Hayeem Ya’esh talking about the rising cost of food.

Community workers distribute food ration cards for next weeks emergency food operation.

Sitting with these young women who have been traveling all over the region implementing surveys on the food insecure communities.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 8:52 am and is filed under Observations, Photojournalism, The Middle East, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.