The Next Moonshot – Food Security for All
Today is World Food Day, a time when people around the world come together to declare their commitment to eradicate hunger in our lifetime. In this blog we follow Sara Delaney’s experience at the Global Food Security Conference at Cornell University. #WFD2015
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Today is World Food Day, and this week I attended the 2nd Annual Global Food Security Conference, at Cornell University.
The topic, as you can guess, was food, and more specifically, food security. My favorite topic!
Food Security means that everyone, at all times, has enough food available, or the ability to grow, buy, or otherwise get the food they need. The food also needs to be nutritious, and, your body needs to be healthy enough to digest and use that food.
Easy enough right? Well…unfortunately not. In her talk this week, Sara Scherr, the President of EcoAgricultural Partners, said that “Achieving Global Food Security is as important for us this century, as the moonshot was in the last century”.
And – it may be just as, if not more challenging, than going to the moon.
But surrounded by hundreds of others from around the world at the University this week, did give me hope and inspiration. Episcopal Relief & Development was able to showcase the work we are doing in Burundi, in partnership with Cornell University – introducing kitchen gardens to women to work towards improving family nutrition.
We listened to talks on topics ranging from new mobile apps in Kenya to share information with farmers, to the use of Behavioral Economics to change up cafeterias in New York so that students eat healthier lunches (hint: put the sugary drinks in the back).
While the challenge is large, there are many small yet powerful things we can each be doing to contribute.
After Sara Scherr’s talk the moonshot analogy was sticking with me – and I realized that maybe it was because, as a kid, I really wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. I loved the idea of going up into space, exploring and gathering new knowledge.
Well – I’m now grown up. And I guess while I didn’t make it as an astronaut, I am instead a Food Security astronaut – exploring the world, and working with others on this century’s most important challenge.
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Sara Delaney is the Senior Program Officer at Episcopal Relief & Development.
Images from the Global Food Security Conference at Cornell University.
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