WhyHunger's Global Movements Program Reports from the UN
2/24/2010
Global Movements reports from a recent panel at the UN on global food security. Read it here.
WhyHunger Partner Organizations Report on the Haitian Response to the Devastating Earthquake in Port-au-Prince
2/17/2010
Stephen Bartlett of Agricultural Missions, Inc. (AMI) and Lionel Derenoncourt of the PCUSA Hunger Program recently visited Haiti, representing a group of U.S. organizations supporting the Haitian grassroots response and rebuilding efforts after the earthquake. Below is a report of their meeting with FONDAMA (Fondasyon Men Lan Men Ayiti/ Hand in Hand Haiti Foundation), representing 11 organizations, including 4 national farmer networks, with a presence in 80% of the municipalities of Haiti, and approximately 400,000 members (Note: most of these organizations are also members of La Via Campesina).
Helping Haitians Help Themselves: Strategic Plan to Defend Life and Rebuild the Rural Agricultural Economy
Report by Stephen Bartlett
“The clock of Haiti was turned back to Zero on January 12, 2010.” --Director of the Mouvement Paysan Papay (MPP) Chavannes Jean-Baptiste.Papay, Haiti -- On February 10 and 11, 2010, leaders of the national alliance FONDAMA (Hand in Hand Haiti gFoundation) met in Papay, Haiti to plan a national program capable of responding to the enormous challenges faced by the Haitian people in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince, Leogane and other cities, towns and rural districts near the epicenter. With the colossal loss of life, and the massive destruction of basic infrastructure in the capital city, an estimated 500,000 people have already fled the city to provinces and rural areas in every region of Haiti. With the first rainfall falling on the heads of hundreds of thousands of homeless victims living outdoors in Port-au-Prince yesterday (Feb 10), there is a possibility of a second mass exodus to follow.
In the Central Plateau where the FONDAMA meeting took place, hosted by the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP), there are an estimated 150,000 displaced persons. In the provincial capital of Hinche there are an estimated 15,000 refugees already registered. The MPP, in addition to receiving about 100 displaced persons in their training center, had on-site registrations of displaced persons over a number of days, leading to a tally of more than 8,000 displaced persons in the two rural districts nearest to Papay. In the course of the registry interviews and in visits to host families in the area, it was learned that most of the 8,000 people are currently spread out among rural households, some of which now number up to 20 or even 27 people in tiny rustic shacks and modest adobe, concrete tin-roofed houses, overwhelming the host households.
The burden and challenge this brings to rural communities is enormous. The MPP, having decided they have a capacity to receive up to 1,000 displaced persons, is nevertheless reluctant to erect the first 100 tents delivered, since the World Food Program will only provide one meal per day for what is almost certain to be many months providing shelter, food and water. The MPP long term plan is to settle 1,000 displaced persons with a rural vocation in three agricultural villages on land already in possession.
The national plan of FONDAMA comprises 4 stages—urgent, short-term, medium and long- terms. Among the urgent needs FONDAMA member organizations are the registering of displaced persons in order to document the level of need and to locate the victims and their hosts. FONDAMA agreed to advocate for the payment of $100 USD cash grants for up to 5,000 women who lost their homes, and $100 USD loans for up to 2,500 vulnerable rural women in households actively hosting displaced persons. In addition, FONDAMA member organizations will advocate for adequate food aid for the displaced and for the intervention of psycho-social professionals with auxiliaries trained to accompany the victims and work with the psychologists in treating the large number of traumatized victims of the disaster.
The short and medium term priorities of the FONDAMA plan include the massive procurement and purchase of seeds (270 tons of grains, especially corn, 180 tons of beans or peas) for planting in the rainy season that begins in March and April, and for additional hand tools (machetes and hoes) for 30,000 farmers. This is critical as rural host families are quickly depleting their seed saved for the next planting in order to feed the displaced victims of the earthquake. At the same time there will be a ramping up of the number of tree nurseries for a reforestation effort with a goal of planting 3,700,000 tree seedlings, 30% of which will be fruit trees. Workshops will be established to manufacture 300 community grain storage silos, to accommodate cooperative seed storage for future planting seasons. 1,000 water cisterns will be built in 1,000 family farmers for production of vegetables for the nutritional needs of the rural communities. 50 wells will be drilled, 10 dams built, 10 irrigation systems installed and 50 springs will be caught and channeled per year for irrigation purposes and for pure drinking water.
In soil conservation the FONDAMA plan calls for 200,000 person-days of paid labor at $5 per day, and 100,000 person-days of labor on a voluntary basis, in order to implement the water management and reforestation projects listed above. Agro-ecological training will be expanded including through the deployment of national and international training brigades, across the productive regions of the country.
A cultural life and integration program will accompany these extensive efforts, in order to provide the kind of community life that will make displaced urban persons understand that the rural areas have a potentially vibrant quality of life. Activities such as song story-telling and poetry contests, ceramics workshops, popular theater productions, sports leagues for soccer, basketball and volleyball, and drumming convergences will provide the spice of life that will mobilize across generations and provide hope and recreation for the host rural communities and their new members.
In order to reinforce the capacity of FONDAMA member organizations to implement this strategic plan, resources will also be needed to purchase two 4 by 4 vehicles (one to replace the vehicle destroyed by the earthquake and another for coordination and outreach across the Haitian territory). Additional personnel will likewise need to be employed and trained. New technical trainers will have to be trained, as well as managers of the materiel to be distributed. “Training of trainers” educational activities will need to be expanded. New computers are needed to replace those lost in the earthquake, and for the additional personnel needs, and communications improved. The ten-year long-term plan also calls for the building or remodeling of 10 farmer centers for each of Haiti’s departments that will serve as organizational centers, offices and meeting points, including new community radio stations in order to connect the Peasant Voice radio transmissions and add transmission relays so that those broadcasts can be heard nationwide.
FONDAMA leaders will be meeting on February 17-18 to iron out details of this plan, as well as a strategy for prioritizing how it will be implemented, in conjunction with a FONDAMA general assembly that will be asked to ratify this plan overall. One of the cross-cutting themes at every level is disaster preparedness, involving training, logistics, communications and decentralization of functions. The size of the program poses a challenge for the member organizations of FONDAMA and their staff, and depends on wide and deep solidarity from abroad, particularly among organizations and people of good will and intelligent discernment to see in this project a ray of hope not only for the Haitian people, but for all of humanity as we confront the challenges of environmental degradation and increased natural and human-aggravated catastrophes across the world. As Haiti is brought back from the brink, we will know that the earth itself can be brought back with them.
The bottom line shared by the member organizations of FONDAMA: environmentally sustainable local economic development undertaken by peoples’ organizations holds the key not only to prevent the extent of tragedy in future storms, hurricanes, floods or earthquakes, but also to overcome the vulnerability that has been caused by unjust economic, agricultural and trade policies and foreign interventions both politically and economically motivated. Haiti has historically been an agricultural country, and in order for Haiti to recover from this catastrophe, must return to being a country that feeds and shelters itself, and reclaims its rightful sovereignty as a people. Our solidarity alliance must widen and deepen if sufficient resources can be mobilized for this strategic program! Viva Food Sovereignty!
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers Urges You to Ask Your Supermarket to Support Fair Wages for Farmworkers this Thanksgiving
11/20/2009
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) announces its Supermarket Week of Action, from Nov. 18th to Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26th. They are urgingeveryone doing their Thanksgiving food shopping todrop a Campaign for Fair Food letter off to the store manager! The letter encourages the supermarket to work with CIW to negotiate fairwages for farmworkers. Take part! Fight hunger andpoverty this Thanksgiving!Learn more here.
Remembering Jac Smit (1929-2009)
11/18/2009
Peter Mann
WHY owes a special debt of gratitude to Jac Smit, often called “the father of urban agriculture,” who passed away on November 15, aged 80. Through the pioneering book he co-authored, Urban Agriculture : Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities (1996), Jac opened our eyes to communities around the world growing food in and around cities. As a leader in the urban agriculture community in North America, Jac’s work inspired the local food topics, including community gardens, in WHY’s Food Security Learning Center. Always open to the many dimensions of urban farming, Jac spoke at workshops WHY organized on climate change and the food system, as well as food policy planning, at Community Food Security Coalition conferences. He will be remembered as a great friend, a mentor, and a genuinely original personality.
Tributes to Jac have come from many colleagues. WHY Program Director Alison M. Cohen recalls."I remember the first time I met Jac. I had just been hired as the Urban Agriculture Coordinator for Heifer International and was still pondering for myself how oxymoronic the term was, didn't know how I was going to explain to anyone what my purpose was. Then I learned about Jac and his work and went to D.C. to visit him. He really helped me consider the possibilities and most of what I was able to accomplish with partners in Chicago those first few years was modeled on case studies Jac himself had written based on his travels and research overseas."
Joe Nasr of the MetroAg Alliance for Urban Agriculture in Toronto recalled Jac’s long career as a planner around the world and his founding of The Urban Agriculture Network (TUAN) in 1992 . “TUAN’s unique library will form the foundation of a new Urban Food and Agriculture Learning Centre in Toronto, to be managed by MetroAg.” Hank Herrera, a leader in developing local food systems, noted that the urban agriculture movement “has experienced explosive growth in the past few years with so many new folks and new leadership. It is all wonderful and truly inspiring to witness these changes. But at a moment like this, let’s pause briefly to remember with fondness the people who came before us, led the way, encouraged and respected us. Knowing Jac was a gift.”
For more information on Jac’s contribution to urban agriculture, for his Journal, and several interviews with him, see www.jacsmit.com.
WHY and Food and Water Watch Sponsor Visit by Kenyan Agro-ecological Expert to New York City to Share Expertise, Experiences
11/13/2009
New York City -- On October 22, 2009, Josphat Ngonyo, of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, visited community farms and gardens in the Bronx, New York, to exchange experiences with urban growers there. The Bronx has some of the poorest communities in the US, as well as many vibrant and productive small-scale urban farms. Josphat, whose work addresses sustainable agriculture, found that Bronx farmers face many of the same issues as the small-scale farmers he works with in Kenya, including challenges of land access and access to markets. Josphat’s recent efforts have focused on protecting Kenyan farmers from the spread of genetically modified (GM) seeds, which give power and control to corporations rather than allowing farmers to control the source of their own seed.
On his tour of NYC, he also met with and advised prominent foundations on the best way to improve African agriculture and end hunger. Josphat encouraged the large-scale promotion of scientific, agro-ecological alternatives in Africa as the best way to support small, African farmers, grow more food, and feed more people. Josphat’s advice strongly counters the dominant “Green Revolution” model of high inputs, intensive chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides. Josphat’s model is the real green revolution.
He also participated in an exciting event at NYU’s Wagner School: Exposing the Green Revolution: Myths, Realities, and Community Responses, along with Bronx community activist Karen Washington and Brother David Andrews of Food and Water Watch & recent Senior Advisor to the President of the UN General Assembly. The event was cosponsored by WHY, Food and Water Watch, the US Working Group on the Food Crisis, and NYU's Wagner School.
Listen to audio from the event here: direct link to download podcast, https://wagner.nyu.edu/podcasts/mp3/10_22_2009_Green_Revolution.MP3; linkto stream (only for fast connections), http://wagner.nyu.edu/podcasts/.
U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis Issues Statement to G8 Urging New Approach to Food Security
Calls on G8 to Reject More GMOs and Free Trade
New York City/Washington D.C./Oakland – The U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis today released an official statement urging the G8 to focus on sustainable agriculture practices as a solution to the global food crisis. The statement was issued in anticipation of the July 8-10 G8 Meeting in L’Aquila, Italy.
The Working Group, comprised of religious, anti-hunger, family farm, environmental, food justice, labor, consumer and international development groups, believes new approaches towards the food crisis should be based on the findings of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report, a landmark study sponsored by the United Nations and the World Bank. The IAASTD emphasized agroecological methods instead of chemical-intensive production and biotechnology.
The Working Group expressed concern that the Obama Administration’s pledge to spend $1 billion on agriculture research for developing countries, while a much-needed investment, would fail if it continued to follow “Green Revolution” models that exacerbate inequality and do not lessen food insecurity. The Working Group also condemned the G8’s continued push for a new WTO round to further agriculture liberalization. Christina Schiavoni of World Hunger Year said, “Around the world, citizens and social movements are calling for a dramatically new approach to food security -- one that guarantees every person the right to healthy food. Current free trade policies are doing just the opposite. The Doha Development Agenda serves to further weaken the ability of governments and communities to control their own food systems and to fulfill the universal right to healthy food. We challenge the Obama administration and all of the members of the G8 to enact policies that ensure, not undermine this basic right.”
The G8 will be considering the issue of strategic grain reserves as a way to stabilize commodity prices and dampen the volatility that led to food riots around the globe last year. Ben Burkett, a Mississippi farmer and president of the National Family Farm Coalition, said, “We do not need to spend billions for a second Green Revolution in Africa. In order to have true food security, the G8 and Obama Administration should instead focus on a proven policy of having grain reserves to protect farmers from depressed prices while ensuring prices do not spike up too much for consumers. A country’s food security is too important to be left to the whims of Wall Street speculators.”
The Working Group challenges the United States and its historic advocacy of expensive, unproven genetically modified organisms (GMOs) over other agriculture methods. Annie Shattuck of Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy said,“There is no ‘single gene’ solution to hunger. Tackling the multiple challenges to agriculture – climate change, environmental damage, hunger and poverty – demands a comprehensive approach. The most extensive study of agriculture in the world (the IAASTD) suggests that agroecology, the science of sustainable agriculture, has the potential to address all four. So far genetic engineering has been unable to address even one successfully.”
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The US Working Group on the Food Crisis is an ad hoc group of organizations from around the US, representing various sectors of the food system, including anti-hunger, family farm, community food security, environmental, international aid, labor, food justice, consumer, and other groups. This working group was first convened by a conference call in May of 2008 followed by in-person meetings in Washington DC in July of 2008, each attended by representatives of 40-50 organizations from throughout the US. We do not view the food crisis as an unexpected, sudden emergency of the last year, but as the inevitable consequence of the development of a long list of misguided agricultural and food policies over the last 30+ years. To learn more about our work, go to www.usfoodcrisisgroup.org.
