Archive for category: Food & Hunger

Information and stories on food.

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How Social Gastronomy is Helping Reduce Global Poverty

social gastronomy “Food should not only taste good but also do good for society.” With this motto, Gastromotiva has been helping people in conditions of vulnerability and social exclusion through something as simple as food. Since its foundation in 2006 by chef David Hertz, the Brazilian organization has impacted more than 100,000 people globally through education and social gastronomy initiatives.

How Gastromotiva is Helping Those in Need

According to an April 2018 report published by the World Bank, 50 percent of the Brazilian population between ages 19 and 25 is vulnerable to poverty. In this scenario, Gastromotiva uses the power of education, food and gastronomy as a social change agent. The organization acts on three main areas: education, social gastronomy and food waste reduction.

The first project created by Gastromotiva was vocational kitchen training, culinary classes offered for young low-income people at no charge. During the four-month intensive program, students learn not only technical skills but also concepts such as eco-gastronomy, food waste cooking and personal development. After graduating, they are presented with a variety of employment options at Gastromotiva partner restaurants. This way, students become multipliers and empower others by disseminating their knowledge about social gastronomy in their own communities. So far, 4,000 people have graduated.

In addition to the culinary classes, Gastromotiva also offers food entrepreneur classes and acts on the social gastronomy movement, a human-centered solution to generate opportunity, dignity and inclusion through food. The movement involves establishing partnerships with other organizations, gastronomic businesses, chefs and companies all over the world.

“Social gastronomy goes beyond one chef, one meal, one Michelin star,” explains David Hertz in a TED Talk. “When we are all connected we can feel love and respect and with food, we can transform millions of lives.”

Current Endeavors in Social Gastronomy

Most recently, Gastromotiva launched Reffetorio Gastromotiva, a restaurant school in Rio de Janeiro created by chefs Massimo Bottura, David Hertz and the journalist Ale Forbes, to fight food waste, malnutrition and social exclusion. At Reffetorio, chefs host workshops and gastronomy classes and also prepare 450 three-course meals for homeless people every night with food that would otherwise be wasted.

“We give these people not only quality food but also a moment of peace and dignity when they feel like human beings,” said Gastromotiva’s CEO Nicola Gryczka in an interview with The Borgen Project. Gastromotiva collaborates to achieve, until 2030, various Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations, including no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequalities and partnerships for the goals.

Looking Toward the Future

Besides Brazil, Gastromotiva is currently present in three other countries: Mexico (Mexico City), South Africa (Cape Town) and El Salvador (San Salvador). This year, the management team plans to expand the project to Colombia, Argentina and Turkey, where it will implement a program focused on refugees in partnership with World Food Programme.

Gryczka says that the organization is constantly looking for partners in different countries that can help spread the message of social gastronomy and minimize different global problems.

“Because it’s something that impacts all our lives, food is the easiest way to help people find solutions for social issues, such as hunger, poverty, malnutrition and unemployment,” she points out. This is what Gastromotiva means by “food should do good for society.”

– Júlia Ledur

Photo: Flickr

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Addressing Food Security in Pakistan Through Policy Change

Last month, a new and improved version of the Pakistani National Food Security Policy was approved by the federal cabinet after years of development by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. This is welcome news, as 60 percent of the population lacks food security in Pakistan. The new policy is already in the beginning stages of implementation throughout the country, and its goals are ambitious.

The ultimate objective of the new Pakistani National Food Security Policy is to raise the agriculture growth rate to 4 percent per year. Though 4 percent may seem like a minuscule number, it will be no small feat for the Pakistani government to accomplish. The agriculture growth rate has been relatively low over the past decade, averaging about 2.5 percent since 2008. Increasing that number will require a lot of changes to be made.

One issue brought up in the Pakistani National Food Security Policy is the lack of modern technology in the agriculture sector. According to the report, Pakistani farmers do not have access to machinery such as rice transplanters, vegetable planters, fruit pickers and other useful tools that would allow them to run their farms more efficiently and turn larger profits. To mitigate this problem, the new policy will reduce taxes on imports of farm machinery and create incentives for farmers willing to adopt newer technologies.

Another obstacle farmers are having to face is the increasing effects of climate change. Factors like drought and extreme weather fluctuations can have devastating impacts on crops and livestock and leave farmers with nothing to produce. One of the ways the Pakistani National Food Security Policy will attempt to alleviate the effects of this crisis is by investing in biotechnology and the genetic alteration of seeds to better resist drought and temperature changes. The policy will also promote crop insurance schemes and educate the public on which crops are more likely to survive in certain areas.

In addition, the new policy recognizes that many of the resources in Pakistan are not being utilized to their fullest potential. The country’s biggest crop is wheat, which is grown on 40 percent of Pakistan’s land and makes up more than 2 percent of the GDP by itself. However, there has been a global decline in wheat prices over the last few years and the government is thinking twice about having its entire economy rely on the success of one crop. Consequently, the Pakistani National Food Security Policy aims to focus more on cultivating fruits, vegetables, livestock, poultry and fisheries in the future.

Lastly, the policy addresses how unaffordable it has become for Pakistanis to purchase nutritious food. In response to this problem, the government hopes to devote more energy to continuing and creating programs dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger on the local level. Along with the strategies mentioned above to increase profits for farmers, this should be a great help with increasing food security in Pakistan.

It goes without saying that the Pakistani National Food Security Policy is an incredibly bold vision for the country, and it will require a lot of effort on the part of both farmers and the government. However, the fact that Pakistan is actively taking steps to eradicate food insecurity is a sign of hope for its millions of hungry citizens, and such a high goal may be exactly what the country needs.

– Maddi Roy

Photo: Flickr

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What Is Famine?

What Is Famine
The only time many of us think of food is when we are hungry. Unfortunately, many countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda, and Yemen are not afforded that opportunity due to many catastrophes that affect the growth of crops and other food sources. Thanks to the supergroup called United Support of Artists (USA) for Africa, circa 1985, famine became a global concern. Artists such as Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and Quincy Jones contributed to the charitable, Billboard-charting single We Are the World. Fast forward to over 30 years later, the following question is still a valid one: what is famine?

What is Famine?

Famine is not just food shortage. Chris Hufstader from OXFAM America states that it’s also a widespread food scarcity where poverty leads to malnutrition and death. Food scarcity is determined under a set of criteria and ranking called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The IPC is a tracking system that monitors the availability of food in various countries for governments to foresee and become proactive to avoid a food crisis. The IPC is set up into five phases:

  • Food security: a state of having dependable access to food to maintain a balanced diet.
  • Food insecurity: when five to 10 percent of a population has limited access to food.
  • Acute food and livelihood crisis: a plight where there is 10 to 15 percent of a community that experiences a severe absence of food and the only way to reach nourishment is by selling necessary items.
  • Humanitarian emergency: when 15 to 30 percent of a population is at an extreme absence of food and countless people meet there demise because of it.
  • Famine: when 30 percent of a population experiences an absolute lack of food.

Origins of Famine

To know what is famine is to see the origin. Just like many things in life like war, slavery, and any form of injustice there is a cause and effect. According to Joel Mokyr of the Britannica, famine originated in the 19th century in Ireland. The cause of hunger stemmed from a consecutive year of potato crop failure due to an infestation that targets the leaves and roots of these plants. It was later called the Great Famine. The Great Famine was so severe it was given three alternate names: Irish Potato Famine, Great Irish Famine, or Famine of 1845-1849.

Although crop failure is one of many reasons to why famines occur, there are several reasons why scarcity exists. For instance, Joe Hasell and Max Roser from Our World in Data states that the lack of serviceable food markets to support and ensure reliable transportation of goods to aid malnourished countries is an issue. Without efficient shipping from the marketplace, support cannot be released. Also, inflation on prices in food markets leads to marginalizing poverty-stricken countries to afford the food sold. According to Hasell and Roser’s source from the Markets and Famines novel, Martin Ravallion, increase in prices stems from floods that transpired throughout the famine which developed a supply and demand. Panic buying and price speculation, however, contributed to the actual cause of food shortage.

Solutions Exist

Understanding famine, the history, and the causes of this travesty leads to many solutions that can ensure that no one goes unfed. WeFarm CEO and Founder, Kenny Ewan, presents one such solution in providing farmers worldwide with the necessary communication for success. Programs like this begin to counteract every potential food scare and prohibit further damage to populations.

– Christopher Shipman

Photo: Flickr

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The Impacts of the Food For Peace Modernization Act

Food For Peace Modernization Act
On March 14, the Food For Peace Modernization Act (H.R. 5276) was introduced on the House floor. Though this bill has not received much attention from the media, it is an important piece of legislation that could have a drastic impact on global food insecurity if passed.

The Food For Peace Modernization Act

The Food For Peace Modernization Act is a bipartisan bill introduced by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) in an effort to reform the Food For Peace program, which was originally signed into law by President Eisenhower in 1954. The goal of the program is to deliver healthy food to people all over the world who suffer from malnutrition.

Since its creation, the Food For Peace program has provided aid to over 3 billion people and is widely considered a success; however, lawmakers now address that the effort hasn’t yet reached its full potential.

As it currently stands, the law requires that all food used for foreign assistance purposes has to be produced in the U.S. While this may sound like a good way to promote American farming, it is an extreme burden for the Food For Peace program. Due to the costs incurred by transporting all of the food overseas, only 30 percent of the program’s funds are spent on actual food.

The Food For Peace Modernization act seeks to change this aspect of the law. Instead of requiring 100 percent of food products to be made in the U.S., the revised version of the bill drops this number to just 25 percent. This would mean that the majority of food can be derived from within the countries the program is trying to assist.

The Monetization System

Another part of the law the Food For Peace Modernization Act hopes to alter is the “monetization” system. Currently, NGOs are required to take food which was donated to them by the U.S., sell it in overseas markets, and use the profits to fund their food insecurity programs. However, this process often negatively affects the communities in which the food is sold because it forces local farmers to drive down their prices in order to compete. The new version of the bill (S. 2551) would eliminate this requirement.

Not only will these revisions allow more money to be spent on actually feeding the hungry, it may also boost the economies of the local food markets in impoverished countries and ultimately decrease their dependence on U.S. assistance — all at no extra cost to the American taxpayers.

Overall the hope is that, if passed, the bill will redirect the focus of the Food For Peace program to be on the people who need assistance, rather than the business ventures of U.S. corporations.

Representative Ed Royce (R-CA-39) captured this sentiment in a statement to the House Foreign Affairs Committee stating, “Just as aid can’t be an entitlement for those overseas, it shouldn’t be an entitlement here at home. This includes food aid, which for too long has been treated as an entitlement for a handful of shipping companies rather than as a humanitarian program meant to save lives.”

– Maddi Roy

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Famine in North Korea

Facts about famine in North Korea
North Korea is one of the most mysterious and reclusive countries in the world. It is well known for its repressive government and the abhorrent living conditions its citizens endure. Nowhere is this suffering more apparent than in the facts about famine in North Korea, which has further repressed the country’s citizens and fueled Kim Jong Un’s pursuit of a dangerous nuclear program. These 10 facts about famine in North Korea show just how brutal life in the country really is.

10 Facts About Famine in North Korea

  1. Numbers Are Scarce
    Although the Food Security and Information Network (FSIN) acknowledged a major famine in North Korea in its 2017 report, the group also noted that statistics showing the scale of the famine are hard to find due to the repressive nature of the Kim regime as well as its efforts to convey the illusion of prosperity.
  2. The Problem Requires External Assistance
    FSIN also noted that North Korea needs foreign assistance to recover from the famine. Given the country’s poor economy, it will be difficult if not impossible for the country to recover on its own.
  3. But External Assistance Is Unlikely
    However, due to rising tensions between the United States, the United Nations and North Korea over the development of nuclear weapons, tighter economic sanctions have been placed on the country, further weakening its economy and deepening the current famine. If any country were to grant economic support to North Korea, it would face an immense backlash from both the U.S. and the U.N.
  4. The Famine Is Significant
    According to a 2017 report by the United Nations, which made estimates based on satellite images and economic data, roughly two out of five citizens are malnourished. It has identified more than 13 million North Koreans in need of economic assistance who are likely struggling to survive in the current conditions.
  5. The Kim Regime Is Focused on Military Development Instead
    Due to fears of a regime change by the United States military, Kim Jong Un has largely focused the scarce resources of North Korea on the development of conventional and nuclear weaponry. This furthers the problem, as the regime has largely ignored the plight of its own people.
  6. Economic Reforms Have Largely Failed
    According to an op-ed by Roberta Cohen for Brookings, economic reforms put in place by the late Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il and current leader Kim Jong Un have failed to revitalize the North Korean economy, including its faltering agricultural industry, leading to a continuation of the famine. This has led Kim Jong Un to dedicate even more resources to military development and repression of citizens to avoid a revolt should the population grow more dissatisfied with his leadership.
  7. Weather and Geography Are Also to Blame
    The weather and geography of North Korea contribute to the famine. North Korea is sandwiched between several other countries, and has a climate that is generally not conducive to agriculture. This could be addressed by importing goods, but due to current global conflicts, there are strict sanctions on the nation.
  8. The Famine Is Behind the Repression of North Korean Citizens
    Many have wondered why the Kim regime is so focused on the creation of a totalitarian state unforgiving of criticism and driven to propaganda. Yet, should the regime abandon this set of ideals, the public would quickly turn on the government for malnourishing them and not promoting change. It is easier for Kim to tighten his political grip and shift blame to the United States than acknowledge his failure to supply his own citizens with basic needs.
  9. Sanctions Have Contributed to the Famine
    Though the United States government places most of the blame for North Korea’s poor living conditions on the Kim regime, according to the New York Times, the strict sanctions it has imposed in recent years have further contributed to the nation’s economic downfall. Though an argument could be made that sanctions are necessary to stop the development of nuclear weapons, it would be wrong to deny their role in the famine crisis.
  10. The Current Famine Could Get Worse
    The citizens of North Korea are often regarded as a brainwashed mass, but they possess the same basic needs as any people. Their suffering has been accelerated by the famine, and should the United States and North Korea become involved in a second war, the situation could devolve into a severe humanitarian crisis. Even disregarding the loss of life from direct military conflict, the chaos caused by war would further disrupt agriculture, cripple the already poor North Korean economy and lead to a refugee crisis that could claim hundreds of thousands of lives.

These 10 facts about famine in North Korea show the brutal underbelly of life in North Korea and a major humanitarian crisis in the making, a reality that is often overlooked in our haste to parody a struggling and repressed nation.

– Shane Summers

Photo: Flickr

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One in Three People Are Going Hungry in the Dominican Republic

One in Three Going Hungry in the Dominican Republic
Close to one-third of the population in the Dominican Republic lives below the poverty line. With a thriving population of 10.65 million people, this means about 3.25 million are hungry in the Dominican Republic.

Nearly thirty years ago, the Dominican Republic was the fastest growing Latino economy in the world. And in the eyes of most tourists today, it still is. However, in 2003 the country succumbed to an economic crisis.

According to a report by the New York Times, Banco Intercontinental (Baninter Bank), Dominican Republic’s second-largest bank, collapsed due to greed and corruption, leaving the value of the peso almost null and void and the country’s economy in economic shock—2.2 billion dollars-worth of shock. In short, the government crumbled, prices skyrocketed and the countries dollar was almost worthless.

Years later, there has still been no recovery for the average worker. The bailout for the fallout went to the country’s wealthiest people, while the regular working class—thousands of citizens—were left jobless and hungry in the Dominican Republic. The country has failed to uplift fleeting growth sectors like mining, agriculture and education, which brings income to Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian immigrants.

To make matters worse, in 2013 the highest court in the Dominican Republic ruled to exclude citizenship to children of migrant Haitians who were born after 1929. This ruling forced thousands, including children, from the country and left others trapped in poverty in the Dominican Republic while they hope to one day become documented citizens again. Since that ruling, almost 300,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent have applied for citizenship. Few have become citizens.

According to a 2017 economic report on the Dominican Republic, the economy is rising and job sectors are slowing increasing because of tourism. But it still does not address a resolution to solving severe hunger in the country.

The biggest hurdle to helping the hungry in the Dominican Republic is overcoming the inequality of wealth distribution. The World Food Programme reported that while the Dominican Republic (DR) is one of the highest ranked upper-middle-income countries in the world, 40 percent of its people still live in poverty. By fairly distributing wealth to the urban areas of the DR, areas occupied by Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian migrants, the country could see a return from poverty.

The DR’s failing education system is another cause of poverty in the country. The country’s educations system does not rank well among those in other countries, mainly due to the absence of financial investment in its schools. Poverty affects the ability to learn. Adding a failing education system sets an additional snare, making it twice as difficult for poor people to escape poverty. Urban areas, in particular, have to endure substandard education.

All of this can change for the Dominican Republic. If the government continues to press for the quashing of economic inequality in the country and makes continual efforts to invest in education, this beautiful country can become more than just a tourist site.

– Naomi C. Kellogg

Photo: Flickr

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Fighting Poverty by Improving Cooking in Africa

Fight Poverty By Improving Cooking in Africa
One of the goals in the 2015 Millennium Development Goals was to eradicate hunger and poverty. New technologies and programs are currently being developed to achieve this global challenge. One important focus of such innovations is to fight poverty by improving cooking.

A shortage of fuel and the use of biomass and kerosene for cooking both cause many health issues in Africa, such as physical ailments from collecting firewood, burns and respiratory problems due to the inhalation of deadly smoke fumes. In order to feed their families, African women in poor communities face life-threatening attacks and rape.

Furthermore, in some places where local firewood sources have been completely used up, women have to resort to digging up tree roots or travel increasingly further away from their homes in order to find firewood. The practice of cooking with wood fuel contributes to poverty in Africa by taking up time and resources families could be using to buy food and generate income. Fortunately, new technologies in Africa are making the process of cooking cleaner and more efficient.

One example is the fuel-efficient woodstove created by the global innovating charity, Practical Action. The woodstoves are easy to use, affordable and require less wood fuel. Their high sides allow for improved heat transfer. Best of all, they can be made with clay and bricks that are readily available in local communities. Practical Action has also trained more than 150 women to use its new stoves as well as to practice fuel saving methods, like using dry wood, pre-soaking beans prior to cooking, using a weighted lid and regulating the air supply to the fire.

Another initiative that is helping to fight poverty by improving cooking is the SCORE (Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity) project. Also supported by Practical Action, the stove was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and created under the collaboration of the University of Nottingham, City University, the University of Manchester and Queen Mary and the University of London.

SCORE is a smokeless cooking stove with a generator powered by burning different kinds of biomass like wood and animal dung. It converts the generated heat to acoustical energy and then to electricity, allowing for even the waste heat to be utilized when cooking. The SCORE project aims to halve the household fuel consumption and to use local, low-cost materials as much as possible.

Other innovative efforts to fight poverty by improving cooking include introducing new construction materials, improving designs for basic cooking stoves and intermediate rocket stoves as well as enabling for more customization in design. Such efforts are led by multistakeholder initiatives such as EnDev and ProBEC, national cookstove programs as well as NGOs like GERES in Africa and Southeast Asia and HELPS in Central America.

However, reducing the combustion of solid cooking fuels, in general, is important to the health of the poor. Burning fuels like charcoal, wood and coal produce significant emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) that have potential carcinogenic and other harmful effects. According to a recent World Health Organization study, HAP emissions contributed to 4.3 million premature deaths in 2012 and more than 110 million years lost due to ill-health disability or early death in 2010.

Forced draft and natural draft gasifier stoves are a promising technological solution. Their side-loaded design significantly decreases emissions without requiring the user to prepare or refill the fuel. While advanced biomass stoves are still at a very early stage for commercialization and field testing, they have the greatest potential to improve cooking health conditions.

BioLite’s patented Direct Conduction Thermoelectric System, the HomeStove, is a great example of this. Not only does it autonomously power an internal fan, but it also generates extra electricity to charge LED lights and mobile phones.

As for the renewable fuel sector, cookstoves are still in embryonic stages. They also typically remain expensive. One promising biogas digester model is that of SimGas Tanzania. It is small and custom designed for East African farmers to use by feeding in manure as its power source.

These improved cookstoves, from the cheaper ones produced by artisan collectives like GEREs and EnDev to the high-tech ones manufactured on the global mass scale, face several common challenges. The growing cost of materials and labor make it difficult for such producers to make cookstoves that the poor would be able to afford as well as to transport cookstoves where the poor would have access to them. This makes quality control and, in turn, safety additional issues. Lastly, they also lack access to capital markets.

While many improvements have been made to fight poverty by improving cooking in Africa, much still needs to be done in making improved cookstoves available to the poor.

– Connie Loo

Photo: Flickr

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Success Stories from the Young African Leaders Initiative

Young African Leaders Initiative

President Obama launched the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) in 2010 in an effort to invest in the next generation of African change-makers. Through regional training centers, student exchange programs and follow-up resources, YALI empowers young African leaders to “spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Despite its short tenure, YALI is already establishing itself as a force for good. Here are three success stories from the Young African Leaders Initiative: 

Food For All Africa

Elijah Amoo Addo, a former chef at a restaurant in Accra, Ghana, used the leadership and business skills he learned from YALI to help launch Food For All Africa (FFAA), the first community food bank in Ghana. In 2011, Elijah noticed a homeless man rummaging through a dumpster for leftovers to feed his friends on the street. Moved by the encounter, Elijah began eliminating waste at his restaurant, saving the surplus food to feed the needier members of his community.

Three years later, Elijah applied to YALI’s s West Africa Regional Leadership Center to amplify his vision of feeding the hungry. Today, FFAA saves and redistributes up to $5,700 worth of food each month. Elijah, who hopes to expand services to other African regions within the next five years, is one of the true success stories from the Young African Leaders Initiative. 

Lead Oak Foundation

While working at the primary health center of Benin City, Nigeria, primary care doctor Ajimegor Ikuenobe was disturbed by the scale of the malnutrition problem among the children in the community. After researching solutions to the crisis, Dr. Ikuenobe discovered a formula of maize, soya bean and groundnut that was high in the essential nutrients developing children need. Dr. Ikuenobe started Lead Oak Foundation to distribute the formula to vulnerable communities and to provide clothing, health consultations and cooking demonstrations to mothers and caregivers.

In 2017, Dr. Ikuenobe was selected for the Mandela Washington Fellowship, YALI’s flagship program. The fellowship empowers leaders through academic coursework, leadership training and networking opportunities. The Fellows are selected between the ages of 25 and 35, and “have established records of accomplishment in promoting innovation and positive impact in their organizations, institutions, communities and countries.”

YALI Network

In addition to the Mandela Washington Fellowship and the regional training centers, another success story from the Young African Leaders Initiative comes in the form of the YALI Network, an online platform where members can connect with other leaders in their community and learn from experts in their field. The YALI Network also offers a range of training, blogs and other toolkits to help amplify impacts.

Whether its members are hoping to solve specific problems like Elijah and Ikuenobe, promote human rights, start a small business or simply improve their public speaking skills, YALI is empowering the next generation of African change-makers.

– Whiting Tennis

Photo: Flickr

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Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2018 Introduced to House

Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2018 Introduced to House Committee on Foreign Affairs
On February 27th 2018, Representative Chris Smith introduced a bill to reauthorize the Global Food Security Act for four years from 2018 through 2021.

The Original Law

The original Global Food Security Act, also introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, became a law in 2016. The law only lasted a year, and has since encountered difficulty being reintroduced.

The law sought to outline a clear approach for the United States’ foreign assistance, so that its role was not just to increase food security in developing countries (as the name of the bill suggests), but to also provide economic growth through sustainable agricultural means, increase nutrition and resilience, help women and children particularly to receive that nutrition and fight against hunger and poverty in general.

The bill became law in 2016 under then-President Obama, who said of the law at the White House Summit on Global Development: “No society can flourish, children can’t flourish if they’re going hungry. We can’t ask a child to feed her mind when she can barely feed her stomach.”

Senator Robert P. Casey Jr. attempted to reintroduce the law in 2017. The law was read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in December of that year, but never made it to a vote.

New Changes

Rep. Chris Smith’s Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2018 would add several amendments to the old law. The first change would be to one of the goals in the Statement of Policy Objectives. The new objective focuses on providing adequate nutrition to women and children, and increasing maternal and child health.

Aside from the goal of improving nutrition and encouraging more diverse diets, the 2018 version of the act would add a new emphasis on deworming programs. The second amendment includes The Inter-American Foundation in the list of relevant federal departments and agencies for the Global Food Security Reauthorization Act.

The last three changes update the language of the bill so that the act will extend from September of 2018 through 2021.

Foreign Assistance Act of 1961

Another addition to the Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2018 is that it amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to reflect the extension of the years to 2021.

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 is a law that was originally signed by President John F. Kennedy in November of that same year. Its goal was to promote the United States’ general welfare, security and foreign policy through helping developing countries achieve security and a stable economy.

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2018 are both important not just for the benefit of developing countries, but also for achieving the best national security interest for the U.S. The original 2016 act states that helping developing countries by encouraging economic growth based on agriculture is an important step to end global poverty and hunger.

So far, the Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2018 has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. To help get this bill signed into law, you can use the Borgen Project’s website to contact your representative and encourage them to support it.

– Jennifer Jones

Photo: Flickr

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The Hope and Dismay of Starving Syrians

Starving Syrians “Starvation is a different level of abhorrence because it is a slow, gruesome death”. -Dr. Leah Carmichael

The Syrian Civil War seems more and more hopeless as Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and his regime gain more power over insurgents and civilians by intentionally starving them and using biological and chemical warfare. With Russian support, Assad has been able to avoid punishment for his war crimes and consequently gain more power.

The Syrian refugee crisis is probably the most notorious aspect of this ongoing war. As per UNHCR, there are 13.1 million people in need of humanitarian aid in Syria. More than five million Syrians have fled the country; however, there are still more than six million that have left their homes and are homeless within their country.

Further, the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reports that there are 6.5 million starving Syrians.

Despite Syria’s seemingly grim future, non-governmental agencies like Mercy Corps have stepped up to help in addition to governmental programs. Mercy Corps helps feed hundreds of thousands of people each month by donating flour to local bakeries and ensuring that people in need are able to get bread from the bakeries.

Nonetheless, Mercy Corps has faced some setbacks, as the Assad regime does not want it to assist starving Syrians. Dr. Leah Carmichael stated that “one of the main roles of the government is to ensure a food supply”.

Dr. Carmichael is a respected professor at the University of Georgia and a food insecurity expert. She has been researching the puzzle of Assad’s starvation war tool to determine why governments starve their people to gain power and later want their people’s support. She is also interested in the role of Mercy Corps in replenishing food for the Syrian people. The Borgen Project had the privilege of interviewing her on March 2, 2018, to gain more insight into the current situation and Mercy Corps.

“Food is really one of those things where if you’re hungry and you weren’t before, it catalyzes that kind of protest [referencing the Arab Spring, the start of the Syrian Civil War],” Carmichael stated in the interview. “Understanding that food is a major provision of welfare for a government and then understanding that the tactic of taking food away and making people hungry is either unintentionally or intentionally a way which governments lose their authority to rule”.

As for Mercy Corps shaping the outcome of the Syrian civil war, Carmichael says it is unintentional yet powerful in helping starving Syrians because “as much as you are keeping civilians alive, you are shaping the future legacy of this war as not just being one where the international community turned a blind eye as mass genocide occurred…as in this case, Mercy Corps is shaping the human side of it.”

However, Carmichael mentioned that Mercy Corps’ role is still a “drop in the bucket” in comparison to what a government could do. She said that everyday people can help this situation by determining “what active role if any should the U.S. play abroad”.

She also mentioned that a growing norm is starting to emerge in the international community called the responsibility to protect, “the idea is that pure sovereignty matters for states, but in the cases where you see sovereignty being used to promote genocide, the international community has a responsibility to step in to protect those people against their government”.

Thus, public pressure to take action could lead the U.S. to possibly intervene. However, public support is withering in terms of U.S. global intervention. As Carmichael stated in a 2017 TEDx Talk, “the abject horror of war is our indifference to it”. Doing good and helping people in need is very much “something that we as Americans like on paper.”

Suzy Hansen from the Washington Post shares a similar view in that Americans under President Trump are beginning to dislike more intervention as an “America First” ideal grows. Further, Americans are learning more about the “darker” parts of American history that have resulted from U.S. intervention, such as U.S.-backed coups. This suggests that many Americans are re-thinking the global role of the U.S., as intervention has the potential to cause more harm than good and can negatively impact relations and foreign policy.

To help starving Syrians, it seems that the international system needs to intervene, as Russian-led peace talks may only prolong suffering. However, “what to do” will prove to be a difficult and methodological decision to make.

– Mary McCarthy

Photo: Flickr