Archive for category: Food & Hunger

Information and stories on food.

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Olam International Pledges to Help End Global Poverty

Poverty_Agriculture Olam International
Agri-business firm Olam International has pledged to help eradicate global poverty and mitigate climate change impacts that threaten food security.

Olam International is a world-leading firm operating in 70 countries, supplying food and raw materials to over 16,200 customers worldwide. Its business model is based on ensuring that profitable growth is achieved in an ethical, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable way.

The agri-business knows its responsibility to the earth, as changing weather patterns are affecting crops and communities. The organization realizes that climate change will threaten food security by creating less than ideal conditions for optimal food production, thus threatening the world’s chances to end global poverty.

According to Olam, “Ensuring we and our 4 million farmer suppliers, the vast majority of whom are smallholders in emerging markets, are implementing mitigation and adaptation measures to achieve the 2°C goal is therefore integral to our strategy.” In addition, the company has adopted four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations.

“Based on our configuration of assets and our capabilities across the 70 countries that we operate in, we have chosen four of the SDG Goals where we believe we can create a real impact,” said Sunny Verghese, the chief executive of Olam, at the U.N.’s High Level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Olam is prioritizing mitigating climate change through multiple goals: reducing GHG emissions from their farming and processing operations, adapting their own farming operations to build in climate resilience, encouraging farmer suppliers and logistics providers to improve their GHG emissions intensity and collaborating at a sector level to speed up implementation of climate-smart practices.

Olam will accomplish these goals through public, private and plural society partnership. Verghese said at the debate that a U.N.-to-private-sector partnership is key to successfully implementing the SDGs.

Verghese went on to say, “If after all of this hard work and overwhelming effort, if we are not going to be leaving a better place for our children, what is the point of it all?”

– Kerri Whelan

Photo: Flickr

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Improved Seeds Alleviate the Weight of Poverty in Niger

Agriculture
Climate change has the potential to seriously impact both livelihoods and poverty in Niger. Adaptation measures are desperately needed in order to enable communities to cope with the climate change and variability.

The National Action Programme for Adaptation (NAPA), funded by Canada and the United Nations Development Project, supports local producers in Niger to assist them in the pilot usage of improved seeds.

Niger, where two-thirds of the land is covered by desert, is experiencing severe droughts and recurrent food crisis. The new project aims to strengthen resilience to climate change in agriculture and water sectors and thus reduce poverty in Niger.

Here are 5 things about the recently implemented project that you need to know:

  1. New and improved seeds: Through a partnership with the National Institute of Agriculture Research (INRAN), the improved seeds are developed using the grains most commonly consumed in Niger (millet, cowpea and sorghum). They are adapted to withstand drought and allow for multiple harvests per season.
  2. Numbers are increasing: In 2015, 25,000 farmers, including 7,500 women, who used the new and improved seeds harvested yields two to three times greater than the farmers who used traditional seeds. Typically, men will leave their villages to seek work in the city and rural women tend to be the ones most affected by climate change. With these improved harvests, many farmers will no longer need to leave the village in search of more work. Furthermore, this project has also developed women’s empowerment initiatives, such as market gardening, sewing or sheep fattening.
  3. Female empowerment: The project has strengthened the capacity of women with regards to administrative management roles and community living, enabling women to participate in entrepreneurship. In each of the target communities, the project donates two sheep to local women. Once the women have built up their herds, they can sell the sheep, and use profits to carry out other income-generating activities.  Empowering women will help further reduce poverty in Niger.
  4. Everyone wants to be involved: During the first phase of the project, between 2010 and 2013, NAPA anticipated that only 50 farmers would use the new seeds. However, 10,000 farmers were eventually involved in the pilot project.
  5. Cheaper by the dozen: Each kilogram of seeds from the harvests is bought back by the project for a sum of 500 CFA Francs (Niger’s currency). This is half the purchase price of a traditional seed.

“Initially we were seen as guinea pigs,” Abdou Diori, a farmer from the village of Soudouré, said in an interview with UNDP. “Nobody wanted to have anything to do with products with which they were personally unfamiliar… but the benefits are far greater than those associated with traditional seeds, especially in a country such as Niger where rainfall is very unevenly distributed.”

The scientifically improved seeds are a simple solution to lifting the poverty that weighs heavy on Niger’s farming communities.

– Michelle Simon

Photo: Flickr

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Perspective-Changing Films About Poverty

Poverty
When you have enough money and food to be comfortable, it can be easy to be unaware of just how many people in the world are lacking in these basics. Sometimes an inspiring film can really drive this point home, with moving stories and imagery that make it shockingly clear that millions of people in the world struggle with poverty every day. These are a few of the documentaries and films about poverty that give an idea of what poverty is like, or attempt to explain the nature of poverty.

We Feed the World: This film examines the contrast between the overproduction and waste of food among the affluent and the scarcity among those who are hungry. Food production is also explored. The story is told via an interview with U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Zigler.

Slumdog Millionaire: One of the most popular films about poverty, Slumdog Millionaire is about how an orphan growing up in poverty in Mumbai comes to be a contestant on India’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” The question is, how did an uneducated orphan come to have the answers to some many of the game’s trivia questions? Moving visual imagery and dramatic storytelling bring both the reality of poverty and the hope amidst it to life.

A Place at the Table: This film, featuring actor-director Jeff Bridges, examines hunger in the U.S. The staggering statistic of 50 million Americans living in household lacking food security is given and this in the “richest country in the world,” reported Bills Moyers & Company. A Place at the Table tells us not only how many Americans are going hungry, but what tax dollars are being spent on instead. It also follows the lives of Americans living with food insecurity. Often they are people who are working full-time. Despite adding many food banks in the U.S., the problem persists.

The End of Poverty: This is another film that asks why there is so much poverty existing alongside so much wealth in the world. Directed by Philippe Diaz and narrated by Martin Sheen, the film takes the view that our current economic system is not only responsible for this situation, but perpetuates it and keeps it from truly changing. A look is taken at policies that keep rich countries rich, and poor countries poor.

Poverty, Inc.: This documentary takes a hard look at how the system of giving aid is and is not working. Although the film acknowledges the good in giving, it raises the question of what happens once money or aid is given. Are there unforeseen consequences? Sometimes aid can create dependence in a community in need. It’s important to examine the most efficient strategies for helping communities to rise above poverty and learn the tools to keep themselves out of it.

These thought-provoking documentaries and films about poverty bring new perspective to how we think about giving aid to those in poverty.

– Katherine Hamblen

Photo: Flickr

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US Donation of Surplus Peanuts to Haiti Causes Controversy

Surplus_PeanutsThe U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to ship 500 metric tons of surplus peanuts to Haiti to feed nearly 140,000 malnourished children before the fall school semester begins.

Its March 31st announcement has met criticism from Haitian peanut farmers, manufacturers, concerned citizens, and a variety of both Haitian and foreign NGOs.

Many have called the action “crop” or “peanut dumping” that will negatively impact the Haitian economy and its people, pointing to the example of the impact of subsidized rice on the Haitian market years ago. Others point to the need to feed thousands of malnourished children.

As the USDA describes, the action is a part of the “Stocks for food” federal program that sends surplus goods to feeding programs and food banks both in the United States and abroad. The specific Haitian project that targets primary schools struggling against poverty, malnutrition and disease receives its funding from the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program.

However, many believe that sending cheap stock like peanuts to Haiti could negatively impact the country’s ability to sustain its own food production and undermine the local economy.

Partners in Health released a statement urging the USDA to reverse its decision. A letter to the USDA from the Institute of Justice and Democracy in Haiti points out that peanuts are fundamental to the country’s economy as 150,000 local farmers produce 70,000 metric tons, much like rice was a staple of Haitian market in the mid-1990s.

Floods of foreign, mostly U.S.-produced rice drove the price of Haitian rice down, and many farmers were left without income and forced to leave to find work elsewhere.

The Haitian economy and food security depend strongly on peanuts, especially in their role in the production of a spicy peanut butter called Mamba, which provides income for a large number of Haitian women.

Bill Clinton has been repeatedly quoted acknowledging the export of rice to Haiti as a mistake and the “lost capacity” it caused. While it benefitted U.S. farmers, he said, it hurt Haitian ones.

Alexis Taylor, deputy undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services at the USDA, has defended the shipment of surplus peanuts as a source of much-needed relief for a poverty-stricken country in which one-third of all children’s deaths are caused by malnutrition.

The peanuts will be a supplement to Haitian school children’s morning snack as part of the U.N. World Food Program.

In contrast to the USDA’s action, the U.S. has funded other programs such as the World Food Programme that support locally sourced food production and procurement in Haiti.

These efforts to encourage Haiti’s self-sustainability and independence from foreign aid could be compromised by the USDA’s pending peanut program. Critics say it would be better to continue efforts to help Haitian peanut farmers produce better, bigger crops as programs like the Feed the Future Initiative, the Clinton Foundation, and Partners in Health aim to do.

However, the White House petition against the donation failed to receive enough signatures and closed.

USDA press secretary responded to NPR’s article stating that the USDA worked with the WFP to ensure the donation of surplus peanuts would have no negative impact on Haiti’s domestic peanut market by limiting the peanuts’ consumption to only be at school and closely monitoring the impact.

– Esmie Tseng

Photo: U.N. Multimedia

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Greater Access to Education for Girls in African Countries

girls in african countries

The U.N. Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal education has played a vital role in advancing education for boys and girls in African countries, however, obstacles still remain.

In addition to increasing access to education, the U.N. Millennium Development Goals also included overcoming extreme poverty, promoting gender equality and women’s rights, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, combating HIV and malaria, creating a sustainable environment and advocating for global partnership. These goals are not isolated in nature, but rather each builds upon the next.

“Children who don’t have access to clean water and who aren’t taught proper hygiene practices like hand-washing with soap are more likely to be ill and absent from school,” according to Canadian Feed the Children (CFTC). “Combined with lack of proper nutrition – and often, the schools are the one place they have a guaranteed daily meal – children’s susceptibility to preventable, waterborne disease increases dramatically. Disease also spreads much more rapidly in schools without proper hygiene and sanitation.”

Canadian Feed the Children is a registered Canadian charity that works with local partners to establish food security and education in developing countries. The organization believes that “education is the best investment in prosperous, healthy and equitable societies.”

With more children having access to an education, more resources are needed; such as books, maps, research and reference materials, blackboards and writing materials. Infrastructure becomes a challenge when the number of students outgrows the number of available classrooms.

Additionally, kitchens and latrines are essential components for health and hygiene and each must be outfitted with their own supplies and equipment. A productive learning environment requires the availability of meals and safe, clean facilities.

When schools are overpopulated, understaffed and lacking necessary supplies, it is difficult to recruit teachers. Many times underqualified and unpaid volunteers step in to teach in impoverished communities, which can do more harm than good.

Crop failure, parents’ illness and rising prices are some of the barriers families living below the poverty line are facing when they sacrifice the education for one or more of their children in order to feed the family. Most often, it is the girls who are chosen to miss out.

Schools lacking a latrine present another obstacle for girls, for whom modesty and safety are important.

“For many girls, the need to leave the classroom several times a day makes going to school anxious and unpleasant. For older girls, menstruation in an environment where there is no toilet and no water causes embarrassment and further complicates matters. And where toilet facilities are not available or located far away, there is a much higher risk of violence for girls. The risks and hassle just aren’t worth it – and they drop out. There are so many barriers to girls’ education, toilets shouldn’t be one of them,” said Amboka Wameyo, CFTC’s Regional Program Manager – Africa.

Girls in African countries like Ghana, Ethiopia and Uganda endure early or forced marriage, the burden of chores, pressure to care for siblings and long-distance walks to school leaving them vulnerable to rape or violence. The dropout rate for girls around age 12 increases dramatically, sometimes reaching 100 percent.

According to Canadian Feed the Children, every year a girl attends school translates into a 15 percent increase in their income as they become less vulnerable to the threat of domestic violence and poverty.

Girls in African countries must be given the opportunity to improve their lives and subsequently contribute to the alleviation of the poverty cycle in their communities.

– Emily Ednoff

Photo: Flickr

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The Difference Between Drought and Famine

https://borgenproject.org/the-difference-between-drought-and-famine/
The difference between drought and famine has the potential to be very confusing. Both result in an insufficient supply of food and water along with the wide and rapid spread of disease. Potentially both disasters could lead to the economic and social collapse of the community. However, the truth about both disasters is quite simple.

In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, drought is defined as a period of dryness, especially when prolonged. Likewise, famine is defined as an extreme scarcity of food. While famine can sometimes be the outcome of a drought, it is considered to be more of a manmade disaster, therefore more preventable, and results from the lack of availability of food and water. A drought is solely the result of finicky Mother Nature and almost entirely unpreventable. In both cases, if aid is not immediately offered to the affected people, starvation, rampant disease, economic and social collapse and death will take its toll.

Here are eight quick facts that define these disasters in order to keep them straight.

 

Drought

  • The most common form of drought is a lack of water vapor in the atmosphere, which causes precipitation. A lack of moisture in the air causes wildfires that can damage communities and food supplies, ruin forests, or harm people and animals.
  • Of all the water on earth, only .003 percent is available fresh water that is not polluted, trapped in soil, or too far underground. During a drought, shared sources of water such as rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater for wells are in jeopardy of running dry.
  • Since the 1970s, the percentage of Earth’s surface affected by drought has doubled. Global warming is largely blamed.
  • Meteorologists predict drought based on precipitation patterns, stream flow, and moisture of soil over long periods of time.

 

Famine

  • Famines rarely happen because of a single event and often are the result of many years of struggling to grow food in a harsh environment.
  • Famine doesn’t usually cause the deaths of whole communities. Instead, it’s often old people and the youth who suffer from disease and malnutrition as they are the most vulnerable.
  • Different factors can trigger famine – the choice of crops planted, ineffective farming techniques, political systems and civil wars.
  • Famine happens when people don’t have the ability to cope during extreme natural conditions like drought.

-Kira Maixner
Source: Do Something, Merriam Webster Online
Photo: Asia News

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Technology: Linking Advanced & Developing Economies

Developing Economies

Social impact technology company, United Needs, works under the belief that the world is at its healthiest when interconnected. In order to disrupt cycles of poverty for rural farmers while simultaneously strengthening Earth’s food system, the organization is introducing new mobile technology to bring together advanced and developing economies.

In the next 34 years, the world will see an increase of 2.4 billion citizens. To feed this population the global food supply must increase by 69%, which means that finite agricultural resources must be used in the most effective way possible.

At the same time, the increase in population presents an exciting opportunity for smallholder farmers to play a large role in the expanding food economy. The United Needs website calls this “convergence of market forces” a chance for impoverished farmers to “grow their way out of poverty.”

In the current climate, small farmers in developing countries struggle with a variety of challenges. While small farms can be extremely productive, too few selling opportunities exist and farmers often lack access to traditional credit facilities. When market options are available, several levels of middlemen often consume most of the profit.

Research by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector showed that improving the financial state of the rural poor is one of the most effective ways of reducing poverty at the bottom rung of the financial ladder.

United Needs works on projects that seek to empower rural farmers as a means of alleviating poverty and building a sustainable food economy. Their methods involve breaking down barriers to profit by connecting developing economies directly with advanced ones.

With the motto “high tech with a high purpose,” United Needs keeps technology at the heart of its strategy. In order to “cut out the middleman” preventing smallholders from accessing credit and capital, the company created a mobile app that allows farmers to directly contact microfinance institutions and buyers. Customers interested in buying in bulk can bundle crops from multiple small farmers together to build large orders.

This high tech process is creating a more connected global economy by offering opportunities for advanced and developing economies to support one another through food production and consumption.

– Jen Diamond

Photo: Flickr

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Addressing the Imminent Famine in Yemen

Famine in YemenOngoing conflict has created an imminent threat of famine in Yemen. According to the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), ten of Yemen’s 22 provinces ranked at “emergency” level – one step below famine.

According to the BBC, in September 2014, years of civil and sectarian strife reached a climax in Yemen. Houthi rebel forces took control of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a.

Last year, a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia began a military campaign to force the Houthis from power and reinstate President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The ensuing chaos has enabled extremist groups, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, to infiltrate the country and carry out terrorist attacks.

Long-Standing Food Insecurity
Even before the fighting began, the country was importing over 90 percent of its food. Now, conflict has strained trade and access to goods.

According to the Business Insider, aid groups blame the current food crisis on a lack of access to Houthi-controlled ports caused by obstacles imposed by the Saudi-led coalition. Houthi forces have also been accused of intentionally disrupting supplies from reaching some communities.

The U.N. estimates that 19 million people lack access to clean water and 7.6 million are considered to be food insecure. The looming development of famine in Yemen threatens to increase these numbers.

Fighting Malnutrition 

Malnutrition has made children in particular more vulnerable to illness. Before the conflict, about 40,000 children under age five died from preventable diseases each year, UNICEF reports. However, the organization estimates that 10,000 more have succumbed to disease in the past year because of a lack of access to clean water, health care and acute malnutrition.

In spite of these figures, the U.N. reports that it has been able to provide aid in most areas of the country. Food and millions of vaccinations have been administered but according to the U.N., this has only addressed the “most urgent needs.”

New Voucher Program

Earlier this month, the WFP began distributing vouchers to assist people living in Sana’a. The program is expected to reach 1 million people across the country by the end of 2016 by increasing the speed of delivery for assistance to families as well as by focusing on accountability.

WFP Representative Purnima Kashyap stated, “Vouchers also boost the local economy as we work with local suppliers to provide food.” Each voucher provides a family of six with a month’s supply of wheat grain, vegetable oil, salt and sugar, as well as protein-rich Wheat Soya Blend.

The WFP is partnered with 13 other organizations in Yemen, including CARE International and Save the Children. CARE International has not only focused on providing food security but also in establishing community self-help and women’s empowerment. Save the Children has additionally advocated for the care and protection of children, mainly through education efforts.

UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, Julien Harneis, says the organization has appealed for $180 million to finance its programs in Yemen in 2016. So far UNICEF has received just 18 percent of that amount. As the U.N. pushes for another round of peace negotiations, additional attention and aid are required to prevent famine in Yemen and assist the estimated 80 percent of people in need of humanitarian aid.

– Taylor Resteghini

Photo: Flickr

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17-Year-Old Founds Startup to End Hunger in Africa

end hunger in AfricaWhen Sirjeff Dennis was 17, he founded Jefren Agrifriend Solutions, a poultry business working to end hunger in Africa and eradicate poverty. A student at the University of Dar es Salaam, Dennis uses his leadership and knowledge to successfully run the organization while finding innovative ways to end hunger-related hardships.

Jefren Agrifriend Solutions works by providing communities in Tanzania with affordable chicken meat and eggs. Dennis was inspired at a young age to counter hunger after witnessing the death of a neighbor’s seven-month-old son, who passed from malnutrition.

Dennis founded the organization by saving the money he earned from joining Tanzania’s compulsory national service’s training program.

He earned $20 a month and was in the program for three months. Instead of spending the money on clothes or personal items, he put it away in hopes of starting the business.

At the end of the program, he used the money to purchase chickens and raise chickens in his yard.

Dennis was soon accepted into a local university and had received a small loan from the government to pay for school. The young entrepreneur used as little money from the loan as he could, living off of mostly bread and water for several months, so he could save for the business.

Thanks to his sacrifice, the business now produces roughly 2,000 chickens a month. Dennis markets poultry to informal traders, who sell the produce at nearly half the price of their competitors. This allows locals to purchase a good supply of food at a more affordable price.

Although the company has helped improve the slums of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania significantly, there have been many issues Dennis was forced to overcome.

When he was 18, he left the business in the hands of an employee while he studied at university. Unfortunately, the chickens went unattended and all died from a severe disease when Dennis returned from school.

However, he quickly overcame the situation by raising money to purchase more chickens. Now, nearly four years later, the company continues to thrive in Tanzania.

Last year, Dennis became one of 12 finalists for the Anzisha Prize, Africa’s premier award for young entrepreneurs.

He believes poultry and vegetable farming is the start of a more nutritional and profitable future in the fight to end hunger in Africa.

– Julia Hettiger

Photo: Flickr

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Hope on the Horizon: Increase in Food Assistance for Iraq

Food Assistance in IraqAn increase in food assistance for Iraq will become a reality thanks to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) in Iraq will receive an additional $20 million in emergency food assistance per an announcement from Stuart E. Jones, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, made on Feb. 29, 2016, according to USAID.

With this new support, provided through USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP), the U.S. government has contributed nearly $623.8 million to support humanitarian activities in Iraq since the 2014 fiscal year, according to USAID’s Iraq-Complex Emergency Fact Sheet.

The new funding will support the distribution of household food parcels, including beans, dry peas, flour, oil and rice — and immediate response rations for vulnerable populations comprising ready-to-eat food items, such as beans, biscuits, canned meat, canned peas and dates according to USAID’s Iraq-Complex Emergency Fact Sheet.

USAID is helping the WFP reach 1.5 million displaced and conflict-affected Iraqis throughout the country according to USAID’s Feb. 29, 2016 press release.

This significant boost in aid has the potential to help Iraqis who were adversely impacted by cuts to the WFP last year. In August 2015, the WFP was forced to cut back food assistance due to a funding shortfall, according to the U.N.

“Unfortunately, lack of funds and the rise in the number of displaced Iraqis forces us to reduce the size of the food rations we provide to tens of thousands of families living outside camps,” said Jane Pearce, WFP representative and country director in Iraq, in an August 2015 press release.

This recent increase in food assistance for Iraq comes at a crucial time. The food and medicine shortage in Iraq resulted in the death of approximately 20 children and older persons in recent weeks according to a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Between December 2015 and January 2016, the price of some food commodities in Fallujah increased by more than 800 percent, according to the WFP; as of late February, a 110-pound bag of rice cost $400 and a 110-pound sack of wheat flour was priced at $550, reported the IOM.

There is hope that this increase in food assistance for Iraq is a sign of more good to come for internally displaced persons living in the country.

– Summer Jackson

Sources: UN, USAID 1, USAID 2
Photo: Wikipedia