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Poverty and hunger loom in global warming’s wake

23 Oct 2016 - Preaching the News for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

“The Lord hears the cry of the poor” is the psalmist’s plaintive and memorable refrain this Sunday. The question is will we here on earth hear their cry in time to drastically slow the pace of global warming? If not, up to 122 million more people worldwide could be living in extreme poverty by 2030 as a result of climate change and its impacts on small-scale farmers’ incomes, a major UN report warned on Monday. Climate change is a "major and growing threat to global food security,” said the report, warning that it could increase the global population living in extreme poverty dramatically, with farming communities in sub-Saharan Africa among the hardest hit. The 2016 State of Food and Agriculture report, published by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), calls for “deep transformations in agriculture and food systems” and for the world’s half-billion small-scale farms to receive particular support. The report warns that without “widespread adoption of sustainable land, water, fisheries and forestry practices, global poverty cannot be eradicated.” It adds that action must also be taken to reduce farming’s own contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Because a majority of the world's poorest citizens are sustenance farmers and herders, climate change and its agricultural consequences pose a unique threat to the livelihoods of some of the most vulnerable populations. The majority of the world's small-scale farmers are found in rural regions of the developing world. Some of these regions will be especially susceptible to heat waves, droughts, and rising sea levels. “In some particularly vulnerable places, such as small islands or in areas affected by large-scale extreme weather and climate events, the impact could be catastrophic,” the report's authors point out. “There is no doubt climate change affects food security,” FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said in a news release. “What climate change does is to bring back uncertainties from the time we were all hunter gatherers. We cannot assure any more that we will have the harvest we have planted.” Higher temperatures and more extreme weather events will affect the ability of small-scale farmers to provide for their families. But climate change won't just threaten the world's poor. It will also affect the ability of all types of farmers to grow food for the rest of the world. A more volatile climate will result in unpredictable agricultural yields. “Everybody is paying for that, not only those suffering from droughts,” Graziano da Silva added. October 14 was World Food Day, and this year’s theme was “Climate is changing, food and agriculture must too.” Events held that day at the Rome headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations focused on the need for countries to address food and agriculture in their climate action plans and take action to strengthen the resilience of smallholder farmers to guarantee food security. World Food Day has been held annually since 1945. Lessons drawn from the readings “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds,” the first reading assures us. We here on earth also have to respond to the cry of the most vulnerable among us. We can start by pressuring our political leaders to take concrete, significant steps to curb global warming, as well as examining our own lifestyles to see where we can be more “carbon neutral” and eco-friendly. The personal is the political! Final thought in light of the news Though the potential impact of climate change paints a bleak picture, present day progress in tackling extreme poverty worldwide is more encouraging. In fact, the number of people living in extreme poverty during the past decade continued to fall, despite the 2008-09 financial crisis and slowing global economic growth, according to a World Bank study released Sunday. In the report, “Poverty and Shared Prosperity,” the World Bank says the progress proves that eliminating extreme poverty is an achievable goal. The study found that in 2013, fewer than 800 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day. That's less than 11 percent of the global population. As recently as 1990, about 35 percent of all people lived in such extreme poverty. That means about 1.1 billion people rose out of extreme poverty in the past quarter century. So there is hope. But we must act now on climate change to continue moving in the right direction.

food security climate change global warming poverty small scale farmers sustenance farming world food day

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Homily stories

23 Jul 2017 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Urban farming has taken the country by storm, as Indiana Public Media reports. Across the nation, people are taking back the land one acre and one project at a time. A shuttered shopping mall in Cleveland with atrium lighting is being transformed into a giant indoor farm thanks to a project called “Gardens Under Glass.” The vision is to create a “retail ecovillage” with vegetarian restaurants, health food stores, garden supply stores, farmers’ stalls, and recycled goods shops. In San Francisco, an abandoned on-ramp to a freeway has been transformed into an urban farming center with classes. The developers say the “main yield” is education as they teach folks how to repurpose everything from backyards to balconies as urban farming spaces. “New Roots for Refugees” is a partnership between Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas and the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture. The program is currently helping 14 women to “put down new roots” by starting their own small farm businesses to grow and sell vegetables. Urban farming has transformed inner city life for many, such as 19-year-old Treva Yarbrough of Flint, Michigan who had so little gardening experience that she ate weeds thinking they were rhubarb. “My tongue went numb. It was nasty,” she said with a laugh when interviewed a few years ago. She became part of an innovative partnership in urban farming between the city of Flint and Michigan State University that has transformed abandoned lots and won international praise. This great program came out of the same city that gained international notoriety for having lead-contaminated drinking water. Just goes to show you that despite the weeds in our gardens, life thrives when we embrace the possibilities for health and growth presented to us. We can thrive despite the weeds.

Authors Daniel Grippo

urban farming urban agriculture

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19 Nov 2017 - Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

My friend Brian is an engineer and inventor. His inventions have run the gamut from the magnificent—an elliptical receiver sent into space—to the mundane—a clip-on shelf for a recreational vehicle. He is also a university professor, teaching young engineers how to be ethical entrepreneurs. He also cares about world hunger and the environment. He knows that the majority of the world’s poor rely on small farms for food and income and necessary water and electricity is in scarce supply. Recently all of Brian’s interests and talents converged when he received a Gates Foundation Grant to develop a solar-powered water pump to help small farmers in Africa irrigate their crops. Brian knew the pump needed to be inexpensive and portable. He developed a prototype and brought it to Kenya to test with a small group of female farmers. These women were spending eight hours a day carrying water from a well to fill tanks near their farms. From the tank they used gravity to flow the water into hoses to sprinkle their crops. After receiving invaluable feedback from the farmers, Brian streamlined the pump and solar panel even further so that both were lightweight enough to carry to and from the well in a simple carrying case. The farmers could then keep the pump and panel secure each evening. Since the installation of the Maji pump (maji means “water” in Swahili), the women now need an hour rather eight to water their crops. In turn, they are able to grow and sell more. The extra money is put into additional improvements in the farm and at the school they run for the children in their village. They already have plans to build a local factory to produce the pumps for wider distribution. Some people have a special talent for showing the rest of us how to put our talents to good use.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

talents entrepreneurship inventions Hunger farming water pump gates foundation kenya

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