234 Community Food Security
Migration
When people are forced off their land, they may also lose their knowledge
of how to produce food. If young people leave for the city before learning to
farm, they will never be able to teach their own children how to farm and the
family’s loss of land will be permanent.
Epidemic diseases
As diseases like HIV and AIDS, TB, and malaria kill millions of people
worldwide, hunger and malnutrition increase. Families and communities are
losing whole generations of people, usually the people who would be most
active growing food. Food production goes down as farmers die, and their
knowledge of how to grow food dies with them. Preventing and treating these
diseases not only prevents the hunger and malnutrition that go with them, but
is important for the entire community’s food security.
Lack of knowledge
In many places, people have lost traditional knowledge of how to produce food.
And because of rapidly changing conditions, such as overcrowded communities,
less fertile land, and changing weather, old methods often no longer work.
When people do not know how to produce food, hunger and a lack of food
security is the result. One solution to this problem is to maintain, pass on, and
improve knowledge through farmer field schools, farmer to farmer education
programs, and agricultural extension services (see page 316, and Resources).
Hunger is caused by a lack of food. A lack of food is often caused by a lack of justice.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012