World Hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean: Day 14

On this the 14^th Day of 21 Days for World Hunger, I conclude my segment on Latin America and the Caribbean.  Today I weighed in at 113.5.  That’s 6.5 pounds less than when I started the World Hunger Diet two weeks ago.  I’ve lost 5.42% of my original body weight.  While the proportions remain the same (as in the small parts are still small, and the not-so-small parts are still not-so-small), I can definitely notice a difference.  Even my neighbor this morning gave me that motherly, concerned, you are disappearing look.   I don’t have that light airy feel of what I envision a healthy weight loss to be.  While yes, I feel thinner as evidenced by clothes fitting more loosely, I also feel a notable decline in energy.  Where I would once bound up the steps to our front door, I am now walking with a definite lack of desire to exert.

I did run today…across a parking lot in an attempt to avoid being hit by a car. One of us wasn’t paying attention.  I’d place my bets on the hungry girl. I guess there’s still enough fat on this ole’ bod, because I had cause for cramps today.  Okay, too much information.  Looks like my boundaries are getting as loose as my clothes. I’m pleased to say that a cup of Yerba Máte tea took the place of pain relievers.

I had a recent thought that I would attempt to, at some point before this journey ends, carry a 3-gallon bottle of water and see how far I’d get.  Not sure if I’ll do it.  In theory it sounds like an interesting test, yet I speculate I’ll get about as far as the end of the driveway.  We’ll see…

I have a new post World Hunger diet re-entry plan.  On Day 22, the day after this journey concludes, the husband and I decided we’re going to the Cliff Café in Santa Cruz for one of my favorite eat-out meals:  veggie tofu scramble and hash browns.  They make it just the way I like – well-browned and very tasty.  I’m going to bring a small Tupperware container with me to portion out the meal so I don’t get sick.  And yes, I still plan to have Amy’s Organics Rice Crust Spinach Pizza that evening.  I’m thinking only four pieces instead of the usual six, but I’ll cross that bridge of good-living when I get to it.

While this may be difficult to believe especially considering how I devoted the entire last paragraph to my future first-day-back food plan, I thought little of food today in comparison to many of the other days.  I was struck by a macro-level food thought, however, while at the store to buy an envelope.  Yes, one envelope.  Standing in line, I was sandwiched in by two other shoppers purchasing heaps of Easter paraphernalia.  The woman in front of me spent about 30 bucks and landed with four (plastic…sigh) bags of plastic eggs and candy.  The women behind me was still unloading as I departed – bags and bags of candy.  Sure, a part of me was coveting the notion that Christian children and adults throughout the US will be luxuriating in chocolatey-delights this coming Sunday.  And yet, another part of me was absolutely sickened by that very notion.  I don’t know how much money is spent on celebrating the upcoming Easter or Passover holidays.  I imagine it’s a lot – potentially enough to feed millions of hungry children.  Holidays like this – particularly at this time when I’m particularly vulnerable to the indulgences of others, reveal the grave disparity between the haves and the have-nots.  Millions of children will go to bed hungry on the very night that millions of other children will be all freaked-out and wired-up on chocolate; on the very night that millions of families will be busting a gut from overeating their holiday meals.  My heart feels sad about that.

I also made a very quick trip to the grocery store.  In and out.  Usually I enjoy going to the grocery store.  I’m an avid label-reader.  It’s an entertaining hobby of sorts.  Not today.  Zipped in.  Zipped out. Even though my zip has an energy-deficit limp.

Here’s what I purchased:

• Yellow corn tortillas:  $1.99
• Organic Tomatoes:  $6.34
• Jalapenos:  .60
• Guayakí’s Organic Yerba Máte Loose-leaf Tea:  5.99

I so much enjoy Guayakí’s Yerba Máte!  A friend of mine calls it hay-in-the-barn tea because it’s so earthy.  It is native to the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina; thus making it a slightly delayed introduction to my diet considering today is my last day to focus on Latin America.

Total:  $14.92

In the last two weeks, we have spent slightly less than $80.00 on groceries for our household (just two of us).  The beans (my husband’s fantabulous pre-made concoction) we’ve eaten with our meals for the last four days cost $1.92/couple (I originally and incorrectly thought it was 1.92 each) totaling $7.68 for a grand total of $87.68 for 28 meals. That’s $3.13 a meal.  Most importantly is that we have plenty of dry food remaining surely for several meals (my guess between the corn, millet, barley, lentils and rice, about 15 meals) long after this journey ends.  And things like tea (which is quite costly in comparison), that I included in the total, will last a couple weeks.

Dinner was, once again, beans, rice, corn tortillas and the husband’s smack-your-lips salsa! Amazingly, I couldn’t eat it all – not even later in the evening like I’ve been doing the past three days.

Today’s Nutritional Intake – I forgot to prepare the kale!

Today as I conclude my virtual hunger journey around Latin America and the Caribbean, I’d like to share some stats and a story with you.

An October 2009 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) news article entitled Hunger Still Prevalent stated how even while Brazil, Chile and Cuba have advanced in the fight against hunger; hunger is on the rise for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Jacques Diouf, the FAO´s Director-General shared some startling facts:

• 9 percent of the region´s population, or 53 million people, are suffering from malnutrition this year
• That figure represents an increase from 47 million last year and an average of 45 million in the 2004-2006 period

According to the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean’s Expected Operational Trends in 2010 report, the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region is the most unequal region in the world. Hunger affects more than 53 million people of whom 9 million children under 5 are marginalized by chronic undernutrition. Anemia is the most widespread nutritional problem in the region, affecting 22 million preschool children, 33 million women of reproductive age and 3.6 million lactating women. The vulnerability of at-risk populations is further exacerbated by recurrent natural disasters and more recently by the high food prices crisis and the global economic downturn.

The report continues on about how households are coping with decreased purchasing power due to the high prices of food and agricultural inputs and raw materials. A combined food and financial crisis is causing even greater hardship to an already fragile food system of those who are most vulnerable  – resulting in even greater acute undernutirion for Honduras and Guatemala.

In addition, the report states how unusual changes in the water temperature of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean modify the rainfall patterns resulting in heavier rains and floods in South America and droughts in Central America and the Caribbean.

Earthtimes recounts a 2009 edition of the UN State of World Food Insecurity Report and shares how chronic child malnutrition in Guatemala, Bolivia, Honduras, Peru and Ecuador affects 30-55 percent of all children and ‘is the basis for future inequalities’, according to Jose Graziano, regional director of the UN FAO.  Graziano added these are countries that also lack resources for social security.

This report states how 15 million children are suffering from chronic malnutrition. You’ll note how just a few paragraphs back the number of children suffering from chronic malnutrition in this region was stated as being 9 million.  I’m unsure of this discrepancy given how both of these reports seem to have been released within a relatively short period of one another. If anyone can clarify, please do so.  But really, even one child suffering from malnutrion is one child too many, in my opinon.

The food shortages in this region are considered to be partly caused by the abandonment of agricultural promotion policies and ironically coexist alongside a great availability of foodstuffs, mainly in Mexico and elsewhere in South America.

It is believed that Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico have at least a 50% surplus with regards to the minimum requirements necessary to adequately provide nourishment to their citizens. Despite that surplus, the malnutrition rate for children in these same countries stands at 7-15.5% with the exception of Chile at 2.1%.

Graziano added, the Indigenous peoples, who have held protests in Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile in recent weeks, suffer hunger at a rate up to seven times greater than non-indigenous communities. The regional office suggested how Latin America and the Caribbean would be helped by stronger government policies backing agriculture, including for small individual farmers.

Plenty International shared how in the Toledo District where Plenty Belize works and has its GATE School Feeding Programs, more than 40 per cent of children are malnourished.

Among many ailments, chronic malnutrition is blamed for stunted growth and lowered IQ scores.  These problems, unaddressed, perpetuate themselves compounding greater inequalities for these children as they grow into adulthood.

It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.
- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Latin America and Caribbean gearing up to eradicate hunger by 2025

In a Latin American Herald Tribune article entitled Latin American Ministers Join Forces to End Hunger by 2025

Agriculture ministers from 13 South American and Caribbean countries discussed ways of establishing a mechanism to coordinate a joint effort by Mercosur, the Andean Community and Caricom to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in their countries by the year 2025. Also in attendance were UN FAO regional delegates.

The Ministers’ cooperative effort to eradicate hunger is called the Latin America and Caribbean Without Hunger 2025 Project. The group is studying global food security initiatives.  Suggestions were for each regional partner to establish a fund for that purpose.  These funds being in equal proportion to suit the needs of the individual nations – particularly for programs that help small farms and mitigating climate change.

According to the Ecuadorian Minister of Agriculture, of equal importance to the joint effort is that each country will be tasked to meet the objectives.

I wish them great success with this noble goal, and if it is decided for each country to have an independent fund; I also wish them great integrity…and good auditors.

Julian:  A story of success and hope from World Neighbors

Julian

Guatemalan dry seasons drastically affect the success of families’ crops. World Neighbors helped a young farmer like Julian learn to implement a simple irrigation system.

At only 22 years old, Julian Vasquez, a farmer in the Polochic valley in Guatemala, wanted nothing more than to make life better for his family using the small piece of land that belonged to his mother. So when he saw other farmers participating in a World Neighbors program and saw firsthand how much healthier and productive their fields were, Julian wanted the same for himself.

“Before World Neighbors, my field did not look like this,” Julian said. “It instead was full of weeds and couldn’t produce a healthy crop. World Neighbors taught me to terrace my field to prevent erosion and to improve the health of my soil using organic compost.”

Julian also learned to implement an irrigation system using an old plastic soda bottle in an effort to conserve rainwater during the dry seasons.

His mother, who originally had doubts in the work Julian wanted to do with World Neighbors, now says, “I want to thank World Neighbors for helping Julian learn how to work. Julian has always had in his mind to put into action what he’s learned and has been very smart to put World Neighbors teaching into practice.”

What began as a small spark of enthusiasm by one young man has now spread into other farmers learning and implementing World Neighbors tools and techniques.

“I now train other farmers to use what I learned,” Julian said. “What World Neighbors has done is very special to me because I never thought I would have such successes.”

When tillage begins, other arts
follow. The farmers, therefore, are
the founders of human civilization.
- Daniel Webster

To support the organizations I write about in the series, purchase a World Hunger: Be the Solution Tee.  Proceeds from the shirt will go to the Small Planet Institute Fund and the International Fund for Africa.  All tees are sweat free and available in organic cotton.  To see the selection of World Hunger tees at Conducive’s Humanitarian & Human Rights Tee store, click here

To follow this series from the beginning, you can click the links below:

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 1

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 2

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 3

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 4

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 5

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 6

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 7

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 8

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 9

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 10

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 11

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 12

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 13

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 15

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 16

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 17

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 18

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 19

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 20

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 21

Solutions for World Hunger: Part I

Solutions for World Hunger: Part II

Solutions for World Hunger: Part III