2017 World Food Day ~ Historic Junction ~ Roseville California

October is "Placer Grown Month" the historic food distribution hub of our “Farm to Fork Capitol” is shared at Station 102, Historic Junction, today's Roseville, California showcasing the importance of investing in food security and agricultural rural development as among the areas to be explored to mark 2017 World Food Day.

Together, we can strengthen and enhance resources to benefit our California’s veterans, socially disadvantaged and historically underserved populations as we discuss global solutions.

2017 World Food Day we share recommendations from the Federal Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity as we prepare to implement our 2018 Veteran Agripreneur Program while helping position regional partners for stronger consideration within the 2018 Farm Bill conversation.

Change the future of migration: Invest in food security and rural development.

The world is on the move. More people have been forced to flee their homes than at any time since the Second World War due to increased conflict and political instability. But hunger, poverty, and an increase in extreme weather events linked to climate change are other important factors contributing to the migration challenge.

Large movements of people today are presenting complex challenges, which call for global action. Many migrants arrive in developing countries, creating tensions where resources are already scarce, but the majority, about 763 million, moves within their own countries rather than abroad.

Three-quarters of the extreme poor base their livelihoods on agriculture or other rural activities. Creating conditions that allow rural people, especially youth, to stay at home when they feel it is safe to do so, and to have more resilient livelihoods, is a crucial component of any plan to tackle the migration challenge.

Rural development can address factors that compel people to move by creating business opportunities and jobs for young people that are not only crop-based (such as small dairy or poultry production, food processing or horticulture enterprises). It can also lead to increased food security, more resilient livelihoods, better access to social protection, and reduced conflict over natural resources and solutions to environmental degradation and climate change.

By investing in rural development, the international community can also harness migration’s potential to support development and build the resilience of displaced and host communities, thereby laying the ground for long-term recovery and inclusive and sustainable growth.