Our Noble Suppliers
for this project we had to create a speech speaking about a topic related to the UN's second sustainable development goal which is to solve world hunger in all forms. for the project i chose to talk about how farmers in third world countries are disadvantaged
Today, in this day and age, we expect the farmers in all walks of life to be treated just. In other countries farmers are providing the best food they can make to a small area. This is most prevalent in third world countries where farmers can’t expand due to large corporate entities buying land. Farmers in third world countries are cheated out of sustainable living.
This project is about SDG 1: no poverty. This Essay Relates to target 5 "By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters." At points in this essay I point out how some farmers gained economic power from large corporations by farmers creating their own connection to a market thus reaping their own profits.
The other SDG that this relates to is SDG 2: zero hunger. This Essay relates to target 3 "By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment." This target has a much clearer connection to this essay as I talk about farmers in less fortunate situations. By increasing income they have the necessary capital to live off their farm.
One solution that could correct this problem has started is in Kyrgyzstan where farmers sell produce to local schools. This provides farmers with buyers of their produce and gives schools easier access to fresh food sources. This can only go as far as the schools storage area and can’t work as well in densely populated areas as they have don't have a large cooled space to store the food.
Another solution to create sustainable farms is to purposefully get outside help of buyers in America. In other words, get people to deliberately go out of their way to buy from farmers outside of the country. This happened in Mozambique where a TechnoServe bought soy from thirty thousand farmers. The increase in the farmers salary allowed them to be more productive and effectively use more land. Some of the other outside help farmers could use is with affording high quality seeds along with fertilizers, pesticides, and equipment.
One last fix to create sustainable farms could be giving smallholder GMO farms. Even though GMOs have a bad reputation in developed countries they are still to beneficial growing crops. GMO’s are seen as an evil product developed by large corporations to sell cheap, unhealthy crops. But the term genetically modified organics doesn't mean that it has to be “evil”. In this case GM crops can be great. As some GM crops can grow and reach maturity faster and be generally healthier than generic crops. This can greatly increase the amount of food production in the area helping out with the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the area. not to mention that the more crops produced will drop the price so people living off of less than $4 can easily afford the new dropped price.
Farmers every day are at risk because of how vulnerable they are to corporations forcing them into bad situations and how they are twisting GMOs into a problem instead of a solution. This is backed up by this quote from Empires of Food,
"...Most farmers, especially those in the developing world, construct precarious towers of debt to pay for each season's update. Farmers who plant a high-yielding seed accept a gamble. They know that their harvests will dramatically improve, but they also understand they might bet away the far should bugs or weather wreck the crops"
Today, in this day and age, we expect the farmers in all walks of life to be treated just. In other countries farmers are providing the best food they can make to a small area. This is most prevalent in third world countries where farmers can’t expand due to large corporate entities buying land. Farmers in third world countries are cheated out of sustainable living.
This project is about SDG 1: no poverty. This Essay Relates to target 5 "By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters." At points in this essay I point out how some farmers gained economic power from large corporations by farmers creating their own connection to a market thus reaping their own profits.
The other SDG that this relates to is SDG 2: zero hunger. This Essay relates to target 3 "By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment." This target has a much clearer connection to this essay as I talk about farmers in less fortunate situations. By increasing income they have the necessary capital to live off their farm.
One solution that could correct this problem has started is in Kyrgyzstan where farmers sell produce to local schools. This provides farmers with buyers of their produce and gives schools easier access to fresh food sources. This can only go as far as the schools storage area and can’t work as well in densely populated areas as they have don't have a large cooled space to store the food.
Another solution to create sustainable farms is to purposefully get outside help of buyers in America. In other words, get people to deliberately go out of their way to buy from farmers outside of the country. This happened in Mozambique where a TechnoServe bought soy from thirty thousand farmers. The increase in the farmers salary allowed them to be more productive and effectively use more land. Some of the other outside help farmers could use is with affording high quality seeds along with fertilizers, pesticides, and equipment.
One last fix to create sustainable farms could be giving smallholder GMO farms. Even though GMOs have a bad reputation in developed countries they are still to beneficial growing crops. GMO’s are seen as an evil product developed by large corporations to sell cheap, unhealthy crops. But the term genetically modified organics doesn't mean that it has to be “evil”. In this case GM crops can be great. As some GM crops can grow and reach maturity faster and be generally healthier than generic crops. This can greatly increase the amount of food production in the area helping out with the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the area. not to mention that the more crops produced will drop the price so people living off of less than $4 can easily afford the new dropped price.
Farmers every day are at risk because of how vulnerable they are to corporations forcing them into bad situations and how they are twisting GMOs into a problem instead of a solution. This is backed up by this quote from Empires of Food,
"...Most farmers, especially those in the developing world, construct precarious towers of debt to pay for each season's update. Farmers who plant a high-yielding seed accept a gamble. They know that their harvests will dramatically improve, but they also understand they might bet away the far should bugs or weather wreck the crops"
instead GMOs can be used to make a self-sustaining profitable crop. So today as we should protect the less fortunate doing this noble work of trying to feed people working in these fields for hours and treat them like the people they are.
Citations:
Herrera-Estrella, L, and A Alvarez-Morales. “Genetically Modified Crops: Hope for Developing Countries? The Current GM Debate Widely Ignores the Specific Problems of Farmers and Consumers in the Developing World.” EMBO Reports, Oxford University Press, 15 Apr. 2001, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1083872/.
Shemkus, Sarah. “In Poor Countries, Companies Step in to Fill Gaps Left by Agricultural Nonprofits.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Feb. 2015, www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/feb/02/pioneer-firms-feed-world-agriculture-india-mozambique-profit.
“From the Farm to the School Table.” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1189857/.
https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal1.html
Herrera-Estrella, L, and A Alvarez-Morales. “Genetically Modified Crops: Hope for Developing Countries? The Current GM Debate Widely Ignores the Specific Problems of Farmers and Consumers in the Developing World.” EMBO Reports, Oxford University Press, 15 Apr. 2001, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1083872/.
Shemkus, Sarah. “In Poor Countries, Companies Step in to Fill Gaps Left by Agricultural Nonprofits.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Feb. 2015, www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/feb/02/pioneer-firms-feed-world-agriculture-india-mozambique-profit.
“From the Farm to the School Table.” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1189857/.
https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal1.html
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