Sustainable Vegan Farming Practices Empower the World’s Hungry

Black-eyed Peas

On Day 6 of the 21 Days for World Hunger series, I’m considering ways in which the world’s hungry can break the cycle of dependence upon food aid by securing and controlling their own food sources. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” We all know that proverb attributed to the Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu. These words aptly describe how governments can successfully reduce hunger among their poorest citizens: not through food aid, but through investment in the development of local smallholder agriculture. Investment enables families to be self-sufficient, promotes food security, creates jobs for farm workers and reduces the amount of money that people must set aside to feed their families by keeping food prices low. Social protections such as these raise farmers up from the depths of poverty and protect poor consumers from devastating upward spikes in food prices.

Is Agroecology the Answer?

Agroecology–the science of sustainable agriculture–combines modern scientific methods with local farming knowledge to create productive agricultural economies without the need for expensive seeds and chemicals. No less an expert than Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Food, has gone on record in support of agroecology as the only long-term answer to the global food crisis. The United Nations Environment Programme, in its report The Environmental Food Crisis, and the scientists and development experts who conducted the study that led to the release of the 2008 International Assessment of Agriculture, Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development, concur that conventional industrial agriculture wears down soil and natural resources and threatens the safety of the world’s water supply. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have also found that organic substances adapt to changing conditions and resist climate change by storing carbon in the soil and lessening the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.) The United Nations Environment Programme further recommends support for sustainable smallholder agriculture as the way toward a 50 percent increase in global food production. A separate 2008 United Nations study found that organic agriculture is outproducing traditional farms and matching the output of farms that employ chemical-based farming methods.

How Do Vegan Farming Practices Alleviate Hunger?

A diet based on legumes, grains and other vegetable and fruit crops provide people with the same nutrition as one based on meat; in fact, protein-rich crops like legumes cost the smallholder much less to raise than livestock and may even provide her with a surplus to sell to her neighbors at market. If she were to raise livestock along with her crops, the majority of her yield and her water stores would go towards feeding her animals. Livestock also make many demands on the environment. Precious forestland the world over have been converted to agricultural use to grow the crops needed to feed livestock. Animal waste runoff contaminates rivers and streams, rendering the water unsafe to drink. By concentrating on grain and crops, smallholders ensure an adequate and less costly food supply for themselves and their families, with perhaps enough left over to sell at a low cost to people living  in nearby non-farming communities. Non-livestock-based and chemical-free farming practices preserve the integrity of local water sources and leave forestland intact.

What Conclusions Can We Draw From These Arguments?

It stands to reason that sustainable, crop-based agriculture offers the least expensive, yet most productive, method for feeding and empowering the poorest members of the world’s population. Smallholders empowered by self-sufficiency and the ability to generate income by selling their surplus crops can potentially lift themselves and their children out of a downward spiral of hunger and poverty. Groups like Oxfam International devote manpower and resources to assisting people in food management methods. The country of Malawi stands out as a success story. Malawi’s government, with the help of donor agencies like the government of the United Kingdom, is successfully helping its people in ways such as fertilizer subsidies. People who once had to rely on food distribution programs are now earning extra income by selling their surplus. Food security is assured through efforts like these.

In my next article, I will examine the issue of “food deserts” in the United States. Poverty and hunger are not limited to the less developed corners of the world.

21 Days for World Hunger

Day 1

Day 2 Focus on Hunger: Interview with Vandana Shiva

Day 3 Cambodia: Portrait of Hunger

Day 4 A Mindful Approach to Food Fosters Compassion for the World’s Hungry

Day 5 How Does Mindful Farming Help Solve World Hunger

Day 6 Sustainable Vegan Farming Practices Empower the World’s Hungry

Day 7 Food Deserts and Urban Farm Markets

Day 8 Vandana Shiva and the Navdanya Farmers Network

Day 9 World Hunger: From GMO Chemistry Set to Table?

Day 10 The Generational Consequences of GMOs

Day 11 How to Avoid the GMO Bad Nasties

Day 12 What do GMOs have to do with world hunger?

Day 13 Why do People go Hungry in The Big Apple?

Day 14 Hunger in New York City: Meeting the Victims

Day 15 The Urban Hunger Problem:  Causes

Day 16 Becoming a Leader in the Hunger Battle

Day 17 The Psychology of Activism

Day 18 Hunger in Africa:  One Small NGO Making a Big Impact

Day 19 One NGO Fighting Against World Hunger

Day 20 Tools and Support for Getting Your Activist Activated

Day 21 Conducive Chronicle World Hunger Writers on Activism

Consider purchasing a World Hunger: Be the Solution Tee.  Proceeds from the shirt will go to Navdanya, the Small Planet Institute Fund 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.