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Although the majority of recent world news headlines broadcast political unrest in Libya and the Middle East, the less visible issue of food security, especially in underdeveloped countries, is creating the same degree of political and social turmoil according to two faculty experts.
Food preparation for a family is traditionally handled by women. However, it is persistently difficult for women living in these countries to obtain the land, funds, resources and community support to feed themselves and their families. Dr. Gita Rajan of Fairfield University and Dr. Diane Enyon of the University of Pennsylvania discussed the issue with a Fairfield audience last Wednesday.
The talk linked national concerns of global security with the more immediate issue of the hungry women and children of the developing world, bringing together women’s rights activists as well as advocates for world politics.
Global food security is attainable and could prevent between 100 and 150 million people from going hungry in the coming years, they said.
The two speakers offered a solution for patriarchal dominated developing nations suffering from ongoing hunger. Females working in agriculture produce up to 30 percent less in annual crops than men living in their area because of a woman’s lack of access to land rights and proper equipment, according to the speakers.
Rajan and Enyon recognized that innumerous obstacles often prevent women from attaining land, supplies and funds to grown food to nourish themselves and their children. These women are often widows, who after the passing of their spouse have no rights to the land, home or wealth that the married couple shared, as it all belongs to the husband.
Providing food becomes an everyday struggle. However, more powerful nations can help to provide the access to land, irrigation rights and protection from weather related crisis’s that would spoil a crop. By involving both the men and women of a rural community, food sources, although dominated by women can become more accepted and thus more sustainable.
Rajan and Enyon, as well as members of the international G20 summit, said that by making land more available to women, allowing couples to own the land in a joint agreement and by uniting women and men alike in agricultural communities, food security can happen.
Although none of the Fairfield students or teachers in the audience struggle for food security or go hungry, students were abuzz with questions as to how to help following the discussion. Nick Lauretti ‘12 said that although he had never really thought about women struggling to feed their children and the talk moved him to action.
Rajan, a professor of English at Fairfield University, is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Faith and Public Life and a Connecticut Council Member of Vital Voices Global Partnership. Additionally, Dr. Diane Enyon serves as Director of the Partnership of Social Impact at the Wharton School of Business at Penn and is the Founder of WEEM – Women, Equity and Equality Matter.
For more information or ways to help, students can contact Dr. Rajan through the English Deptartment.
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