When a massive earthquake struck Haiti in January, 2010, it shone a spotlight on the need to ease the dangerous overcrowding in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. So, after responding to the disaster with emergency programs,  Oxfam shifted some of our focus to the countryside. Together with our partners, we ramped up our efforts to reinvigorate the rice economy of the Artibonite Valley, with the goals of reducing rural poverty, contributing to food security in Haiti, and—by making rice farming more viable —counteracting the continuous pull to migrate from the country to the city. As Oxfam’s Elizabeth Stevens reports in a series of blog posts, Haiti’s rice farmers are embracing the program and making it their own.

"If your crops fail, you become poor," said Willi Elimelec (above). "You can't send your children to school." Photo: Elizabeth Stevens/Oxfam

Here in the lush Artibonite Valley—a region that produces an abundance of rice—the farmers are poor. Undercut in the market by cheap imported rice and lacking the basic governmental supports that farmers in wealthy countries take for granted, Haiti’s small-scale rice growers can barely eke out a living.

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The stories, said Ismail, are in their eyes.

Ismail Abdalla Algazouli is an Oxfam colleague in Khartoum, Sudan, who spoke to me recently when he returned from a trip to the war-torn state of South Kordofan. He is a security officer whose job is to ensure the safety of our staff, partners, and programs, and in South Kordofan—where  there is fighting between the government and rebels, between nomadic herders and Nuban farmers, and between Sudan and its new neighbor, the nation of South Sudan—his role is crucial.

In Sudan and South Sudan, gathering leaves and unripe fruit from the laloba tree is a desperate measure for people who have little else to feed their families. Photo: Alun McDonald/Oxfam

No bullets were flying where he visited—the  eastern part of the state, where an Oxfam partner is  launching a program to aid families that have fled the violence. But from the looks in their eyes, he said, he could see that people were suffering. Many were afraid to talk about what they’d seen and what they’d lost, because the communities are fractured and unstable: they fear that whatever they say could make them a target of one side today or the other tomorrow.

 What’s more, erratic rains and the disruptions of armed conflict have resulted in poor harvests, so for those who don’t have the means to pay for it, there is little food available. Ismail watched as people gathered unripe fruits of the laloba tree—inedible unless you boil them well—and the wild um medeako—a grape-sized fruit so sour you don’t eat it unless you have to.  Ismail tried, but as he said, “I could not eat even one.”

Despite the constraints of war, Oxfam and our local partner have a chance to help. The work must move quickly to ease the suffering (already we have distributed seeds in time for planting), but gaining people’s confidence will take time.

What we need to do, said Ismail, is listen. “Sit longer, dig deeper, and build relationships of trust.”

Nelly Velandia at a farmers' market in Des Moines. Photo: Ilene Perlman/Oxfam America

Nelly Velandia’s plans this weekend include a visit to an Iowa farmers’ market.

That’s not unusual; many of us stop by a farmers’ market as part of our regular shopping routine. I go to my local market for translucent gold tomatoes, earthy carrots still sporting their crown of greens, even locally-made Mexican-style chocolate.

But for Velandia, a community leader from Colombia now visiting the US, farmers’ markets are more than just a place to shop.

“I grew up on a farm,” in rural Boyacá, Velandia told me when we met in Washington, DC. “My parents cultivated a love of the countryside in me, so after [college] I came back to work the land.” There was not enough land to grow new crops on her parents’ farm, but she was able to obtain her own small plot. (A recent UNDP report found that about 80 percent of Colombian farmers’ plots measure less than three acres.) She earned extra money selling her farm-fresh cheese, eggs, and vegetables.

Meanwhile, Velandia joined with others to advocate for the rights of her fellow women and indigenous people. “It was always my dream to go back and work with the communities where I was raised,” she explained. “What we work on is influence: we want to ensure that rural women can influence government policies to resolve the problems that affect them.” That mission eventually brought her to the capital, Bogotá, where she joined the Communal and Small-Scale Farmers’ Committee for Dialogue (known by its Spanish abbreviation CICC).

Things came full circle for Velandia when CICC came up with a plan to organize farmers’ markets in Bogotá. Supported by Oxfam, these markets would help rural farmers sell directly to city consumers and earn better prices for their crops. Velandia’s group even convinced the mayor’s office to help cover the cost of setting up markets in parks and public squares.

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John Abdulla is a new media specialist at Oxfam America.

Ever wish you could just tweet the president that burning question about the state of our economy? Today at 2 p.m. EST is your chance; the White House will hold its first Twitter Town Hall. You can tweet your questions on the economy and jobs for President Obama by using the hashtag #AskObama and he will answer selected questions live via webcast at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live.

This is a great opportunity to directly ask the president how fighting global hunger, investing in resilience to climate change, and restoring our Gulf Coast can help create new jobs and improve our economy. Here are some suggested tweets that you can simply copy and paste into twitter or adapt as you wish:

• What investments would you support in food security and climate resilience to create millions of jobs and fight #hunger? #AskObama
• Why aren’t we investing in #ClimateChange resiliency to protect US businesses, deliver new consumers & create jobs here at home? #AskObama
• Do you agree that inclusive growth overseas helps America’s economic future by increasing markets for American goods? #AskObama
• Investing in Gulf Coast restoration will help the ecology and economy of the region recover. Are you on board? #AskObama

You can also visit us on Twitter and retweet your favorite question for the President!

“Most American children don’t starve to death.”

This is what my pediatrician said to me Friday morning during my daughter’s annual physical. He was trying to allay my concerns about Olive’s finicky eating habits. Most American children have access to and can afford plenty of good food, he was saying. If they don’t eat, it’s because they choose not to.

While I get where he was going with that logic, my pediatrician might be surprised by just how many Americans do go hungry every day. According to the results of a new GlobeScan Incorporated opinion poll funded by Oxfam, 8 percent of Americans surveyed said that they sometimes, rarely, or never had enough to eat on a daily basis. This is compared to one in five people surveyed in developing countries such as Pakistan, Mexico, and India, who said that they sometimes, rarely, or never had enough to eat on a daily basis. In very poor countries the situation was bleaker still: up to 21 percent of people in Tanzania and Kenya said they rarely or never had enough to eat.

For those of us who mindlessly fill our grocery carts every week–and only go hungry when we’re too lazy to cook, not in the mood or too busy to eat–that data can be hard to swallow. But here’s the truth: Huge numbers of people, especially in the world’s poorest countries, are cutting back on the quantity or quality of the food they eat because of rising food prices. 54 percent of people questioned globally and 56 percent in the US said they are not eating the same food as they did two years ago. Globally 39 percent of people said their diet had changed because food is simply becoming too expensive. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I asked a simple question on Facebook and Twitter: Fill in the blank: food security means _______.  I asked, not just out of curiosity, but because I hear the words “food security” floating around a lot in the Oxfam America headquarters. I knew that outside of the office it’s a term that could be interpreted in many different ways. And even though the term is academic, the concept is important. Hunger is an issue that Oxfam has been addressing for decades, but with climate change and soaring food prices, food security is back in the spotlight.

So that’s why we asked people to give us their take.  Read a few of their answers below, then tell us what food security means to you:

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Majora Carter, far right, fires up the crowd at a New York City Oxfam America Hunger Banquet earlier this week. Photo: Sarah Peck / Oxfam America

“You’re not going to like what I have to say,” warned the woman next to me. An instructor at a local college, she was among the 80 or so people who’d attended a Boston panel discussion last week in honor of the centennial of International Women’s Day. The panel was one of over 175 events nationwide organized by Oxfam America and our supporters this spring, all based around the theme of women and food.

It wasn’t the response I expected when I asked my neighbor what she thought of the panel. But I assured her I’d listen with an open mind.

She said that it was good to hear women’s stories from other parts of the world—referring to panelist Yvette Cissé, an Oxfam America partner and leader of an organic farmers’ cooperative in Mali. Cissé spoke via translator about the benefits she’s seen from growing organic cotton, such as more fertile soil and higher earnings that help women feed their families. “You can be an expert farmer, but if there’s not enough water, it’s a big problem,” said Cissé of the challenges caused by increasingly erratic rainfall. “Women are pulling water by hand from a 20- to 30-foot-deep well, or walking up to a mile to get water for their gardens.”

Still, the woman next to me explained, she sometimes worried that stories like this might divert our attention from ending hunger and poverty here in the US. Those problems may not be as intense, she said, but they’re real too, and they’re right on our doorstep.

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March 8th marks 100 years of celebrating International Women’s Day. And to honor the occasion, people like you are teaming up with Oxfam America throughout the month to show their support for women worldwide. Though hunger and poverty affect everyone, women and girls in poor communities face particular challenges. But they can also be leaders in coming up with solutions.

Our centennial celebration includes over 130 grassroots events in 39 states, from Oxfam America Hunger Banquets to panels and film screenings, house parties to open-mike nights , concerts to meetings with members of Congress. There’s an impressive list of speakers, too: former governors; state and national policymakers; farmers from Mali, Cambodia, Haiti, and the US; Sisters on the Planet Ambassadors; business leaders; agricultural innovators; foodies; and more.

We’ve also put together an interactive photobook featuring images from around the world, along with videos, notes, and tweets (see some highlights from the photobook in the slideshow above). And we invite you to join this grassroots show of solidarity by adding your own. The message? Ending hunger starts with women, but it doesn’t stop there. No matter who we are or where we live, all of us can add our voices to the effort.

Sarah Peck is Oxfam’s email advocacy writer (and occasional photographer).

Not long ago I attended an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet® in Des Moines, Iowa, with over 200 people, most of them high school students from the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute. This was just one of hundreds of Hunger Banquets taking place around the country this Thanksgiving season.

To get a glimpse into what a Hunger Banquet looks like, check out some of my photos below, and hear from a few people who attended the event:

Photo: Sarah Peck / Oxfam America

“It’s one thing to talk about hunger, or to read about it. It’s another thing to actually experience it.”  – Event participant Read the rest of this entry »

Members of the Jalala Women's Association work in one of their fields. Photo by Eva-Lotta Jansson/Oxfam America

“People still remember what happened a few years ago,” the New York Times quoted an economist at the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization saying on Saturday as news of rising food prices—and the possible clashes they could trigger—hit the headlines.

How could anyone who was hungry then forget?

Accompanying the Times story was a stunning photo of a young boy in Mozambique where the cost of bread has suddenly skyrocketed by 30 percent.  Defiance—or is it disbelief?–seems to arc through every bone in his body: Wearing shorts and a pair of boots that climb almost to his knees, he’s staked out his position in front of a burning car. On his head floats a too-big cap that must have once belonged to a policeman or a military officer. Read the rest of this entry »