How Women are the Key to Eliminating Hunger

What does food mean to you?

It’s a vital source required for survival. I truly believe that, no matter what, everyone can agree that food is a right. So if we can agree that food is a basic human right, isn’t it shocking that the UN reported over 815 million people suffering from hunger last year? When we think about hunger and food insecurity, it is easy to not think about the individuals – “It’s just a number.” Yet we must remember that each one of those numbers (all 815 million) is a human being somewhere in the world without enough food to survive.

Would you be surprised to learn that over 60% of all people who are hungry and undernourished are women and children? This problem must be solved and we can no longer live with this injustice.

Over 120 million women face hunger on a daily basis. When the woman of the household does not get enough nutrients to survive, more times than not, her children are suffering just the same. Yet whenever possible, a hungry woman will make sure that her children and husband get food first. And, in many countries around the world, all a woman has to eat are the leftovers from her family’s meal. 

But what is the solution?

Hunger is a complex issue, with tons of twists and turns.

One thing we know for sure: women are the key to ending hunger, especially in developing nations.

The United Nations reported that over 43% of the agricultural labor force is made up of women. When we ponder things like hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, we can’t simply think about the numbers. It is vital that we never begin to feel hopeless, believing that this problem can’t be solved.

You might be wondering, “Well, what should we be thinking about then?”

The answer is women’s empowerment.

In many developing countries, women have little to no rights. With women making up almost half of the agricultural labor force, shouldn’t they have the same access as men? Here are a few things that women in developing nations have less access to than men (or no access whatsoever):

• Owning their own land
• Basic tools and seeds
• Fertilizers and pesticides
• Advanced farming technology
• Marketplaces to sell crops
• Education 

March 8th is International Women’s Day and I believe that it should be a reminder that empowering women and helping them to achieve greater agricultural production is vital to achieving food security and ending hunger. When female farmers are empowered to grow better qualities and quantities of crops and are given education around the world, our planet can be rid of great injustices such as poverty as well.

When women in agriculture have access to knowledge, amazing things can happen. Agricultural techniques learned can be used to grow better crops, producing more food to sell and keep for themselves and their families. When agribusiness is taught, they can negotiate better and know the worth of their products, meaning that they can be earning a greater income, lifting themselves out of poverty. Understanding and knowing about nutrition can help them to nourish themselves and their children better, ending the cycle of malnutrition.

This is precisely why we started our SHE Initiative. What does it stand for exactly?

Sustainability and Health Education

and we’re doing just that. We know that empowering women through education on the topics mentioned above are extremely important. We hope that you now see the importance too.

This week, we encourage you to show appreciation to the women in your life and around the world. If you’d like to support a woman in a developing nation to grow her own vegetables to nourish herself and her family, consider giving a Family Farm Pack.