The Invisible, Hungry Hand

A worker on a farm in Kiambu district, central Kenya, that produces tea for export. Nearly 80 percent of rural farmers in developing countries earn less than USD1.25 per day. Credit: Charles Wachira/IPSBy Tharanga YakupitiyageUNITED NATIONS, Oct 24 2018 (IPS)The very people who help put food on our tables often face numerous human rights violations, forcing them go to bed hungry.In an annual report set to be presented to governments at the United Nations this week, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Hilal Elver found that agricultural workers worldwide continue to face barriers in their right to food including dangerous work conditions and the lack of employment protections.“[Agricultural workers] are a major element of our reaching available food but they are among the world’s hungriest people,” she said, highlighting the paradoxical relationship.“We are dealing with smallholder farmers, poverty, inequality, and land issues but we don’t deal with the actual workers working from farm to table—there’s a huge chain of production that we are not paying attention,” Elver added.Agricultural workers make up over one billion, or one-third, of the world’s workforce.Despite playing a critical role in global food security, many farm workers are left without enough money to feed themselves or their families in both developing and developed countries due to low wages or even late payments.According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. (FAO), nearly ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Development & Aid Economy & Trade Featured Food & Agriculture Global Global Governance Headlines Health IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse Labour Poverty & SDGs Regional Categories TerraViva United Nations Food and Agriculture Organiz Source Type: news