SHARE's Programs

Last year, in El Salvador the price of beans jumped from 45 cents per pound to $1.25, nearly twice the price of beans in the United States. In El Salvador, the combination of international trade policies, the succession of natural disasters such as droughts and flooding, competition for food and bio-fuel and the ARENA government’s dismantling of the agricultural sector for 19 years has profoundly compounded the crisis.

Yet in the face of this unfolding tragedy, a persistent group of small farmers across the Salvadoran countryside are finding local solutions to this crisis so that their families do not go hungry. These farmers are determined to stay on the land and feed themselves and their communities, as they have been tasked to do for generations, despite the global pressures that are collapsing local food economies. Now they have turned to the SHARE Foundation for support.

In response, SHARE is launching the “Semillas de Esperanza” Initiative. At the start of the rainy season this June, farmers will be sowing Seeds of Hope -- corn, beans and squash. I am appealing to you for an emergency donation to support them and be part of this burgeoning movement towards food security and food sovereignty.

Salvadorans have been growing corn and beans since before the time of the conquest, so it would be easy to assume that there would be no shortage of these staples, and that Salvadoran farmers could produce enough for everyone on Salvadoran land, at prices consumers could afford. However, generations of land concentration and the more recent onset of economic policies that undercut local producers in favor of international trade (i.e. subsidized corn from Iowa) have made easy access to wholesome food a thing of the past.

El Salvador is literally going hungry – people are unable to feed themselves with what they earn, and as a nation, more and more foods are being imported because local production is shutting down. Hunger and the resulting migration is proof that the current economic policies have failed to provide sufficient and realistic economic opportunities for poor Salvadorans.

Experts from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expressed deep concern for Central America where the crisis will be especially hard due to the region’s extreme dependence on imported foods. According to the FAO´s representative to Central America, “the challenge is to support small scale producers to produce more and better, strengthening at the same time food security and their level of income. If this is achieved, then progress can be made towards combating the extreme rural poverty that affects 30% of the rural population.”

However, the food crisis presents an opportunity. Salvadoran farmers have requested seeds of corn, beans and squash. If we can get seeds into their hands so that they can grow a crop that suddenly has increased in demand, we are both supporting farmers for whom basic grain production had ceased to be profitable, and consumers for whom prices of basic grains has more than doubled in the past year.

The “ Semillas de Esperanza”Initiative will provide a package which includes seeds, many from native seeds, and fertilizers. In addition, we will be supporting a process of education about the benefits of saving native seeds and using organic fertilizers as a way to become more independent from high priced hybrid seeds and chemical inputs. A package costs $350 and will be given as a loan to be repaid at a 6% interest, which will be used as a revolving fund for planting in the future.

The rainy season is fast approaching. I invite your immediate support to plant corn, beans and squash this June. We have a goal of $97,000 and have already reached $52,000.

I am appealing to your generosity to make our goal and know that you are countering hunger and building food sovereignty.

¡Vamos a plantar maíz, frijoles y pipian ! (Let's plant corn, beans and squash)

José Artiga

Executive Director

P.S. I thank you in advance for your support. I myself come from a family that planted corn and beans for many generations in El Salvador; my town was nicknamed “frijoleros” or bean producers. I get excited by the possibility of famers regaining control of food production so that they are not at the mercy of the global market.