Case for support (HTML version)

Food for today.
Food for tomorrow.
Food for everyone.

CASE FOR SUPPORT



Foreword

For over seventy years, USC Canada has been helping
people rebuild their lives after crisis. Today, no greater crisis
exists than climate change.

Climate change threatens the future of food. If farmers
cannot adapt to the weather variability it brings, we cannot
eat.

USC Canada works with thousands of farmers around the
world to develop strategies to build their adaptive capacity
and resilience to climate change. That partnership drives the
growth of our Seeds of Survival program: a field-based and
proven solution to the crisis we face.

Our Seeds of Survival program puts farmers front and
centre and encourages them to use sustainable practices,
like ecological agriculture, that are better for people and the
planet. It also encourages them to diversify their crops to
improve their chances of having at least one of those crops
make it to harvest.

If the seeds they need to diversify are not available,
we take action. We work with farmers to help them
gain access to high quality seed, to adapt that
seed to their growing conditions and to breed
new seed.

And this approach works.

USC Canada needs your support to deliver
this solution to more farmers while there is
still time to make a difference. Donate to USC
Canada and help the future of food.

Jane Rabinowicz & Martin Settle
Executive Directors

Hunger:

The Human Cost of
Climate Change

The effects of climate change are global - but the human cost of climate change is truly
devastating in the developing world.

For Santos Manuel Miranda, a farmer in rural Nicaragua, climate change has made it nearly
impossible for him to grow maize for the past seven years. Many local maize varieties have
vanished, having died out after years of crop failures. As a result, Santos and his family face
the constant threat of experiencing hardship and hunger because of their ever-diminishing
harvests.

No longer able to tolerate the constant hardship or
the risk of prolonged hunger on the health of their
children, many of Santos’ neighbours have started
to pick up their lives and move to larger cities in
search of work.

Hunger and forced migration are
realities for farmers in many regions

of the globe.

Amadou Ongoïba in his failing
sorghum field in Mali.

In Bolivia, farmers like Julia Yucra de Vega With less and less food to eat, there is also
cannot grow enough food on their family less and less food to sell. As a result, even
farm in order to feed their children, let more farmers are forced to abandon their
alone grow surplus crops to sell in the traditional livelihoods in search of work that
market. As a result, Julia’s son Alfredo will allow them to feed their own families.
must travel as a migrant worker to harvest
crops on farms belonging to someone What affects farmers affects us all.
else for months at a time. Even then,
money remains tight and meals remain an A single drought or blight can wreak
everyday challenge. widespread devastation. But with climate
change, the cycle of declining harvests and
In Mali, farmers like Amadou Ongoïba the forced migration of farmers results in
are finding that their long-treasured seed permanent losses of our collective ability
varieties cannot withstand worsening to grow food and feed ourselves. And as
droughts caused by climate change. Not climate change intensifies, this vicious cycle
only are their crops not thriving; but all too threatens every country and region in the
often, they do not even make it to harvest. world.

Seeds of Survival:

Building Farmers’
Capacity to Adapt

Farmers like Santos, Julia and Amadou must adapt quickly and effectively to climate
change if they are to rise above hunger and poverty. By diversifying crop production and
working together with other farmers in their communities, they can improve crop yields and
increase harvests. But to make this happen, they must have access to seed varieties that can
withstand changing environmental conditions.
And that’s where we come in.
Through our global Seeds of Survival program, USC Canada works hand-in-hand with
farmers to build on their traditional knowledge and expertise. We provide farmers with
access to the additional knowledge, skills and resources needed to innovate and adapt
to climate change right in their very own fields. Over time, farmers build the capacity and
resilience to become self-reliant, and to respond to climate change on their own terms.

Santos is working with other maize
farmers to improve the plant’s ability
to survive droughts.They are also
experimenting with growing new crops
like millet and sorghum–some of these
new seeds were sourced from Africa.

In 2017 alone, we supported over 30,000 farmers in 670 communities across the globe by:

• Collaborating with farmers, like Santos in Nicaragua and Julia in Bolivia, to carry out
field research to test new types of seeds, learn how best to grow them, and use the
most desirable ones to diversify their crops.

• Establishing local and regional seed banks, with the help of farmers like Amadou in
Mali, to make high-quality seeds available to farmers for free or at very low cost and
ensure seeds circulate within and between communities.

• Linking farmers with scientists to develop the ongoing capacity to breed and select
seeds that can withstand the effects of climate change.


The development and promotion of sustainable agriculture is integral to Seeds of
Survival. Through our program, farmers are not just selecting and breeding seeds
that can thrive in changing conditions. They are also breeding seeds that can be
grown without the use of the chemical pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers
that contribute to and worsen climate change.

The most vulnerable farmers in the world urgently need these
solutions. Building farmers’ capacity to develop and implement
local solutions will ensure their - and our - resilience in the face of
climate change - not just today, but well into the future.

Our Impact

In the areas where we work, the hardship and hunger that have threatened farmers like
Santos, Julia and Amadou are becoming a thing of the past.

Through the Seeds of Survival program, farmers like Santos in Nicaragua have formed a
network that strives to make their maize crops better able to survive droughts. They are also
identifying alternatives to maize, like sorghum, sesame and beans.

In Bolivia, farmers like Julia now grow a more diverse array of crops. In addition to potatoes,
Julia grows herbs like chamomile, which she dries and sells through a co-op supported
by USC Canada. As a result, Julia’s family can afford better food, and her son is not forced
to travel as often to other farms as a migrant worker in order to supplement the family’s
income.

Julia and Alfredo are only one of the
approximately 960 farm families
in Bolivia who are participating in
programs supported by USC Canada to
help them grow and sell a more diverse
array of crops.

Around the world, USC Canada
supports over 60 community
seed banks, and an additional
330 on-farm/in-home seed
banks. These seed banks provide
a fair, affordable and reliable
system for farmers to share and
access seeds that are adapted to
local conditions.

In Mali, USC Canada has established community seed banks and seed networks that allow
farmers to share and access a diverse range of seed varieties. Today, farmers like Amadou,
who are no longer able to grow crops from certain seed varieties, are able to share these
varieties with farmers in regions where the seeds can thrive. In turn, Amadou can access seed
varieties that will grow and thrive on his farm, allowing him to provide food for his family and
earn a decent income.

The Seeds of Survival program makes a significant impact on the lives of thousands of
farmers around the world. It connects farmers across communities and regions to learn from
each other. As these farmers work to build local capacity and resilience in the face of threats
like climate change, they gain hope that all is not lost, that they can adapt and that they can
be successful farmers.

Your Opportunity

Climate change is a vast, multifaceted problem that impacts farmers in the developing world
in a myriad of ways.

Through Seeds of Survival, USC Canada takes a flexible, farmer-first approach to developing
local solutions. This approach has worked with thousands of farmers in hundreds of
communities around the world.

But more remains to be done.

USC Canada needs to ensure that farmers currently
participating in the Seeds of Survival program are
able to earn a living and stay on their land by
deepening its support for market development
activities that are just and sustainable.

We also want to share Seeds of Survival
with many more farmers who desperately
need help to build their capacity to adapt
and ensure that they, too, can overcome
the challenges of climate change.

Modest support to farm families can
help them turn the corner from
survival to success.

You can be part of the solution.

Between 2020-2025, USC Canada will need $1 million from donors like you to carry out this
essential work in seven developing countries in Africa, Central America and South America.
Every dollar that you donate will be used to leverage matching funds from private
foundations and the federal government.
And the legacy of your gift will be to build lasting capacity and resilience in some of the most
vulnerable communities around the world.

Without you, farmers around the world
will remain vulnerable to the effects
of climate change on their livelihoods,
families and communities.

Will you protect the
future of food?

You can be part of the solution.

DONATE TODAY We can’t protect the future of food USC Canada 56 Sparks Street, Suite 600
without your help. Ottawa, ON K1P 5B1
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Please mail your cheque to USC Canada, Charity registration No. 11927-6129-RR-0001
56 Sparks Street, Suite 600, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5B1
USC Canada was founded in 1945
@usccanada How we grow our food matters by Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova as the
Unitarian Service Committee of Canada.