ECHO Conference

This past week I was able to attend an agricultural conference with a Christian development organization called ECHO, or Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, in Ft. Myers, FL. A few months ago, Stan Doerr, President and CEO of ECHO spoke in Jackson, and I was thoroughly impressed with the presentation he gave and was excited to know more about his organization. To read more of my initial thoughts, read a previous blog post about ECHO.

You might wonder why I attended an agricultural conference, as all of my previous work has been done in the city, and I don't know if I've really ever grown anything in my life. Besides having a chance to be warm in South Florida while there was a snow storm in Mississippi, a reason I wanted to attend is that agricultural and rural development is a primary component of economic development and fighting world poverty and hunger, as approximately 68% of the world's poorest have agriculture is their primary income source, and agricultural investment is 2.7x more effective in reducing poverty than investment in other sectors. Rural to urban migration is another huge issue in development, as masses of people move from to the cities looking for jobs. However, the cities do not have the infrastructure, jobs, public safety, drinking water, sanitation, health facilities, etc. to handle the influx of population to the city (if you've ever been to Trujillo, think Wichanzao and then Clementina). Here's a quote I included on the subject for a grad school paper: "Rates of rural-urban migration in developing countries have exceeded rates of urban job creation and thus surpassed greatly the absorption capacity of both industry and urban social services. Migration today, particularly to the largest [less-developed country] cities, must be seen as the major factor contributing to the ubiquitous phenomenon of urban surplus labor, a force that continues to exacerbate already serious urban unemployment problems."

I have known for a while the importance of agricultural and rural development, and I knew that I was very deficient in my knowledge in this area, so in an effort to be a more well-rounded development practitioner, I thought it would be very beneficial for me to attend.

I learned some very cool things, such as how the moringa tree is amazing, how to grow gardens on concrete slabs using trash to cover the roots, (I'm not even kidding- check out this link), etc.
It was also wonderful to network and meet other Christians working throughout the world to fight poverty and injustice. I feel like I better understand God's heart of love for the poor seeing the example of His servants who selflessly work on the behalf of the poor and hungry throughout the world.