Today was my final day at the World Food Prize. Though the other Oxfam Action Corps organizers and staff are staying until tomorrow to attend tonight's Oxfam Hunger Banquet and tomorrow's Des Moines farmers' market, I'm heading back to San Francisco.
This Morning we heard the laureate keynote address by the former President of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. An energetic and charismatic speaker, President Lula described government programs he instituted to address poverty and hunger, including the Zero Hunger programs. With the goal of eradicating hunger by 2015 in Brazil, several complementary programs addressing food security, health, education, and gender equality were combined to improve social inclusion of the poor. President Lula is serious about ending hunger, saying that "fighting hunger is government responsibility" and that "hunger is the worst weapon of mass destruction in the world". His plans are a combination of social inclusion and economic development, and he highlighted the benefit to all of Brazil's society by bringing more people to their domestic market and improving their economy. Though I cringe to think that the developing countries will make similar mistakes as us by relying on consumerism, it's true that as the poor are lifted out of poverty, they become consumers and strengthen the economy. At least President Lula mentioned the benefit of responsible consumerism and also voiced his support to regulate the international financial system, urging the G20 to make such a political decision. His speech ended with his experience putting forth policies to help the poor. He remarked how all his social inclusion programs were considered government spending, but giving to big business and the rich was considered investment. He considers the money he used for programs for the poor to be government investment, disliking the negative differentiation as spending.
Following President Lula's address, we went to Marshalltown Community College were we learned about their Entrepreurial and Diversified Ag program. We had a delicious vegetarian lunch made with local vegetables, fruits, and herbs, and our guest farmers - Silas Samson Biru from Ethiopia and Nelly Velandia from Colombia - shared their stories with Marshalltown students and educators. During lunch, I sat at a table with several others, including a Marshalltown freshman student in the program. He explained how he grew up on a nearby farm of about 1000 acres, which he said was medium-sized as some of his neighbors had farms of 5000 acres. An Oxfam America staff member originally from Uganda was also at our table and commented on food and agriculture in Uganda. He discussed how the average size farm in Uganda is probably around 2 acres, with only 10% of farms at least 10 acres in size and about 50% of farms at least 5 acres. What a shock to hear the difference in size of farms in Iowa compared to Uganda! And to realize that most farmers in Uganda, similar to much of the developing world, have so little land to grow enough food to feed their families with a little extra to sell. Once again we were reminded of why it's so important to invest in small-scale farmers in developing countries, so that farmers like Silas and Nelly have resources available (such as land, water, seeds), build resilience in their farming, and have access to markets with a fair price for their crops.
With so many aspects of agriculture and food discussed at this year's World Food Prize, there is much for me to digest (pun intended!) as I return to the Bay Area and share my experiences with our local Action Corps. Join us in the GROW campaign and add your name to the online petition telling Congress you oppose cuts to poverty-focused development assistance.
Please feel free to email us if you'd like to join us in our support of farmers around the world to enable changes to our food system to ensure everyone has enough to eat.
