BCFN Young Earth Solutions YES!
Self agriculture Abstract: An effective policy or solution should be oriented towards rural countries with low income and with a steady growing population who suffer from high indices of malnutrition and low sanitation facilities, not because a lack of productive land or environmental conditions, but due to poverty and social causes. Therefore, taking into account the precarious situation of the objective population and the low interest in the governments to address this situation, it is proposed and idea accessible for all, funded in vertical farming but adequate to the previous description. It gives the tools to generate self-subsistence crops with no environmental impact and reduce all kinds of diseases produced by modern farming.
Author
Karen Rodriguez
SELF AGRICULTURE
KAREN ESTEFANIA RODRIGUEZ DAZA
UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
August 20, 2012
Abstract: An effective policy or solution should be oriented towards rural countries with low income and with a steady growing population who suffer from high indices of malnutrition and low sanitation facilities, not because a lack of productive land or environmental conditions, but due to poverty and social causes. Therefore, taking into account the precarious situation of the objective population and the low interest in the governments to address this situation, it is proposed and idea accessible for all, funded in vertical farming but adequate to the previous description. It gives the tools to generate self-subsistence crops with no environmental impact and reduce all kinds of diseases produced by modern farming. Essay: In order to formulate effective policies or solutions oriented to increase food and health accessibility is important to identify the principal variables that affect it, by using the World Bank data. Consequently, in this essay it will be explained which and how where determined the main factors that leaded to the formulation of an idea that reduces our environmental impact, ensuring health and food accessibility for all. Two of the main indices of the world bank that reflect food and health accessibility are the children malnutrition prevalence and the percent of population with access to improved sanitation facilities, therefore the top twenty countries with higher indices are shown below; most of which also have the higher values in the depth of hunger index :
Improved Sanitation Facilities % population with acces
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
Children Malnutrition Prevalence average % of children under 5
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
It can be seen that most of the countries are present on both graphs; this is why it is reasonable to say that these two variables are linked together. Now that the countries that suffer the most of this problematic situations have been identified, it can be studied what they have in common in order to understand which are the main factors involved. First of all, by observing the food production index of the top ten countries present in both of the previous graphs shows that none of them suffers from food shortage; in fact some of them are above the world average which is 123. Additionally, the ones with low food production index are those who export the most food products, so it can be identified a food distribution problem. (No data available for Chad and Congo DR) Food Production Index 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
Now, considering the portion of people employed agriculture and the percent of the total population living in rural areas, it can be said that these African and south east Asian countries, are rural countries whose economy is based on the exploitation of their natural resources. The fact that most of the population is located in rural areas makes it hard to take medical attention to the population. (No data for Congo DR and Eritrea)
By observing the gross domestic product per capita and comparing it to that of developed countries which is arround 40,000 $US, these countries have very low GDP, which means that the population live onder low standars due to the low market value of all the goods and services produced by the country. Evidence of this can be seen in the poverty indicator, all of the countries have as a comon caracteristic a low GDP and most of the population living in poverty with 2 dollars a day. (no data available for Eritrea)
Contrary to the previous indicators, the unemployment of most of the countries seems to be low compared to the global average of 6,147%. By taking into consideration the previous information it can be said that most of the population work under very bad economic conditions, under 2 $US a day. Looking for a
feasible explanation for this situation the population growth brings some light, as they are between the top 30 countries with higher population growth. Therefore, each time there is more labor hand offer in some of the economies with lowest or almost none growth and lack of government intervention, creates a favorable environment for employers to take control of the wages.
One of the key factors that affect both food and health accessibility is the access to an adequate amount of water from an improved source, by taking a look at the indices of water access it is observed that most of the urban population have adequate water quantity and quality, on the other side, rural population do not. This situation is ironical for countries whose population is located mainly in rural areas and whose economy depends on natural resources.
Finally, it is important to consider the fact that an effective policy or solution should be oriented towards rural countries with low resources with a steady growing population who suffer from high indices of malnutrition and low sanitation facilities not because a lack of productive land or environmental conditions but due to poverty and social causes. People in poverty have as a common trait the small space in which they live, therefore this can be applied in urban or rural areas as it does not imply a crop land. On the other side it can be highlighted the absence of government support to these excluded communities, which is why it is important to provide a solution that people can apply by their own. Most of these countries make intensive use of land
without thinking on sustainable growth; this is why poor agricultural techniques prevail, eroding the land and carelessly killing any kind of ecosystem in their way without taking into account the role of trees water conservation or the value of biodiversity. Consequently, the proposal is based on vertical farming, not as conceived originally for cities in countries with small territory and high technology investments1, but feasible for any type of family located either in rural or urban areas, with a very low economic investment and common materials. Vertical farming can be defined as “food production centers in which our food would be continuously grown inside of tall buildings within the built environment”2, in this case there are no tall buildings but trees, not large scale production but a source of self-subsistence food productions, neither high technology but recycling of plastic bottles. It is proposed to give people the tools to produce their own food trough small crops harvested under healthy conditions and making an adequate and efficient use of water; “farming has led to new health hazards by creating ecotones between the natural world and our cultivated fields. As the result, transmission rates of numerous infectious disease agents have dramatically increased- influenza, rabies, yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria (…) modern agriculture employs a multitude of chemical products, and exposure to toxic levels of some classes of agrochemicals have created other significant health risks”3
The following picture gives an idea of what the idea is:
1
http://www.economist.com/node/17647627 http://www.verticalfarm.com/more?essay1 3 http://www.verticalfarm.com/more?essay1 2
Finally, it is important to say that population growth should be a primary concern for the governments of those countries, as a measure to reduce all of the indices explained before. Although these underdeveloped nations depend on agricultural production, most of the resources are being depleted at a faster rate that they can regenerate in addition to the malpractices in agricultural production may lead them to a not so promising future.