Women play a key role in feeding the world

As I will be away from computers over the weekend, I wanted to post this in time for International Womens' Day, 8th March. The posting is on behalf of the International Alliance Against Hunger.


Please pause for a moment on International Womens’ Day – Sunday 8th March – to think whether you can do something simple that can have a positive impact on your life and on the lives of others, and is environmentally sound. Read this, and, if you agree, please forward it to your friends, women and men. Together, you can make life better for many women around the world!

Facts
1. Women farmers produce 60-80% of the food in poor countries but only own 1% of the land, and are often excluded from farmers’ associations, services and technical know-how.2
2. Rural women alone produce half of the world’s food but receive less than 10 percent of credit provided to farmers.
3. More women farmers must be give the right to own and use farm land so as to have more secure sources of food and livelihood.
4. Women’s rights must be respected: for example, enabling girls to get education has been identified as the single most powerful contribution to reducing malnutrition over a 35-year period.
5. Women are much more likely than men to spend additional income from the sale of crops on their children, who are better nourished because their mothers provide a diverse diet.
6. In Kenya for instance, women do most of the work of growing nutritious vegetables, but play a smaller role than men in decision-making in the home.


Act Now!
Share this message with your family, colleagues, and friends to make them think, and act to change this situation.

Consider the fact that, in spite of government commitments to reduce hunger, over 950 million of our fellow humans suffer from hunger on a daily basis in a world in which enough food is produced to allow everyone to eat well.

3. Learn more about how to end hunger and malnutrition and improve your nutrition habits (click on http://www.iaahp.net/ for links).

4. Share our sense of OUTRAGE: Raise your voice to encourage your government to do everything that is humanly possible to eradicate hunger and malnutrition: it can be done, and everyone wins.