A friend just passed along this fascinating report on a new initiative being undertaken by our partner MercyCorps in Jakarta. Living in Washington, DC I’m pretty familiar with the concept of “food deserts” — that is, urban areas where it’s difficult to find grocery stores or fresh food in general. (You can read up a bit more about DC’s food desert challenge here).
This is of course a worldwide epidemic, and a big issue in Jakarta, Indonesia — a city in which “17 percent of children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, while 12 percent are overweight” according to op-ed columnist Tina Rosenberg. A severe lack of kitchens and adequate sources of fresh, healthy food makes street vendors often the only viable source of daily meals.
Food prices are high again. In December 2010, prices — according the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s measurement of a group of food commodities — soared higher than the peak of the 2008 food prices. While new figures have not been released, reports are saying that prices for staple foods in developing countries like rice and wheat are climbing and the suspicious absence of rioting is starting to reverse. Riots in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen and Pakistan might just be the start for a tumultuous year. But while these riots were not triggered by high food prices -– high food prices certainly only add to citizens’ gripes with their governments.
There are a number of factors at play: Adverse weather is driving grim grain projections in South America and the US, increasing demands for biofuels made from food crops, oil surpassing $100 a barrel for the first time since October 2008, expectations that Russia’s export bans will be extended beyond 2011 and that others are starting to hoard or panic-buy. All this suggests that prices will continue to climb. And while the G20 debates the role of financial speculation in influencing food prices more hungry people could take to the streets.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, the Bread for the World Institute released its timely 2011 Hunger Report, with an event Monday at the National Press Club, featuring USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah and recent World Food Prize winner and Bread for the World President David Beckman.
As American families prepare to gather with friends and loved ones to share a large meal this week, the panelists helped to highlight the growing global food crisis, estimating that 925 million people worldwide will go hungry in 2010 due in large part to soaring global food prices.
Fortunately, the US government has recently stepped up its response to hunger and malnutrition, thanks primarily to the new Feed the Future initiative that focuses on “improving the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers.” This initiative isn’t about handing out emergency food aid, but empowering farmers to get the support they need to respond to high food prices. Now, this is a cause that we at ONE can get behind!
After my last post, a lot of people were asking recently about System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and whether it uses engineered or hybrid seeds.
The answer is that farmers can use any type of seed they want in the field. Regardless of the type of seed, they end up using less because of the management techniques that the system recommends -– using compost and manure, growing seedlings to an ideal height for transplant, using less water and planting in orderly rows, among other ideas.
Because the system is precise, farmers plant less seeds (check out the difference in the image above!) and use less land than they would if they were flooding their fields and using lots of synthetic fertilizer. This means that their expenses are lower and their incomes are higher. Not to mention they have more land to grow the vegetables that help combat malnutrition in their children.
Innovations like SRI are a part of the U.S. government’s plan to end hunger and decrease childhood malnutrition. Congress is debating whether or not to fund it. For more on actions to take to convince them, stay tuned to ONE actions over the next couple of weeks.
A week ago, Des Moines, Iowa sat at the center of the advocacy and development world’s efforts. Over a thousand leaders from around the planet gathered to advocate for, learn about and honor the efforts to combat hunger, end malnutrition and spread sustainable agriculture for the 24th annual World Food Prize.
Initiated by Norman Borlaug and supported by the Ruan company and others, the World Food Prize is the “Nobel” of food and hunger — and an entire week full of events has sprung up around the prize. Here are a few of the moments that stand out from the events I was able to take part during a packed week.
The Iowa Hunger Summit begins the week. Iowans gather to learn and act on hunger issues in the Hawkeye State, in the U.S. and around the world. Former Ambassador and Ohio Congressman Tony Hall gave the keynote remarks. For ONE members, his words about engaging elected officials stood out. The midterm elections “will make a decisive impact on progress on hunger,” said Amb. Hall. Referring to our engagement with candidates and elected officials, Tony said “put them on the spot, in a nice way.” If we do not bring issues like hunger to their attention, they will think that “it must not be important.”
The ONE panel discussion was a terrific part of the Hunger Summit. Led by U.S. Executive Director Sheila Nix, the speakers included Karey Claghorn, Iowa Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Richard Mkandawire of Africa Union/NEPAD, and Julie Howard of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa. Secretary Claghorn described how passionate Iowans are about alleviating hunger. Mr. Mkandawire was clear that donor countries like the U.S. are becoming responsive to African voices that are charting the course of agricultural development. Ms. Howard called us to really get behind research based advocacy so that we focus on what works.
This year’s WFP laureates are Jo Luck, who leads Heifer Inernational, and David Beckmann, the head of Bread for the World. Both organizations are ONE partners. And both Jo and David played key roles in ONE’s launch and development. Congratulations to both! This is the first time that grassroots advocacy and direct help have been honored with the prize. In her remarks, Jo Luck related that Heifer “lives the success” of agriculture development. David Beckmann called what Bread and other advocates do as creating “organized give a damns.”
The WFP included some really great keynotes. Jeff Raikes, the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, commented about the need to “tell the story in front of the numbers.” Because that leads to the easing of hunger, provides livelihoods and allows parents have the means to send their children to school. This was particularly striking to me as ONE embarks on our Living Proof campaign. Two comments from Howie Buffett’s keynote stand out to me: “Markets are the key to moving farmers out of poverty, to the economy and into the economy” and “You cannot create long term productive positive change without good, clear policies.
World Food Prize week had a whole lot more to it than what I’ve mentioned here here. Check out the other posts on the WFP on the ONE blog and visit the WFP site for more.
PATH focuses on fortifying staple foods like rice with vital nutrients — so that girls like the one here can grow up healthy and strong.
This may be a big “duh” for many of you, but malnutrition is a huge problem in the developing world. So, it’s a pretty big deal that PATH, an NGO that works to break cycles of poor health through sustainable solutions, is finally making their Ultra Rice technology available in Burundi.
Ultra Rice is like regular rice in shape and size, but that’s where the similarities end. The manufactured grain-like product is jam-packed with micronutrients like vitamin A, iron, thiamin, folic acid and zinc — allowing people to get the nutrients they need without having to change the way that they normally eat.
And the cool part is that PATH customizes each kind of Ultra Rice to fit the health needs of the population and mimic the look of the local rice. For example, in China, people receive a short-grained rice with one set of vitamins, while Brazil receives a long-grained rice with another set of nutrients.
To give you an idea of how important Ultra Rice will be for malnourished people around the world, let’s take a look at some numbers. According to UNICEF and the Micronutrient Initiative, severe iron deficiency anemia results in the death of more than 60,000 young women during pregnancy and childbirth per year. Folic acid deficiency is responsible for approximately 200,000 severe birth defects in 80 developing countries. And mild to moderate zinc deficiency affects more than a third of people worldwide and compromises growth and immune function in children.
Learn more about Ultra Rice on PATH’s website — and let us know what you think about sustainable, creative technologies like these in the comments below.
Yesterday, ONE hosted a panel discussion at the World Food Prize Symposium about the crucial role that everyday Americans can play in promoting efforts to support poor farmers and help them break free from the cycle of poverty. The session was insightful and showed just how vital our voices are in making sure that our elected officials understand that agriculture is a key tool to end hunger and promote sustainable pathways out of extreme poverty.
Sheila Nix moderates our panel discussion at the World Food Prize
Sheila Nix, ONE’s U.S. executive director, was a fantastic moderator. She engaged each of the panelists on the importance of advocacy and the challenges we face. Sheila described how she saw firsthand “the catalytic effect of agriculture in Africa and the enormous impact that very simple, low cost solutions and investments in women can have on a community.”
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
A friend just passed along this fascinating report on a new initiative being undertaken by our partner 
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