U of G Hosts 10th Annual World Hunger Summit

University launches summit with two-hour discussion

The University of Guelph proudly hosted the 10th annual Universities Fighting World Hunger (UFWH) summit from Feb. 20 to Feb. 22. The three-day event featured a host of international educators, economists, and leaders in the food industry, including former University of Guelph President Alastair Summerlee, who served as the summit’s co-coordinator.

The summit kicked-off with a speech from President Franco Vaccarino, who introduced guests by delivering his welcome in Rozanski Hall. Following President Vaccarino’s brief introduction, Summerlee led a roundtable discussion about the past, present, and future of world food security.

Summerlee was joined by the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Ajay Markanday, the Ontario Agricultural College’s (OAC) Dr. Brady Deaton Jr., Food Banks Canada’s Executive Director Katharine Schmidt, Chancellor Emeritus of Missouri University Dr. Brady Deaton Sr., and the College of Business and Economics’ (CBE) Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.

The two-hour long discussion was preluded, and informed, by a brief 10-minute documentary, 55,000 for Breakfast, that chronicled the 1949 meeting of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) in Guelph. Using the documentary as a jumping-off point, Summerlee led the conversation, touching on topics of sustainability, the future of food production, emerging markets, and the prospect of feeding nine billion members of planet Earth.

“65 years ago, we sat here and said we would solve this,” said Summerlee. “Why haven’t we?”

Over the course of the two-hour-long discussion, speakers repeatedly brought up the belief that the fastest way to securing world peace is through eliminating hunger. Deacon Jr. clung to the notion that solving hunger is a matter of allowing second- and third-world nations – less financially-developed countries – more opportunities to produce and purchase food.

…food production is certainly an issue of community…

Markanday raised the notion that, although we have efforts in place to fight the growing hunger crisis, certain organizations have not kept pace with growing demands.

According to Schmidt, whose work makes her an expert on hunger in Canada, approximately 2.5 per cent of Canadians rely on food banks every month.

“I think some things have changed,” said Schmidt. “The dialogue has shifted…the second [question] is: why in a country as prosperous as ours are we still seeing people go hungry?”

As the speakers grew more comfortable with another – and the discussion grew more heated – Summerlee confidently kept control over the individuals present. What began as a conversation among colleagues quickly grew into a discussion between deeply concerned and educated individuals.

Though the discussion was situated around food production, each speaker – at one point – mentioned the need to revisit and revise existing policy to increase cooperation and production. The growing issue of food production is certainly an issue of community, but speakers like Charlebois raised the point that food security is closely related to foreign policy.

“I’m a big believer that we’re empowering regions to develop agriculturally,” said Charlebois. “[However], immigration and labour laws must be looked at. If we have a skilled labour force [that is skilled in one area], it can become unskilled very quickly.”

“[We should] liberalize systems to share human capital.”

Despite steering the discussion in several directions, speakers like Markanday were quick to state that their concerns were less with production, and more with distribution.

“I don’t believe in the [production] crisis,” said Markanday. “We’ve got more than enough…to feed the population.”

The UFWH first began in 2004, when U.S. Auburn University partnered with the UN’s World Food Programme. Since then, it has grown into a cross-country event, attracting leaders from all sectors of food production.