Richard SeshieAhedor

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YouthPoverty andHungerEradication

ABSTRACT

At 923 million people, the number of undernourished in 2007 was morethan 80 million higher than in 1990–92 with an exceptional 75 millionhungry added in 2007 due to high food prices

. 94.1% of youth in Zambiaare living with less than US$ 2 per day

; proving Hunger and Poverty areparticularly afflicting young people today.In this paper, we offer explorative & provoking solutions that do not onlylimit and appeal to youth but seek the benefit of the overall society andwhere youth are given an increased role. Growing the food differently,empowering the farmers and the communities, improving the financing &distribution mechanisms and coping with food urgency in our opinion canmake a difference.

1. State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008 p.6;http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0291e/i0291e00.htm2. World Youth Report 2007 p.289;http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/wyr07.htm

GROWING THE FOOD DIFFERENTLY

Organic Food can be more profitable to farmers and produceplenty at the same time

. More and more westernerconsumers nowadays are vowing for food that can be pesticide-free,fertilizer-free, healthier and so are willing to pay an extra price. Organicfarming can substantially increase young farmers’ revenues

and it is amistake to say it produces less as commonly perceived.In India, many farmers have re-embraced Panchakavya

, a natural fertilizerused since ancient times as a solid alternative to chemicals while the LandInstitute is promoting an agricultural system with the ecological stability of the prairie (evergreen) and a grain yield comparable to that from annualcrops

. We can use the discipline of

Biomimicry

that studies natures’best ideas and imitate them to improve human activities (for example ithas been learned how termites build tower-homes kept always cool insidein spite of the varying climate that now serves to re-engineer interiorcooling). New lessons learnt can apply to make emerge new agriculturalmethods that produce plenty of food, healthy and profitable. The food basket can be made of crops (fruits, vegetables), meat andothers.Pigs are fed with corn to get fat and then we eat the fat pig and the cornsthat fed him. This looks like an intermediary we can avoid. 40,000 pounds of potatoescan be grown on an acre with the same surface giving only 250 pounds of beef

. Just one kilo of beef requires7-16 kg of grain or soy beans, up to 15,500 liters of water and 323 m2 of grazing land

; resources that could benefit more people.

Many groups are offering vegetarianism support to consumerswhich is good but not to cattle-owners looking for a practicalshift

: say Moussa realized that growing his pigs demands too much fromnature and want to grow maize, he actually do not know where to start.We could set up an

International Initiative ‘From Meat to Crops’

thathelp cattle-owners to effectively transition the use of their land to growcrops, feed more people and make profits.