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Dear Naresh,
This week, Ellen Gustafson and I are incredibly excited to share that Food Tank: The Food Think Tank (FAO) will be partnering over the next two years with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
to highlight the important role family farmers play in improving food
security, alleviating poverty, enhancing ecoystem services, improving
gender equity, creating opportunities for youth, and a whole range of
other indicators. We're honored and thrilled to be involved in this
important project and will look forward to your suggestions on groups we
should highlight in Asia, Latin America, North America, ans sub-Saharan
Africa.
“Family farmers” can
be defined as producers who make most of their living by farming, have
limited access to land and other resources, who work with family
members, and where the head of the household is directly involved in
production, not just management of the farm.
The World Bank reports that a one
percent increase in GDP in the agriculture sector will be twice as
effective in alleviating poverty than an equivalent increase in any
other sector. But the percentage of global investment directed
toward agriculture dropped from 16 percent to four percent between 1980
and 2010.
Fortunately, there are a number
of organizations around the world that are currently working to make
sure family farms get the support and investment they need. Here are
nine organizations helping family farmers:
1. The National Family Farm Coalition (NFCC) is a U.S.-based nonprofit working with family farmers and rural communities. NFCC is pursuing a farmer-to-farmer initiative, in collaboration with local farmers' groups, to lead workshops and organize training programs for family farmers.
2. La Via Campesina
is a grassroots movement protecting food sovereignty. In Colombia, La
Via Campesina is working to promote agro-ecological practices and establish farmers’ markets in the capital of Bogotá. By 2010, 2,500 family farmers participating in the markets were earning US$2 million annually. According to OXFAM, the government is now trying to bring the markets to other major cities in Colombia, including Cali and MedellÃn.
3. Thanks, in part, to Landesa’s research and recommendations, historic legal changes
are occurring in China. In an enormous coup for small-scale farmers,
the Chinese government is now offering guaranteed 30-year land rights,
both documenting and publicizing farmers’ rights to their land and
taking serious steps to limit expropriations. Landesa has helped secure
the land rights of more than 400 million people in 45 countries.
4. Slow Food International's Terra Madre initiative is
a network of small-scale farmers, breeders, fishers and food artisans
around the world whose approach to food production protects both
environmental and community interests. In Ireland, Slow Food has been
supporting a campaign to protect the rights of dairy farmers. Ireland
is the third largest consumer of raw milk in the world and a proposed
government ban on unpasteurized milk threatened the livelihoods of
family farms. The campaign's efforts were successful, and in January
2013 the government agreed to regulate, rather than ban, raw milk.
5. Navdanya
has worked to establish 111 community seed banks throughout India, and
has trained more than five million smallholder farmers to protect
traditional seed varieties.
6. Groundswell International launched a program in Burkina Faso to improve production, food security, and gender equity for 29,500 families by helping scale up agroecological practices.
7. Organizations in the Promoting Local Innovation (PROLINNOVA) network have supported initiatives to pilot credit systems
in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers can access funds to
do their own research projects and develop agricultural innovations
that are most useful to them.
8. Dairy cooperatives in Afghanistan, with the support of the Rural Microfinance and Livestock Support Programme of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD),
are helping unite farmers’ groups and providing training in farm
management and feed supply. There are now more than 14 cooperatives in
the eastern Afghan province of Nangahar, and the total membership is
more than 14,000, a significant proportion of whom are women.
9. The World Cocoa Foundation offers a Family Support Scholarship program
to family farmers. Not only does the three-tiered program help women to
keep their children in school to allow them to focus on improving their
farming enterprises, it also provides them with a business training
course and additional funds to invest in their businesses.
Finally, for those of you celebrating the holidays this week, I thought you might want to share our 13 Tips for a More Sustainable Easter Celebration and our 5 Ways to Make Your Passover Seder More Sustainable with friends and family.
Thank you for your support and encouragement! |
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| Global Spotlight on Family Farmers |
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| The
United Nations has designated 2014 the International Year of the Family
Farmer (IYFF). In the United States and around the world, agriculture
is changing, and with that change, the role of family farmers is more
important than ever. Read more... |
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| Top 3 Ways To Save Water Through Food Choices |
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| Food
and water scarcity are two of the most daunting challenges facing the
world today. Almost one billion people suffer from hunger, and more than
2.3 billion live in water-stressed areas. Fortunately, water-saving
initiatives around the world are introducing old and new methods of
making the most of water resources and improving the sustainability of
food production. Read more... |
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| American
agriculture is incredibly dependent upon foreign-born labor; immigrant
labor makes up approximately 25 percent of the agricultural sector. This
post examines the exploitation of immigrant labor and how many
organizations hope to raise awareness and improve conditions for
workers. Read more... |
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| New
York is not a city known for growing and manufacturing food. Yet in
this intimate, visceral, and beautifully written book, Robin Shulman
introduces the people of New York City--both past and present--who do
grow vegetables, butcher meat, fish local waters, cut and refine sugar,
keep bees for honey, brew beer, and make wine. In the most heavily built
urban environment in the country, she shows an organic city full of
intrepid and eccentric people who want to make things grow (via Amazon) |
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| New Sustainable Aquaculture Methods Promise Healthier Fish and Lakes |
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| With
worldwide consumption of fish at an all-time high, scientists and fish
farmers are working to develop methods to farm fish more sustainability.
Innovations in fish-feed and land-based containment systems offer
solutions to sustainable aquaculture, according a presentation made at
the 2013 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science Scientists. Read more... |
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