this week in Des Moines, Iowa! She is there with organizers Amy and Stephen and other volunteers from the Iowa Action Corps, organizer Arielle of the NYC OAC, organizer Elissa of the Columbus OAC, organizer Nancy of the Chicago OAC, and Oxfam America staff, including Campaigns Director Judy Beals, Agricultural Advocacy Lead Jim French, Organizing and Alliances Coordinator Rebecca Perlmutter, Community Engagement Specialist Clara Herrero, and Senior Volunteer and Community Organizer Brian Rawson.
It's been a busy day at the
World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa. Oxfam Action Corps volunteers from Des Moines, Chicago, Columbus, New York City, and San Francisco are here along with Oxfam America staff and special guest farmers from Colombia and Ethiopia.
The day was filled with talks and panel discussions from many sectors of agriculture and food, including governmental, nonprofit, private business, and academic. Nearly every talk I attended expressed a need to increase food production to feed a growing population of 9 billion people by 2050, though, not surprisingly, the approaches described varied from high tech products and methods to development assistance programs for farmers in developing countries.
Two descriptions of the food system that resonated with me were from Howard G. Buffett from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and Judy Beals from Oxfam America. Mr. Buffett said, "Different farmers need different solutions," which he has witnessed on his own research farms here in the Midwest and in South Africa. He shared four stories of projects, all that were unsuccessful but proved to be great lessons in the importance of local and geographic-specific considerations for determining technology feasibility environmentally, economically, and socially. Echoing a similar view, Judy Beals explained how we are faced with the need to reform the food system, which is a complex problem and "there is no silver bullet and no magic seeds".
We were also very fortunate to have two female farmers from developing countries come to share their experiences at an Oxfam-sponsored panel. Nelly Velandia, a farmer from Colombia, and Silas Samson Biru, an Ethiopian farmer, spoke about their work with farmer-led initiatives in their countries. Nelly is a leader for the Farmers' Markets Program in Bogota, which aims to promote the small farm economy and bring fresh food produced by small farmers directly to the consumer at fair prices. Silas participates in a risk-management program:
Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA). Both women have worked hard as leaders in their communities, facing difficulties as they break cultural norms for women and convince local government to include them in decision-making. Their stories in inspiring, not only for their successes, but also for their perseverance to continually improve their programs.
Tomorrow will be another day full of information at the World Food Prize. Stay tuned for more updates.
Today was another full day of learning and sharing at the World Food Prize in Des Moines. Conversations about food and agriculture continued, as many players involved in food production and food-related policies were included on today's schedule.
One of the day's earliest sessions was a report of the
2011 Global Hunger Index by the International Food Policy Research Institute. This report is based on the most recent data about hunger and malnutrition and makes recommendations for ways to address food security. The full report is available online, with much information relevant to
Oxfam's GROW campaign.
There were also several panel discussions focused on the inclusion of women and girls in agriculture development. Mary Rono, a dairy farmer from the Kendu region of Kenya, spoke about her experiences as co-founder and chairperson of the Koitogos Dairy Cooperative Society. She described social and cultural barriers she faced in her community and home while establishing her group, which gained status as a coop earlier this year. The coop is now very successful with 350 members, including 33% women and 15% youth. By pooling their milk for sale at a nearby processor, the farmers have secured a good price and steady income. They also have training sessions to learn about better practices to raise and tend their animals. Mary's story is very inspirational, with her determined personality apparent to ensure the livelihood of her family and community.
The Secretary's Roundtable and African Presidential Leadership Roundtable were also held today. It was very interesting to learn about the agricultural development goals and practices of several African countries. On the positive side it seems some of the African countries represented in the sessions are working to improve and maintain small-scale farming. For example Tanzania is using rice seeds from their own research efforts, with rice yields more than twice as much for small-scale farmers compared to large farms. Also, Mozambique has 1000 demonstration plots that are used to educate farmers on improve methods. However, it was surprising, to me, to learn about the use of subsidies for seed and fertilizer in Ghana and Tanzania. Due to the limited budgets of the governments in these countries, the Ministers of Agriculture from both recognize the likely non-sustainability of subsidy programs. One can only hope their farmers will have long-term security if government subsidies are reduced or eliminated in the future.
Once again a common message was to realize and embrace that different solutions are required to ensure food security in different areas. Though it seems that many see the importance of taking geographical and some social differences into consideration for food and agriculture development, it's not clear whether developed countries have fully realized that there should be more than a one-way exchange of ideas and programs. A two-way exchange between developed countries and developing countries is needed to realize long-term and sustainable success for implementation of agriculture development strategies. We in the developed world are faced with many problems in our own food system (e.g. obesity and nutrition, environmental impact, loss of family farms), and a more holistic approach is needed in developing countries to avoid facing the same problems we face today.
