The female food heroes of Indonesia – part 2

Oxfam Australia’s Juan Martorana – blogging from Indonesia

Sixty-five per cent of Indonesia’s food is imported, including its main staple, rice. Over a series of events around Jakarta, the seven female food heroes (FFH) have underlined the dangers that come with Indonesia being in this position; a position that is getting worse with demand for food continuing to outpace domestic food production. The danger, of course, is the food insecurity and hunger that follows when food imports are disrupted, as was the case with the flooding that affected the supply of rice to Indonesia from Thailand in 2010.

Whether it’s at the women’s magazines “editor’s lunch” (an event organised by Oxfam and partner organisation the Alliance for Prosperous Villages), or meetings with government officials, or at the public photo exhibition event and press conference attended by some of Indonesia’s leading newspapers (Kompas, The Indonesian Post and Sinar Harapan), the seven FFH have been spreading their message that women small-scale food producers are integral to delivering a future of food security for Indonesia.

Read part 1 | part 3

Act:

Almost 870 million people go to bed hungry every night. Not because there isn’t enough, but because of the injustice in the way the world’s food system works. Oxfam’s GROW campaign is working towards fixing that system so that everyone has enough to eat.