Why Farms?

The world produces more than enough food for every person, but the number of people experiencing hunger is growing. Farmers see the beauty of new life and the hope of new harvests. But many farmers also bear witness to the deep inequities that scar our food systems and leave communities vulnerable to hunger and poverty. The very people whose hard work and ingenuity provide the world’s food all too often struggle to feed themselves and their families.

Think about it!

• Every day, agriculture produces an average of 23.7 million tons of food and is the largest source of income and jobs for poor, rural households . . . yet 1 in 3 people around the world doesn’t know where their next meal will come from.
• 2.6 billion people rely on agriculture for the majority of their income, making the food system the world’s largest employer (Convention on Biological Diversity/International Food Policy Research Institute).
• Farmworkers in the United States are more than twice as likely to experience poverty as other workers (U.S. Department of Labor National Agricultural Workers Survey, 2018).
• Small farms produce more than a third of the world’s food, yet as many as half of the world’s hungry people live on farms (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, June 2021).

Ending hunger isn’t just about food.

Small farmers are less likely to have access to social safety nets, land rights, resources, clean water or investment loans, and more likely to go hungry due to climate extremes, conflict or illness.

Yet, investments in small farmers can have a huge impact on ending hunger and poverty and building resilience for whole communities. For farmers and for all of us, food is not just a commodity to be sold. Food is a symbol of our culture and history, our freedom and agency, our connection to the land God created and our hope for the future God has promised.