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Jan 24, 2012

Ethiopia: Forced re-locations bring hunger

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Human Rights Watch has just reported that tens of thousands Ethiopian rural people are being forcibly relocated to make room for large, foreign-run farming operations. The tragic irony is that Ethiopia, among the world’s top food aid receiving countries, is also exporting over three hundred thousand metric tonnes of food.

In southern areas of Ethiopia, food aid is still desperately needed due to drought and the influx of refugees from strife torn Somalia. However, as this story reveals, global land grab trends are seriously undermining many vulnerable nations’ ability to feed their own people. There are even calls for countries like Canada to halt food aid to Ethiopia until the relocations cease. See this Ottawa Citizen story.

USC Canada’s ground breaking Seeds of Survival program was born in Ethiopia amid famine in the late 1990s. Our program partner communities, located in northern rural regions of Ethiopia, have been promoting seed saving and agricultural diversification strategies to help eliminate the need for food aid – with much success. The program areas we work in are far more food secure, and in control of their own land and resources.

But as these events reveal, global land grabs are making efforts to solve global food challenges all the more difficult.

For more information, and to take action, you may be interested in this initiative by the Oakland Institute.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/7/stop-forced-relocations-ethiopia/