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Jan 27

Achieving Food Security in the Face of Climate Change

Nourishing the Planet Agriculture, Climate Change, Environment, Ethiopia, Food Security, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda

By Jeffrey Lamoureux

The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change (CSACC), a roundtable of senior natural and social scientists from across the globe, recently released its Summary for Policymakers. The commission is working to promote concrete policy recommendations toward achieving food security in the face of climate change, and its summary is a synthesis of its final report, due in early 2012. Aimed at global policymakers at the recently concluded United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban and the upcoming Rio+20 Earth Summit, CSACC hopes to bring agriculture into discussions of climate change mitigation.

At the local level, sustainable intensification of production must be achieved (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

“Efforts to alleviate the worst effects of climate change cannot succeed without simultaneously addressing the crises in global agriculture and the food system,” said Dr. Bruce Campbell, director of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, which convened the independent commission in February 2011.

The global food system is plagued with structural issues: a billion are hungry while another billion over-consume, and inefficient practices cause tremendous amounts of waste and make agriculture the single biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As the world’s population grows, the tastes of an ever-expanding middle class lean towards consumption of resource-intensive protein-heavy diets, and climate change threatens to disrupt much of the world’s arable land, the food system could reach critical thresholds. “Food insecurity produces widespread human suffering, even in the world’s wealthiest countries, as well as political and economic instability, so it is clear the status quo is not an option,” said Commissioner Professor Tekalign Mamo, Advisor to the Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture.

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Jan 26

Six Months Later, Situation in Somalia “Still Desperate”

Nourishing the Planet Africa, Drought

By Leah Baines 

Six months after famine struck the Horn of Africa, leaving 12 million people at risk of starvation, the situation in Somalia is still dire. Although the designation of famine in some areas of the country has been lifted, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a collaboration of 14 leading U.K. aid agencies, says that there are four million people still in urgent need of aid in a drought that has already killed tens of thousands.

Women wait for food rations at Bondere Camp for Internally Displaced People in Mogadishu. (Photo credit: Brendan Paddy, Disasters Emergency Committee)

The famine designation has been lifted in the Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions in southern Somalia, but rates of malnutrition and death remain extremely high. Throughout the rest of the country, millions of people continue to suffer despite £75 million (approximately USD $115 million) in aid money raised recently by the DEC. Many have been forced to abandon their homes, and flee to refugee camps.

Islamic Relief, one of the DEC’s member charities is calling for “more international aid and an increased diplomatic effort,” so that those displaced and affected by the famine can receive the food supplies and medical attention they need and finally begin to rebuild their lives.

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Jan 26

Videos Help Farmers Learn New Techniques

Nourishing the Planet Agriculture, Development, Education, Farmers, Technology, Training

Check out this post by Food + Tech, an organization that connects decision makers with the information and technology they need to support food production innovations.

Many development organization are using educational videos to help spread their messages. (Photo credit: Food+Tech)

According to the article, “Cuts to agricultural extension programs have left agents in many countries now attempting to serve tens of thousands of farmers and many farmers do not live near farm field schools.” But many organizations, including the Africa Rice Centre and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, are designing and disseminating educational videos on agricultural techniques, such as seed preparation, to reach out to those farmers.

Click here to read the full article and to check out some of the videos.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


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Jan 25

Agricultural Innovation: Creating a Second Green Revolution

Nourishing the Planet Agriculture, Development, Innovation, Technology

By Marissa Dwyer

Bill Gates released his 2012 annual letter, stressing the need for agricultural innovation to further international development. He has written annual letters since 2009, each of which outlines the key areas of focus for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for that year. Gates discusses the need for continued effort for other global health issues, including Polio vaccination, family planning programs, and HIV/AIDS prevention approaches. For all of these global health issues, he explains that, “Innovation is the means, and equity is the end goal” for the Foundation. Each letter has highlighted innovation as a means to greatly improve the world.

Use of a solar-powered drip-irrigation system in Niger. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

His call for new solutions comes at a time when roughly 15 percent of the world population—1 billion people—are living in extreme poverty. Gates explains that, despite not having enough food for their families to eat, many of these people are small farm owners. In developing countries, malnutrition is a contributing factor in over half of all deaths of children under the age of five. Additionally, over 270 million children “are suffering long-term malnourishment and micronutrient deficiency,” seriously hampering their growth and development.

Gates states the need to build upon the work of the “Green Revolution” in the 1960s and 1970s, when existing technologies on irrigation, improved seed varieties, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizer were spread to farmers in developing countries. Governments today, he says, are paying less attention to and spending fewer resources on agriculture in their countries. The world spends US$3 billion per year on researching major crops, and very little of that funding is directed toward the needs of small-scale farmers.

According to Gates, modest amounts of investment can have a significant impact on the lives of millions of people. He concludes his letter by stating that he is optimistic about the potential of innovative partnerships between the private sector, developing countries, and aid organizations to greatly improve agricultural productivity throughout the world.

What do you think? Will a green revolution in Africa work? Let us know in the comments section! 

Marissa Dwyer is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet project.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


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Jan 25

Nourishing the Planet TV: Creating Farms that Produce Food and Energy

Nourishing the Planet Africa, Agriculture, Climate Change, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Energy, Farmers, Fertilizer, Fuel, Income, Livestock, Nourishing the Planet TV, Soil

In this week’s episode, we discuss how incorporating an Integrated Food and Energy System (IFES) can give rural and impoverished communities better access to food and reliable energy. Farmers can incorporate IFES in two ways–by using intercropping methods and growing food and fuel-generating crops, such as acacia trees, or by integrating livestock onto their farms and using biodigesters from their manure to generate energy.

Video: http://youtu.be/gPlSroOqNaY

To read  about IFES, see: Innovation of the Week: Creating Farms that Produce Food and Energy.

To purchase your own copy of State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet, please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


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Jan 24

Five School Programs Feeding America’s Children

Nourishing the Planet Education, Nutrition, School, Youth

By Jenna Banning

Beyond the traditional lessons on reading, writing, and math, schools across America are now teaching their students about another crucially important subject that will build the foundation for the rest of their lives: nutrition.

Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids partners with schools in Delaware to build vegetable gardens. (Photo credit: Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 17 percent of children in America are obese.  These children face higher risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other diseases when they become adults.

With approximately 55 million children enrolled in the U.S., schools can play a powerful role in the efforts to combat obesity. Every day, over 31 million children receive their lunches through the National School Lunch Program. These meals are subsidized the government, and made available to low-income students for free or reduced rates.  In addition, by teaching children about agriculture, cooking, and gardening, students gain a greater appreciation and understanding of where their food comes from and how it is produced. Today, Nourishing the Planet highlights five initiatives helping to teach children about nutrition across the country.

1. Louisville, Kentucky

In 2003, according to a report by the Trust for America’s Health, Kentucky had the third highest level of overweight high school students, as well as the third highest number of low-income children between two and five years old in the country. Since then, Kentucky has made significant improvements in their school lunches and nutrition programs.

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Jan 23

Cañihua: Quinoa’s Little Cousin Packs a Nutritional Punch

Nourishing the Planet Uncategorized

By Isaac Hopkins

Many areas in the Andean highlands of Peru and Bolivia are above 3800 meters in elevation. These highlands regularly experience extreme fluctuations in temperature—around 30°C (86°F)—and often  drop well below freezing at night. The area is also prone to drought, due to erratic mountain weather patterns and a winter dry season. It takes a special range of crops to feed the inhabitants of such an environment.

Cañihua plants near ripeness. Only partially domesticated, its genetic diversity is apparent from the wide range of colors. (Photo Credit: ccbolgroup.com)

The Chenopodium genus is known as the “goosefoots,” and is comprised of some 150 species. Two of these species are Quinoa and its lesser-known cousin, Cañihua. Specialized to grow at high elevations, Cañihua has been a staple crop in the Andean highlands for thousands of years.

Farmers in Peru and Bolivia produce almost all of the Cañihua grown in the world, but exports are minimal. At one time, much of South America, especially along the Andes Mountains, thrived on Quinoa and Cañihua, but the introduction of barley and wheat by Europeans caused a shift in agricultural production.

Still, these new cereal crops are usually difficult to grow at high elevations, as they are sensitive to frost and lack of rainfall, so some communities still rely on Cañihua for food. The plant is sown in the fall and can withstand night frosts, temperatures up to 28°C (82°F), or extended drought.

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Jan 22

In Case You Missed it: This Week in Review

Nourishing the Planet Uncategorized

This week, we highlighted a new report released by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute that discusses important policy reforms to resolve the food crisis that has been affecting people since 2007. We also highlighted a new video released by the Just Label It! campaign that urges people to sign a petition to encourage the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to label genetically engineered foods. You can sign the petition here.

Photo credit: Bernard Pollack

And our Nourishing the Planet TV episode this week discussed Land O’Lakes’ International Development’s work to tackle poverty through programs focused on dairy and livestock production and the establishment of cooperatives that are helping to increase farmers’ access to markets and better prices.

Also check out Nourishing the Planet and the Institute for Sustainable Development’s 12 recommendations that people in developing countries can take to go green in 2012.

Highlights from this past week:

Innovations like the internet and satellite technology are changing the face of food system solutions in even the poorest countries. Nourishing the Planet examined five forms of media that can use the power of information to combat hunger.

And our innovation of the week is the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project that is working to create a model of sustainable agricultural development in an arid environment in the Dead Sea Valley. The project, started in 2008 by the Permaculture Research Institute (PRI) in Australia, has already restored 10 hectares of previously unproductive land. According to PRI, this project demonstrates “all the basic needs for a healthy, meaningful, peaceful lifestyle [that] can be affordable, understood, and achieved by poor local people.”

Now it’s your turn: What were your favorite posts from the week? What do you hope we’ll write about next week? Let us know in the comments!

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Jan 21

Denmark’s Tax on Fat: Trimming Waistlines or Wallets?

Nourishing the Planet Diet, disease, Disease Prevention, Food, Health, Nutrition

By Marissa Dwyer

In October, Denmark implemented the world’s first tax that directly targets saturated fat in foods.  Saturated fat, according to the World Health Organization, raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels which can increase the risk of cardio vascular disease. Saturated fat is found in foods from animal sources, such as butter and bacon. Any products which contain more than 2.3 percent saturated fat are subject to the tax. The consumer must pay an additional 16 Danish kroner (US$2.85) per kilogram (or 2.2 pounds) of any food product which has more than 2.3 per cent saturated fat. For example, consumers now have to pay 37 Danish kroner (US$6.50) instead of 34 Danish kroner (US$6) for a pound of cheese.

The Danish pastry: this butter-intensive dessert is one example of the foods that will be taxed under the recently implemented law. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

This tax was passed overwhelmingly by the Danish Parliament this past March. But there are serious concerns by the food industry, particularly organic dairy farmers, who worry about the potential loss in revenue from the tax and believe that the government is unfairly deeming their products unhealthy. According to an article in The Washington Post, the tax could prove to be regressive, putting a heavier burden on lower-income consumers.

Furthermore, the likelihood of the tax to change dietary behavior is debatable. A study conducted by Lisa Powell and Frank Chaloupka of the University of Illinois at Chicago determined that, “Small taxes or subsidies [of unhealthy, energy-dense foods] are not likely to produce significant changes in BMI or obesity prevalence but that nontrivial pricing interventions may have some measurable effects.” Based on these findings, the tax could have little or no effect on food consumption habits in Denmark if it remains at the current rate. An alternative of directly taxing the producers of these food products would not likely lead to a different outcome, since the cost would be passed on to consumers anyway via price increases.

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Jan 20

Changing the Way We Eat

Nourishing the Planet Diet, Food, Food safety

Tomorrow, TEDxManhattan will be hosting a panel discussion on steps needed to change the way we eat.

Tune in to hear experts discuss how we can, and should, change the way we eat. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

The panel will feature president of the board of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and former director of Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Fred Kirschenmann and Senior Advisor at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, David Wallinga, among other experts.

Although the event is already sold out, you can view the livestream here. Click here for more program details.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


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Jan 20

Resolving the Food Crisis

Nourishing the Planet Agriculture, Development, Economy, Farmers, Food, Food Security, Investment

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute have released a new report that highlights important policy reforms to resolve the food crisis that has been affecting people since 2007.

According to a new report, although there has been an upsurge in attention towards agricultural development, there is still room for more growth in investments. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

The report, Resolving the Food Crisis: Assessing Global Policy Reforms Since 2007, is based on a comprehensive assessment of the policies and actions taken since 2007 by four international groups of actors: the UN, the G-20, the World Bank, and international donors. Although there has been an upsurge in attention towards agricultural development, there is still room for more growth in investments. The report authors, Timothy A. Wise and Sophia Murphy, urge policymakers to pay attention to three key issues: reducing financial speculation on commodities markets, halting “land grabs,” and limiting the expansion of crops and land dedicated to biofuels.

Click here to read the full report.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


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Jan 19

Innovation of the Week: Greening the Desert

Nourishing the Planet Farmers, Innovation, Innovation of the Week, Permaculture

By Emily Gilbert

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there are 1 billion hungry people in the world, most of who live in poor rural areas. As the world’s population is set to hit 7 billion, policy-makers are struggling to find ways to nourish our planet’s growing population.  Traditionally, the answers have been sought in higher-yield seed varieties, vast dams for irrigation, and tons of artificial fertilizer.  But these approaches have proven to be costly both for the environment and for poor farmers, often without addressing the fundamental issues affecting our food systems.

The Jordan Valley Permaculture Project. (Photo credit: Dan Smith)

With this in mind, the Permaculture Research Institute (PRI) of Australia established the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project in 2008, to create a model for sustainable agricultural development in an arid environment that, according to PRI, demonstrates “all the basic needs for a healthy, meaningful, peaceful lifestyle can be affordable, understood, and achieved by poor local people.” In the process, the project has restored 10 hectares of previously unproductive land.

The Jordan Valley Permaculture Project is located in the Dead Sea Valley.  With months-long drought and temperatures reaching 122°F (50°C) during the summer months, it is difficult to imagine anything growing here.

To tackle this deficit of freshwater, Geoff Lawton, founder and director of the Permaculture Research Institute, and his team designed a swale, or landscaped contour system, over the project’s 10 acres. This allows millions of liters of water to store up during the winter months and soak back into the earth, creating an underground reservoir for the hot summer months.  After collecting excess and scrapped organic matter from neighboring farms, the team was able to plant nitrogen-fixing tree species which help rehabilitate the soil and provide shade for successor species.  Within four months of planting, fig trees were over a meter high and already bearing fruit

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Jan 18

Labels Matter

Nourishing the Planet GE, GMO

Check out this latest video from the Just Label It! campaign to encourage the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to label genetically engineered food. Labels Matter, part of a new project by director of Food, Inc., Robert Kenner, tells the story of three consumers who share a belief in the right to know what goes in the production of their food.

Click here to watch the video and here to sign the petition.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


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Jan 18

Nourishing the Planet TV: Lasting Skills for Sustainable Change

Nourishing the Planet Africa, Agriculture, Cooperatives, Development, Farmers, Farmers Groups, Innovation, Kenya, Livestock, Mozambique, Nourishing the Planet, Nourishing the Planet TV, State of the World 2011, Sustainable, Water

In this week’s episode, we discuss how Land O’Lakes’ International Development program is tackling poverty through educational programs focused on dairy and livestock production and cooperative initiatives.

Video: http://youtu.be/EO_Z1mNLtrE

To read about Land O’Lakes’ International Development program, see: Innovation of the Week: Lasting Skills for Sustainable Change.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.

 


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Jan 17

Farming Key to Less Poverty and a Stable Climate

Nourishing the Planet Nourishing the Planet, State of the World 2011

Check out this latest review of State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet in Australia’s ECOS Magazine.

Photo credit: ECOS Magazine

“The report predicts that, given the current global economic conditions, investments are not likely to increase in the coming year. Much of the more recently pledged funding has yet to be raised, and existing funding is not being targeted efficiently to reach the poor farmers of Africa.”

Click here to read the full review.

To purchase your own copy of State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet, please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


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Jan 17

Five Media Innovations That Help Feed the Planet

Nourishing the Planet Education, Farmers, Innovation, Kenya, Media, Seeds, Technology

By Isaac Hopkins

As modern technology is adopted in widespread regions of our planet, it can provide poor people with access to many forms of media. Innovations like the internet and satellite technology are changing the face of food system solutions in even the poorest countries.

Cell phones are providing increasing numbers people in developing countries with access to crucial information. (Photo credit: Affordable Technology)

Today, Nourishing the Planet introduces five forms of media that can use the power of information to combat hunger.

1. Television: Access to television is expanding all over the planet. In India, for example, half of all households have televisions, and even in the poorest countries in Africa, many villages have shared sets. Entire communities often gather around a car battery-powered TV to watch futbol matches or soap operas.

Television in Action: Started by the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID), Makutano Junction is a soap opera, full of the drama and twisting plotlines that you’d expect, but also packed with valuable health and development information. Characters teach each other about vaccines, fighting political corruption, and even agricultural techniques. In the seventh episode of season 6, for example, one character teaches the rest of town the technique of soaking seeds before planting them to encourage a faster, healthier crop. The response from viewers of the show was strong, with thousands of people requesting more information about seed soaking from the show’s producers. They were sent illustrated pamphlets explaining the technique, so thousands of Kenyans have learned a new method of increasing production by watching a soap opera!

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Jan 16

Going Green in 2012: 12 Steps for the Developing World

Nourishing the Planet Compost, Conservation, Energy, Environment, Food, Waste, Water

Many of us are thinking about the changes we want to make this year. For some, these changes will be financial; for others, physical or spiritual. But for all of us, there are important resolutions we can make to “green” our lives. Although this is often a subject focused on by industrialized nations, people in developing countries can also take important steps to reduce their growing environmental impact.

By using biogas collection tanks, farmers in Rwanda are already helping to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

“We in the developing world must embark on a more vigorous ‘going green’ program,” says Sue Edwards, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD). “As incomes rise and urbanization increases, a growing middle class must work with city planners to ensure our communities are sustainable.”

ISD’s Tigray Project recently received the Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development 2011, shared with Kofi Annan, Chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Since 1996, Tigray has worked to help Ethiopian farmers rehabilitate ecosystems, raise land productivity, and increase incomes through such practices as composting, biodiversity enhancement, the conservation of water and soil, and the empowerment of local communities to manage their own development.

Broadening sustainability efforts is essential to solving many of the world’s challenges, including food production, security, and poverty. The United Nations has designated 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All.

Hunger, poverty, and climate change are issues that we in the developing world can help address. Here are 12 simple steps to go green in 2012:

1.      Recycle:

Urbanization is on the rise throughout the developing world. According to the United Nations, the highest urban-area growth is 3.5 percent per year in Africa. But waste management is not keeping up with population growth. It is inefficient in urban areas and virtually nonexistent in rural areas, resulting in the pervasive unloading of waste in unmanaged dump sites and bodies of water and endangering public health. 

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Jan 15

In Case You Missed it: This Week in Review

Nourishing the Planet Uncategorized

This week, we examined the impacts that rising food prices have on small scale farmers in many developing countries, who often have to spend up to 70 percent of their income on food. Our Nourishing the Planet TV episode discussed World Neighbors, a non-profit that works in farming communities around the world to teach sustainable agricultural practices, including drip irrigation and terracing techniques. And in this week’s Citywatch post, food analyst Wayne Roberts discussed how 2012 could be the year of youth- and activist-led movements for a more just food system.

Photo credit: Bernard Pollack

Our State of the World 2011 report received some exciting press coverage this week. Check out these reviews of the report in the U.K.’s The New Agriculturist and Australia’s ECOS Magazine. Meanwhile our 12 recommendations to go green were featured in Fox News.

Highlights from this past week:

Starting this weekend, over 1,000 young athletes from 70 nations will compete in the first ever Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. As we prepare to cheer the young athletes of the Winter Youth Olympics, Nourishing the Planet would also like to applaud the young leaders of sustainability efforts across the globe. In this post, we honor 10 medal-worthy organizations and their youth-focused sustainability efforts.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports that an estimated one-third of the food produced worldwide for human consumption is wasted annually. In the United States, an estimated 40 percent of edible food is thrown away by retailers and households. In the United Kingdom, 8.3 million tons of food is wasted by households each year. In this post Nourishing the Planet presents five ways that consumers can help prevent food waste.

And our indigenous crop of the week is the horned melon, a plant that grows from southern Africa to Nigeria and Ethiopia. This fruit, which turns fluorescent green when ripe, can be consumed in a number of ways—people in Malawi tend to eat it raw, as a relish, or even pickled, while in the Kalahari, it is baked or cut and sun-dried.

Now it’s your turn: What were your favorite posts from the week? What do you hope we’ll write about next week? Let us know in the comments!

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Jan 14

Concise and Accessible Roadmap on Sustainable Agriculture

Nourishing the Planet Agriculture, Nourishing the Planet, State of the World 2011

Check out this latest review of State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet in the New Agriculturist.

“From innovations in rice breeding in Madagascar and grain trading in Zambia to solar cookers in Senegal and wastewater irrigation in West Africa, State of the world 2011 provides practical accounts of innovations that are helping the poorest communities feed themselves.”

Click here to read the full review.

To purchase your own copy of State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet, please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.

 


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Jan 14

NAFTA Doing More Harm than Good

Nourishing the Planet Economy, Farmers, Hunger, Labor, Mexico, Nutrition

By Bryan Dorval

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by the governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada in 1994, millions of Mexicans have joined the ranks of the hungry. About one-fifth of Mexican children currently suffer from malnutrition. The Mexican government reports that the number of people living in food poverty, the inability to purchase a basic food basket of staple foods, has risen over the last few years from 18 million in 2008 to 20 million in 2010.

Farmers in Mexico protesting against the unfair regulations enforced on them by NAFTA. ( Photo credit: Denis Poroy)

To see the affect NAFTA has had on the local economy you need only look at their rising import costs. Forty two percent of the food consumed in Mexico comes from abroad. Before NAFTA, the country spent USD $1.8 billion on food imports—today it spends $24 billion.

The rise of imported corn has caused the price of locally grown corn to fall by half, which has forced nearly two million farmers off their land. With their livelihoods gone, the farmers are forced to look for work elsewhere in order to support their families. Many of these farmers seek refuge in the United States as migrant workers.

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