Our world is increasingly becoming a global world. Thanks to the internet and the daily news on TV, we know what is happening on the other side of the globe. Yet knowing about those events doesn’t mean they impact us—or that we do anything about them. When I saw the press release about Roger Thurow’s new book The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change, I almost deleted it. Thurow writes about about Africa. A faraway continent. Why should I read that?
Then I stopped myself. It’s easy to live in my little cocoon here—getting my news via Yahoo! updates and what shows up in my friends’ Facebook news feeds. Starving farmers in Africa don’t really impact me, because what can I do to help them? I’m just a mom, a university student. Yet ignoring the problem doesn’t make it go away. So I requested Roger Thurow’s book as a personal challenge to myself to get my head out of the sand.
This book was provided for review courtesy of The B&B Media Group. This post contains affiliate links; as an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Who is Roger Thurow?
Roger Thurow is a journalist who has wrote for the Wall Street Journal for thirty years. He is the author of Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty
The Last Hunger Season
As I read The Last Hunger Season, I was shocked that these farmers are living the way they are in today’s world. They have cell phones, but not enough to eat. They must choose between paying for schooling for their children or buying medication to treat malaria. While farmers in North America ride some of the biggest tractors you’ve ever seen and don’t even have to steer those tractors anymore thanks to GPS, farmers in Kenya are still hacking at the ground with hoes, hiring the local team of oxen, harvesting with scythes. Foreign food is being imported for starving Kenyans in one part of the country, while Kenyan farmers on the other side of the country are selling their corn for dirt cheap prices because they can’t store it—it will be destroyed by bugs or mold.
Roger Thurow writes The Last Hunger Season from an American perspective, often delving into U.S. politics and how those affect farmers in Kenya—particularly when Obama came to power and promised to help feed the hungry around the world and then when other politicians tried to slash foreign aid in order to reduce the U.S. budget.
Faith also plays an important role in the lives of most of these farmers. Their meetings take place in their local churches and they pray as they put the seed in the ground, watch it grow, prepare to harvest. In one area of Kenya, the local Catholic diocese is involved in helping the farmers; in other parts of the country, other Christian groups are reaching out with the tools and information to help these farmers. To me, it was deeply inspiring to see the faith these farmers demonstrate despite all the hardships they’ve faced in their lives.
While The Last Hunger Season was heart-breaking to read in the first few chapters, to hear how hard is for these Kenyan farmers, it turned into a story of triumph by the end. In just a year, a few small things made a huge difference for these four Kenyans and their communities. Just a little bit of help ended the cycle of hunger seasons. Thurow shows us the day-to-day lives of these four farmers and how a better harvest can change their lives, but he also shows us the bigger picture—what is happening in Kenya and in other countries around the world that affects these farmers’ lives.
Make a Difference
Much of The Last Hunger Season talks about One Acre Fund, an innovative non-profit organization that is equipping farmers with new seeds, fertilizer, and new farming practices so that they can grow enough corn to feed their families—and maybe their neighbours too. Simple things, like how the farmers plant their seeds and having access to good seeds and fertilizer, may double the yield of their small, one-acre fields. Thurow also mentioned other organizations that are working to help these farmers.
So what can I do now to help farmers in Kenya? I can pray. I can give The Last Hunger Season to a friend to read. I can write to my political representative about supporting foreign aid to Kenya. I can support organizations like One Acre, who are on the ground in Kenya and making a difference in Kenyans’ lives. I can sponsor a child in Kenya or another developing country.
What will you do?
To learn more about The Last Hunger Season, visit Thurow’s blog. You can also view Part 1 of the film series inspired by the book. The Last Hunger Season is available on Amazon and other bookstores.
4 Comments
Elizabeth Anne – so true. I like your idea for a teacher gift – what about donating school supplies to kids in need in her name? Most teachers I know are so passionate about education that they’d be honoured by that. But it does go against the grain of our society.
Thanks for your post. It is so easy to live our cozy little cocoons here in North America, forgetting about the true hardships so many people in this world face. We live a rather affluent suburb of a city and I remember when I suggested we consider donating to Heifer International one year in the name of our child’s teacher, instead of just giving hundreds of dollars for more gift cards to her. I’ll let you guess the outcome of my suggestion!
Kel – I love the idea of giving to charities instead of buying more stuff for people who already have lots of stuff (which is most of us in North America!). 🙂 I was just thinking today of organizations that let you purchase a cow or school supplies or similar stuff for people like this in Africa or other countries. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
thanks for making the community aware of this need…I am going to consider this…my sister and I are looking for a charity to give gifts to as Christmas gifts for our children and family members, instead of buying stuff we don’t need 🙂