Mat McDermott explains how and why cleaner cookstoves in the developing world aren’t delivering on their health and environmental promises:
It turns out that, at least in this circumstances examined by the study authors, the subsistence farmers of Nana Kenieba decided to put their cleaner cookstoves to use how they thought was best, and it wasn’t really the way they were intended (which was as a replacement for open fire stoves). Instead of turning their backs on open fire stoves, the women in this village—all the cooking there is done by married women with children—who had a cleaner cookstove simply used the new device as a supplement to their traditional cooking methods. It’s something the authors call “stove stacking.” They make the apt comparison to how pretty much no one who has a microwave or toaster oven uses it as a replacement for their stove top or regular oven. Even though in an absolute sense you could cook all your meals with any one of them alone, you quickly learn that some things cook best in one or the other.
The Dish 