Humanity is facing a dilemma. Climate change is making it difficult for the poorest people to feed themselves and the scientific evidence is suggesting that it will only get worse in the coming decades.
Humanity is facing a dilemma. Climate change is making it difficult for the poorest people to feed themselves and the scientific evidence is suggesting that it will only get worse in the coming decades.
There is a strong scientific argument that people are consuming the planet’s resources at an unsustainable rate – in fact it has been said that we in the UK are living as if there are three planet earths and not one.
Yet as we leave poverty behind, we inevitably consume and aspire to consume more.
So it poses the question – how do we continue to help people get themselves out poverty, without destroying the planet or our societies?
This World Food Day (16 October 2014), we have been asked to think about family farming and its place in ensuring global food security. On my recent visit to Zimbabwe I was able to see how family farmers are being supported to adapt to the changing climate.
In countries like Zimbabwe farmers report that year on year it’s getting hotter and they have to plant their crops later. One of the farmers told me “our traditional rainy season was from early November to the end of April, now by February it can be finished.”
But there is hope. Using the methods of Tearfund’s partner organisation River of Life, farmers in the village of Zumaer, have seen a huge change to their harvests. They report that traditional methods produce less than a tonne per hectare, now they can produce two and a half tonnes or more.
This initiative aims to bring transformation to individuals, communities and nations through faithful and productive use of land. They want to see people who are dependent on the land, use what they have been given to turn a profit and lift themselves out of poverty.
The trip was encouraging but it was also a wakeup call; organisations like River of Life are working to support farmers adapt to more extreme weather but what are we (those who contribute the most to emissions) going to do about it? What changes do we need to shift the way we live our lives that enable people to flourish for generations to come?
That’s why I’m convinced that Tearfund’s future work will need to address our consumption of the planet’s resources so that the most vulnerable don’t suffer the consequences. The change starts with us and it starts now. We need to help people in rich countries consume less and consume differently so that the poorest people don’t miss out. And to enable a more just and sustainable future become a reality.
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© Paul Cook is advocacy director at Tearfund (http://www.tearfund.org).