FAO-Planet Forward Summer Fellows Explore Solutions to End Hunger Sustainably
10 September 2021, Washington, D.C. - Planet Forward and FAO North America co-hosted an engaging virtual discussion featuring four Planet Forward-FAO Fellows who presented on the food security and agriculture issues that they explored over the summer in a moderated discussion with Frank Sesno, Founder and Chief Executive of Planet Forward.
Planet Forward is an initiative of the George Washington University’s (GW) School of Media and Public Affairs, which engages college students from across the United States to use effective storytelling approaches to move the planet forward. FAO North America has partnered with Planet Forward for the past several years to take exceptional students to report from the World Food prize in Iowa, and from the Committee on World Food Security in Rome at the FAO headquarters.
Through the partnership this year, Planet Forward and FAO North America selected four Fellows through a competitive process to produce stories at the nexus of food security, agriculture, and nutrition. The Fellows worked under the guidance of GW’s National Geographic Professor of Science Communication, Lisa Palmer. Planet Forward published the students’ articles on their website in the Recipes for Food Securityseries.
Benjamin Thomas, Franklin & Marshall College, explored the question of what regenerative agriculture can learn from conventional farming. “As the climate changes, we will not be able to provide food for people because conventional agriculture is super water intensive, super fertilizer intensive, and destroys the soil – so it’s a short-term solution for high yield,” said Thomas. Regenerative agriculture, in turn increases soil health and resilience to climate change, he added.
In her piece, ‘Word of mouth still means a lot’: How sustainability spreads,Jules Struck, Emerson College, highlights how farmers are very engaged in finding new ways to be sustainable and to share that with other farmers. “Nathan Brown’s neighbor was trying out cover crops, and that’s how he realized that he wanted to try cover crops too- just by chatting with his neighbor,” she said, emphasizing the importance of conversations between farmers within their own communities.
Terrius Harris, University of Oklahoma, covered a story on Loko Ea, a sacred, Native Hawaiian fishpond on the northwest side of Oahu that had been revitalized by volunteers in the local community and helped contribute to the food security of that very same community when financial hardships heightened due to COVID-19. By not forcing fish population numbers and taking only what nature will provide, the pond operates in a sustainable way to sustain the community. “I think that the world can learn not only from Native Hawaiians, but also from all Indigenous Communities that there is a certain respect to nature that should be given,” said Harris.
In contextualizing food insecurity during COVID-19 pandemic in San Francisco, Sejal Govindarao, George Washington University, discussed her story that attempted to answer the important question: “How can we turn some of these really creative short term COVID-19 response mechanisms and programs regarding food insecurity into long term equitable solutions?” The Farm to Family program that sparked her question was in response to the increased food insecurity seen due to COVID-19 and involved repurposing produce that would have been lost on farms to food banks, and into the hands of those who are food insecure. Govindarao urged legislators to see this as a quintessential turning point to enact sustainable solutions for long-term food insecurity.
Access to land was a topic that intersected various stories that the Fellows reported on. “To get into farming you have to buy land and land is expensive,” said Thomas. “As a result of the overabundance of only one segment of the population, certain blind spots arise in the way sustainable agriculture is done,” he continued.
“A lot of farmers get their land in a generational model which has made it hard for people whose parents don’t own farms to buy land at a cheap price,” said Struck highlighting a more equitable model of farming: cooperatives, which can be passed down for generations to different members of the community.
As the session wrapped up, Lisa Palmer, National Geographic Professor of Science and Communications at GW, provided her reflections from the experience and work that the fellows have done. “You put a lens on these stories and ideas which not only informs us but is also entertaining to read and provides a sense of solution and hope,” said Palmer, addressing the Fellows.
In her closing remarks, Ahdi Mohammed, Communications and Partnerships Officer at FAO North America, congratulated the Fellows on their hard work. “The angles that the students have taken are so key to the discussions going on in the lead up to the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit,” said Mohammed, underscoring how the students magnified issues that many people in food and agriculture space are currently battling.