To Achieve Food Security, We Must Prioritize Women's Rights as Human Rights

[HuckleB]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/her-excellency-tarja-halonen/to-achieve-food-security-_b_8067626.html?utm_hp_

"At the end of this month, world leaders will converge on United Nations headquarters in New York to affirm and formally adopt the global sustainable development priorities for the next 15 years. All of the goals are laudable and worth pursuing. They are intertwined and should be pursued simultaneously. Achieving them will immeasurably improve the lives of billions of people. One of the most important efforts is the second goal: "End Hunger."

Hunger is a pervasive element of impoverished communities. Many smallholder farmers across the world eke out a difficult existence and struggle to provide their children with the nourishment they need to be healthy, happy and reach their full potential. Hunger is a grave obstacle to a dignified life. Children who experience stunted growth due to malnutrition face a life-altering setback. By ending hunger and improving nutrition across the world, we can give people a pathway out of poverty and strengthen peaceful societal development.

The agriculture industry can help address this problem by increasing food quality and improving logistics. However, these steps alone will not resolve this issue, which requires a wider lens.

The challenges in fighting hunger are immense, but placing women at the center of efforts can be the game-changer to achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. Women comprise the majority of food producers, particularly in low-income countries where families rely on smallholder farms for food and income. Farmers use hand-held tools to fetch water for irrigation on foot, chop wood for fuel, and mill cereal crops by hand. The sheer amount of human labor involved in this kind of farming is daunting. And as women do much of this work, in addition to their household and care work, their workdays are typically up to 50 percent longer than men's. And yet women and girls tend to receive a smaller portion of the food produced.

..."


Food security is what matters. White privilege, and the marketing aimed at it, harms food security. It's time to wake up, and realize this is what is happening.

[PatrickforO]

1. This is a very good post.

The problem that causes hunger is our neoliberal capitalist model itself. The concept of primacy of the shareholder allows corporations to foul the environment, bust unions, offshore jobs, all while making millions of dollars, and that is the problem.

One horrible example is Somalia. The Somalis along their coast used to be fishermen. They had little boats, and were able to live just fine. Then the big Japanese and Russian trawlers came and fished out their waters.

So, they turned to piracy and began following warlords. The country turned violent. Hunger stalked the people.

Then, European corporations began dumping toxic waste in the waters off the Somali coast because it is cheaper for them to do so than to do the right thing and get rid of the waste legally. But, hey, they are maximizing earnings for shareholders!

The world is FULL of those kinds of examples, so things like slow money, slow food and micro-lending are very powerful, and in many lands, there aren't many men because they've all been killed in the forever war. So it is women who hold things together.