I always remember that my teachers at elementary school used to tell us that Mexico's geography map, placed upside down was a horn of plenty, and we used to be proud of that; but guess what, we have almost reached the bottom of that horn. Now a days Mexico has a deficit for years, in the production of some grains such as corn and wheat, we are now importing this grains to satisfy the internal demand, is this for real?; us the sons of the corn, the inventors of the tortilla, can not produce enough corn for ourselves. Why is that?, what is the consequent scenario?, what are the causes?
There are a lot of answers to that, which include cultural,political and economic reasons; but our immediate challenge is to first to help feed the poor child; and there are some people with great hearts that have put hands into it:
Mexican Association of Food Banks (AMBA). Currently the AMBA works in Mexico with 52 banks; but sorry to say, the steep slope is Baja California Sur, my home state, where it has not been any open food bank. ( we need to do something about it! ).
The AMBA receives annually about one hundred thousand tons of donated food from supply centers, food processing companies, supermarkets and the National Council Agropecuairo, among others. The products are delivered daily to one million one hundred thousand people across the country. Beneficiaries have to pay 10 percent of the market value of the donated product, though, who does not have to pay the cost it is covered by a fund. AMBA regrets that yearly in Mexico farmers "throw" more than ten million tons of products because the price is not enough even to harvest.
Food banks are good enough for the short run period. More integral solutions need to be implemented a mix of sustainable economy with a push of entrepreneurial education for the ma****.
Here some links with more information related to Food Crisis in Mexico (in Spanish):
Right now the greatest URGENT EVOKE IS IN THE CARIBBEAN: The United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned on Friday of the risk of a food crisis in Haiti, especially in rural areas following the devastating earthquake that struck the island on 12 January.
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