The crisis in Venezuela is affecting access to food in some Caribbean islands, said today in an interview with Efe in Montevideo the regional coordinator of the Parliamentary Front Against Hunger (FPH) in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexican Luisa María Calderón .
“In the Caribbean islands, where there is no water to plant, where the land is very saline, where there is no pleasant sensation to make agriculture because of its history of being slaves, food imports from Venezuela and the crisis in Venezuela is affecting the Access to food, “Calderón said.
Marlene Madrigal, coordinator of the Parliamentary Front Against Hunger in Mesoamerica, said that “although we would like to be able to collaborate” with Venezuela “we can only help with a motion approved by each of the parliaments” .
Both women traveled to the Uruguayan capital as part of the preparations for the “VIII Forum of Parliamentarians against Hunger” to be held from October 25 to 27 in Montevideo.
In addition, Calderón also expressed his concern about the hunger figures that show Paraguay, Haiti or Guatemala and indicated that in this last destination there is a “46% of hungry people”, despite the “important effort” that the Central American country is doing.
The Mexican senator also stressed that another challenge to be “reviewed” is malnutrition and obesity, a problem that affects not only her country, “the champion of obesity”, but also other countries in the region.
“Uruguay has a very small number of non-access to food, however, it has a growing number in relation to malnutrition and obesity,” said the Mexican, adding that this could be due to “easy access to processed foods or A small salary that does not allow to consume fresh and meats, that every day are more expensive “.
With regard to solutions, the US policy highlighted some of the framework laws created by the FPH, ranging from the right to food, to family farming, to school feeding.
The specialist also stressed the importance of creating “virtuous” rather than “vicious” circles with local producers, since “70% of food is produced by people who are small producers and also hungry.”
To achieve better results, in addition to the Forum, the FPH will also go to 100 places in the “Latin American and Caribbean region where hunger rates have not been lowered,” the expert said.
The objective of this project is that, through the help of “students, researchers and institutions who have worked in these places,” a diagnosis can be made of what prevents hunger from being reduced, whether the general strategies of a Country does not work and what it does that States can not lower the indicators of non-access to food. ”
Calderón stressed that the goal of the organization is to create a “generation zero hunger” since the motto of the group of parliamentarians who seeks to attack the scourge of food insecurity from political will, plurality, knowledge sharing and consensus Is “A region free from hunger and malnutrition by 2025”.
“We are stubborn that we reach the goal of zero hunger, so this proposal to go to 100 places where the indicators hurt more,” concluded the Mexican.
