Food Rights

Healthy soils are crucial to human nutrition and the fight against hunger. But worldwide 24 billion tons of fertile soil is lost annually. Barbara Unmüßig calls attention to the growing threat to one of Earth’s most important resources. The United Nations has declared 2015 to be the International Year of Soils, and April 19-23 marks this year’s Global Soil Week. Such events, though not exactly glamorous, do not receive nearly the amount of attention they deserve.

“Over 80 per cent of Kenya’s population of 40 million derives their livelihoods from agriculture and pastoralism. Four million small farm households produce three-quarters of the country’s food. The key actors are women, who account for 75 per cent of the labour force in small-scale agriculture, manage 40 per cent of small farms and play the major role in food preparation and storage. Yet Kenya’s farmers face massive challenges. Their landholdings are small, productivity is low and most have little access to inputs, financial services and markets to sell any surplus produce. Poverty and hunger remain deep and persistent. Around 48 per cent of Kenyans, especially subsistence farmers and pastoralists, live in poverty and over 40 per cent – around 16 million people - lack sufficient food”.

We are using the world’s soils as if they were inexhaustible, continually withdrawing from an account, but never paying in. At the start of the International Year of Soils 2015, the Soil Atlas - Facts and Figures about Earth, Land and Fields – demonstrate why the protection of soil is important to us all.

Women across all sectors of society are leading the way in efforts to build resilience and adapt to the impacts of climate change. To highlight on effective climate actions, on 22 September 2014, UN Women and the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, co-hosted the Leaders’ Forum on Women Leading the Way: Raising Ambition for Climate Action in New York City. In order to shed more light on the Forum, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS) interviewed Ms Cecilia Kibe, the Executive Director Kenya Climate Justice Women Champions (KCJWC), who participated in this Forum in her capacity.

The farmers of 2050 will have to produce an extra 150 million tonnes of meat to satisfy our global hunger - This is one of the facts in the analysis of the big business of the global meat trade.

The Environment Forum on GMOs is a public platform to encourage the debate on issues of food security and to exchange knowledge among citizens and experts to inform the policy making process.

In order to bring together stakeholders in the agriculture sector to interact and exchange views on the pertinent issues affecting the sector, this workshop was organized by Heinrich Böll Stiftung East & Horn of Africa in Eldoret, Kenia.