Climate change is already having an impact on the ability of communities to feed themselves — communities like that of Virginia Ñuñonca, a farmer in the Peruvian highlands. Like many of the world’s more than 500 million family farmers, Virginia is experiencing increased impacts from climate change. Changing seasons and extreme weather are leading to droughts, flash floods and landslides. Put simply, climate change is making people hungry.
“I see the climate is changing a lot. Before it wasn’t like this.” –Virginia Ñuñonca
But Virginia is not alone. Communities are coming together to feed people and fight climate change this week in celebration of World Food Day (16/10) and as part of GROW week (13/10 – 17/10).
In Australia, over 500 community groups, schools and workplaces hosted a meal to raise money and to call on the Australian Government do its fair share to reduce hunger.
Activists in the Philippines are taking part in a ‘Climate Walk’ aimed at spurring action on climate change and climate disasters as they urged governments to ‘walk their climate talk’.
The group will walk 1,000 kilometres to arrive in Tacloban, ground zero for Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), on 8 November, exactly a year since the super Typhoon made landfall.
This week we’ve also been showing our support for Oxfam’s partners in El Salvador, who yesterday handed over a petition to legislators calling for the right to nutritious and available food.
And in Oxfam shops all over Belgium, customers have been enjoying a wide range of fair trade and local snacks. They’re finding out about the GROW method in the most enjoyable way possible: one meal at a time. They’re also discovering that a fair food system is not only possible – it’s pretty tasty too!
Oxfam supporters in Belgium are also putting pressure on Belgium’s Energy Minister, to bring ambitious goals to the table for the EU 2030 climate negotiations at the end of this month. The EU needs to step up and get a “race to the top” going on reducing emissions ahead of the global climate negotiations in Lima, Peru this year and Paris in 2015.
While we wait for politicians to act, farming families continue to feel the impact of climate change. So we need to build an even stronger movement to create a future where everyone has enough to eat.
Here’s what you can do: take our quiz to find out if you can make it as a farmer, and share it with your friends so they know we must act together!
