Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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One Billion Holiday Wishes
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/one-billion-holiday-wishes/

The holidays are a time for putting others before yourself. And with the 
recent announcement that the world’s population has surpassed seven billion, 
there are a lot more ‘others’ to consider this year. Nearly one billion 
people in the world are hungry, for example, while almost the same number are 
illiterate, making it hard for them to earn a living or move out of poverty. 
One billion people—many of them children—have micronutrient deficiencies, 
decreasing their ability to learn and live productive lives.

Let's not forget about the 1 billion people who lack basic goods this holiday 
season. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

But there are hundreds and hundreds of organizations working tirelessly in 
communities at home and abroad to fix these problems.

One Billion Hungry

Although the number of undernourished people worldwide has decreased since 
2009, nearly one billion people go to bed hungry each night. This number is 
unacceptably high. Malnutrition contributes to the death of half a billion 
children under the age of five every year, and in Africa alone, one child 
dies every six seconds from hunger.

But organizations, such as the World Food Programme, are using home-grown 
school feeding (HGSF) initiatives to alleviate hunger and poverty. HGSF 
programs in Brazil, India, Thailand, Kenya and other countries work to 
connect local producers with schools, helping to provide children with 
nutritious and fresh food, while providing farmers with a stable source of 
income.

One Billion Tons of Food Wasted

Roughly 1.3 billion tons of food – a third of the total food produced for 
human consumption – is lost or wasted each year. Within the United States, 
food retailers, services, and households waste approximately 40 million tons 
of food each year—an amount that has been estimated to be enough to feed the 
close to 1 billion hungry people.

Thankfully, organizations around the world are working to educate people on 
the importance of preserving food. In New York City, City Harvest collects 
surplus food from food providers and distributes it to over 600 shelters and 
other agencies.

And in West Africa, farmers are using the power of the sun to dehydrate 
fruits such as mangoes and bananas. Experts estimate that, with nearly all of 
their moisture removed, the fruits’ nutrients are retained for up to 6 
months, allowing farmers to save the 100,000 tons of mangoes that go to waste 
each year.

One Billion Micronutrient Deficient

Nearly one billion people suffer from micro-nutrient deficiencies, including 
lack of Vitamin A, iron and iodine Between a quarter of a billion to half a 
billion children with vitamin A deficiencies become blind every year, and 
half of these children die within 12 months of losing their sight.

These problems could be fixed by ensuring access to nutritious foods. 
Organizations such as AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center and the Developing 
Innovations in School cultivation (Project DISC) have been working to combat 
this problem. AVRDC works to expand the vegetable farming sector across 
sub-Saharan Africa, increasing access to nutrient-rich crops. And in Uganda, 
Developing Innovations in School Cultivation, Project DISC, educates youth on 
the importance of agriculture and nutritious diets. Students in the program 
learn about vegetables and fruits indigenous to their communities, as well as 
how to process and prepare these foods for consumption. “If a person doesn’t 
know how to cook or prepare food,” says Edward Mukiibi, one of the project’s 
founders, “they don’t know how to eat.”

One Billion Overweight

Lack of access to healthy food does not only result in hunger. More than one 
billion people around the world are overweight. Of these, nearly half are 
obese. And nearly 43 million children under the age of five were counted as 
overweight in 2010. Surging international rates of heart disease, stroke, 
diabetes, and arthritis are being attributed to unhealthy diets, and 2.8 
million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter has urged 
countries around the world to make firm commitments to improving their food 
systems. In Mexico, where 19 million are food insecure yet 69.5 percent of 
the country is overweight or obese, De Schutter has called for a “state of 
emergency” to tackle the problem. He attributes the hunger-obesity 
combination to the county’s mono-cropping and export-led agriculture, and 
argues that a change to agricultural policies could tackle these two problems 
simultaneously.

One Billion Illiterate

Over three quarters of a billion people—793.1 million adults—are illiterate. 
Although the number of people unable to read has decreased from one billion 
in 1990, illiteracy prevents millions of people from moving out of poverty.

For farmers, being illiterate can limit access to information such as market 
prices, weather predictions, or trainings to improve their production. Yet 
through the work of a team of researchers known as Scientific Animations 
Without Borders, illiterate farmers across the world are able to view 
educational trainings on how to create natural pesticides or prevent crop 
damage using solar treatments, using short animated videos accessible on 
mobile phones. In India, farmers can receive daily updates via text or 
voicemail on weather and crop prices through subscription services set up by 
major telephone companies. Kheti, a system operated by the Sheffield Hallam 
University in the U.K., even allows farmers to take pictures of problems they 
are having with their crops, and send them in for advice. With over 4.6 
billion mobile phone subscriptions globally, projects such as these have the 
potential to reach and improve the lives of many around the world.

As we gather together this holiday season to reflect on the things most 
important to us, let us also take the time to remember the billions of others 
who share our planet. Too many of the world’s neediest people will start the 
New Year without sufficient food or education. But organizations around the 
world are finding ways to nourish both people and the planet.