State of Food and Agriculture 2017: Empowering Rural Communities...

Global food security in the modern age is confronted by a multitude of challenges including changing diets of a growing middle class, rural-urban migration, climate change, scarce resources, and a push for higher agricultural productivity. In the meantime, there is growing concern that global agricultural industrialization – seen as increasingly necessary to meet growing demand – could easily leave small-scale farmers and rural communities behind. Some may view this as an environment of competing interests between rural communities, and global and urban demand for food. But this need not be the case.

Instead, the opposite may be true. Recent studies point to the growing importance of nutrient diversity for human health. In many parts of the developing world, small farms play a critical role in producing a diversity of foods that are essential for local food security and nutrition. In this panel we will be exploring rural communities contribution to production systems, their role in national agriculture strategies, their interconnection with the environment, and the fundamental shift in how rural communities--specifically smallholder farmers—are viewed globally.

Opening Remarks
• Rev. David Beckmann — President | Alliance to End Hunger and Bread for the World
• Vimlendra Sharan — Director | FAO Liaison Office of North America

Panel

• Ginya Truitt Nakata — Director of Lands, Latin America | The Nature Conservancy (moderator)
• John Ellenberger — Senior Vice President | Land O’Lakes International Development
• Shaun Ferris — Director of Agriculture and Livelihoods Program | Catholic Relief Services
• David Hong — Global Senior Policy Analyst | One Acre Fund
• Faustine Wabwire — Senior Foreign Policy Analyst | Bread for the World Institute