Photo © 2011 Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch has just reported that tens of thousands Ethiopian rural people are being forcibly relocated to make room for large, foreign-run farming operations. The tragic irony is that Ethiopia, among the world’s top food aid receiving countries, is also exporting over three hundred thousand metric tonnes of food.

In southern areas of Ethiopia, food aid is still desperately needed due to drought and the influx of refugees from strife torn Somalia. However, as this story reveals, global land grab trends are seriously undermining many vulnerable nations’ ability to feed their own people. There are even calls for countries like Canada to halt food aid to Ethiopia until the relocations cease. See this Ottawa Citizen story.

USC Canada’s ground breaking Seeds of Survival program was born in Ethiopia amid famine in the late 1990s. Our program partner communities, located in northern rural regions of Ethiopia, have been promoting seed saving and agricultural diversification strategies to help eliminate the need for food aid – with much success. The program areas we work in are far more food secure, and in control of their own land and resources.

But as these events reveal, global land grabs are making efforts to solve global food challenges all the more difficult.

For more information, and to take action,  you may be interested in this  initiative by the Oakland Institute.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/7/stop-forced-relocations-ethiopia/

In the Timorese communities of Kika and Usu’un, most of the land close to the communities consists of steep hills and rocky soils. Because of deforestation and overgrazing, large portions of this land are of poor quality and have been abandoned as a result. Nearby farmers have to walk quite far to reach land they can actually farm.

Our USC Timor Leste colleagues have told us that a series of exchange visits between these farmers and a couple of other USC communities – Manelima and Kalohan – have started to yield some wonderful results! Just two years after the first visit, the farmers of Kika and Usu’un have discovered they could transform their challenging landscape into productive farming terrain.

In particular, the Botanical Gene Bank in Kalohan really caught their attention, inspiring them to start their own living collection. Today, the Ilimanuk Botanical Gene Bank – named for the indigenous people who settled this area – has a small building for storing seeds and preserving local cereal crop diversity. But just as importantly, it has become a hub of community field-based activities.

Many of the crops grown in this area are not grown from seed. Rather, they’re started from roots or cuttings, so it’s critical to preserve these local varieties, perennial fruit trees, and other plants by growing them directly in the fields.

With training and advice from the facilitators at USC Timor Leste and from local farmer leaders, young people have taken the lead, forming work groups to build terraces, set up live fences, establish water systems, and put up a small building for seed storage and meetings.

In just under one year, the Ilimanuk Botanical Gene Bank has become a thriving collection of community plots. Located on a 2.2 ha piece of land (about the size of five soccer fields) donated by the community, each participating farming household is responsible for a 200 square meter plot, planted with a diversity of food plants. They’ve nurtured the soil with composting and organic fertilizers, and according to Loehunu and Maulele – two older farmers from this community, “As far back as we can remember, the land has never been as productive as it is today.”

The author of the revolutionary 1971 classic Diet for a Small Planet recently sat down with Radio Boston to talk about her views on changing the way we think, to create the world we want. Listen to the interview online here or here

AND…
If you’re going to be in Ottawa or Toronto early in the New Year, you could have your own opportunity to ask Lappé the tough questions. We’re bringing her to Ottawa and Toronto for a speaking engagement in each city.

Get your tickets now!

Bruce’s visits to our programs in Mali and Nepal – featured in two films by Robert Lang, River of Sand and Return to Nepal – continue to inspire, just as Bruce’s music does!

Our heartfelt congratulations, Bruce.

• Here’s a link to the UNFCCC/COP17 Conference website, where you can find webcasts – for all of us who can’t be there.
• Need a nuts and bolts backgrounder? Check out this Q&A provided by The Guardian.
• For a view of how Africa sees climate issues, you can do no better than with The Pambazuka Press, an African News resource based right there. Start with this feature article.
• And for the view from Britain with a Canadian twist, check out this BBC story.
• Here at home, check out the Climate Action Network.
• What role is Canada playing in Durban? Take a look at these video clips and thought-provoking observations at a pre-conference meeting held in Ottawa in September. Pat Mooney from ETC Group is always challenging. But take a look also at what the South African High Commissioner had to say, Her Excellency Mohau Pheko, especially from the 3-minute mark.

• What is it?
• What’s causing it?
• What can we do about it?

Food issues are deeply connected to the most pressing issues of our times. The good news is, we can turn this around if we understand the problems and get started on the solutions.

We’re also working on a web-resource of information, links, and sources. So, take a look at the primer, give us your feedback, and leave comments below with any useful information, statistics, videos, and reports that will help us take those important steps forward.

Here’s one interesting statistic we found in an issue of Foreign Policy, last January:

“The US rule of thumb is that, for every 5 million cars added to a country’s fleet, roughly 1 million acres must be paved to accommodate them. And cropland is often the loser.”

Source: The Great Food Crisis of 2011, Lester Brown, Foreign Policy, January 10, 2011. Lester R. Brown is president of Earth Policy Institute and author of World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse.

Reuters provides a provocative summary of what could be a hot topic next week.

Click here for original article.

LONDON, October 31 (Reuters) – Traditional agriculture methods could help protect food supplies and make agriculture more resilient to the effects of climate change, a report by the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) said on Monday.

Traditional knowledge, rather than modern methods, has helped indigenous people in countries like China, Kenya, and Bolivia to cope with extreme weather and environmental change, the report said.

“Policies, subsidies, research and intellectual property rights promote a few modern commercial varieties and intensive agriculture at the expense of traditional crops and practices,” said Krystyna Swiderska, senior researcher at the IIED and lead author of the study.

“This is perverse, as it forces countries and communities to depend on an ever decreasing variety of crops and threatens with extinction the knowledge and biological diversity that form the foundations of resilience.”

Traditional methods include using local plants to control pests, choosing crop varieties which tolerate extreme conditions such as droughts and floods and planting a variety of crops to hedge bets against uncertain futures.

Policymakers agree that agriculture needs to be adapted to cope with rising temperatures, variable rainfall and extreme weather events to ensure future food security.

However, government policies have largely overlooked long-established agricultural practices in favour of intensifying production through modern methods, the report said.

Next month, governments will meet at a U.N. climate summit in Durban, South Africa, to work on securing a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions and climate aid for developing countries.

“They must have traditional knowledge firmly in their sights and begin discussing how to reform intellectual property rights in agriculture as a main concern,” the report said.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Keiron Henderson)

While living in Ottawa in early 1945, Ralph was asked to drive a young Czech refugee to a Unitarian church picnic. In other words, he met USC’s founder, Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova before USC was even born!

Ralph went on to become a prominent member of the Unitarian Church in Vancouver, was a Board member of the Canadian Unitarian Council, and has been donating to USC for nearly six decades, since 1953. He recalls Lotta as a “powerful, determined woman” who worked closely with local people in USC’s partner countries.

In the early years, he was also involved in USC clothing drives, and he says he really likes USC’s current approach of self-reliant development, helping people to help themselves.

Many thanks to all our USC Champions who have loyally supported us for so many years and decades!

She drew inspiration from her great-aunt, Isabel Percival, who had answered Dr Lotta’s early appeals to help WWII orphans: “Hearing about the USC and the children who needed our assistance inspired me.”

A few years later, Stephanie took her great-aunt’s inspiration to another level: “I do not recall exactly how I came upon the idea, but I decided to plant pumpkins to sell, to raise money for the USC.”

Her Girl Guide Leader, Ann Gilbert, heard of Stephanie’s project and proposed a larger event: a penny carnival in Stephanie’s community of Heart’s Desire. “We held games and contests, all costing only a penny, and gave small prizes. We also sold the pumpkins I had grown. As a bonus, we had a lot of fun and raised the profile of both the Girl Guide and USC organizations.”

The 1977 photo depicts a few of the Guides and Brownies presenting the cheque to Lotta. Stephanie is on the left: “I do not recall the amount, but I do know that as an 11 year old, I was impressed with the sum!”

Stephanie is very proud of these initial fundraising efforts and has continued to support USC Canada, becoming one of our first monthly donors in 1994!

When USC Canada celebrated Dr Lotta’s 100^th anniversary in November 2009, Stephanie brought her 1977 photo to the festivities and recalled her story.

She also noted how both she and her great-aunt were drawn to USC, “as it was headed by a woman who focused on development for women and children.” 

Stephanie’s story is all about family – her parents have also been USC supporters – inspiration, and loyalty to a cause. As Stephanie relates, “My great-aunt continued to be a USC supporter until her death and I intend to do the same.”

Our great thanks to Stephanie for sharing this story and to her whole family for their decades of support!

Many thanks to all our USC Champions who have loyally supported us for so many years and decades!

World Traveller

Amongst many other remarkable aspects of his life, John had the opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama, Queen Elizabeth, Prime Ministers Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and once found himself in Borneo looking on as an orangutan tried to throw a ball of dung at Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau!

Musician and TV Producer

In his youth, John was hoping to be a concert pianist, and entered the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival, twice losing to a young pianist by the name of Glenn Gould. In 1952, he started working for the brand new CBC Television, first as a stagehand, and then worked his way up to become film editor and then producer by 1954. He was responsible for “Country Calendar”, a program that enabled farmers to keep in touch and learn about new equipment coming on the market, and included weekly gardening tips.

Here in Ottawa in the 1960s, John became Artistic Director for the Ottawa Festival of the Performing Arts and directed successful musicals, one of which was performed at the legendary Le Hibou on Bank Street.

Lotta’s Friend

Dr Lotta used to love listening to John playing the piano and they often enjoyed going to concerts together in Ottawa: “I have very fond memories of Lotta and remember her as a dear, thoughtful person. We always talked openly and had many frank discussions.”

John has left an incredible legacy to USC Canada, through his film documentaries and photographs that so wonderfully capture the spirit of the times and places he and Lotta visited together. Thanks for the memories, John!

Many thanks to all our USC Champions who have loyally supported us for so many years and decades!