Famine Prevention

A stunningly well animated video asks: How is it that one world, with smart farmers and good businesspeople, each making good economic decisions, has so many overweight and so many chronically malnourished?

Cuban organic farmers depend on soil health to feed crops as part of a biologically complex management approach.

Combining knowledge of indigenous farming strategies with modern agroecological science is enhancing food security while preserving ecosystems and natural resources. Agroecology applies ecological ideas to establish sustainable agriculture that promotes healthy soils, cleaner water sources and wildlife biodiversity.

The Cuban government has announced a project that promotes fruit, vegetable and livestock production in four mile-wide rings around 150 cities and towns within the country. It is hoped that the five-year initiative will rejuvenate Cuba’s agriculture and improve its economy.

Farmers around the world, including the U.S., need to be included in deciding how to sustainably raise the food their communities need to thrive.

The spring planting season that supplies Haiti with 60 percent of the nation’s agricultural production is approaching as relief efforts continue. Important infrastructure necessary for cultivation and distribution of food was damaged, with irrigation canals and storage facilities destroyed in the earthquake.

Around 2.2 million people, 18 percent of Zimbabwe’s population, will face food insecurity through March, according to recent estimates. This is up from 1.7 million Zimbabweans who needed food assistance from October to December of 2009.

RESEARCH REVIEW: Famine Solution….through an Organic Green Revolution

Calls mount for shift from commodity outlook to organic, community orientation.

Culture, context important in sharing "good ag ideas" in other nations