Field Trip 3- Agriculture

Educational Concerns For Hunger Organization
June 15, 2010

ECHO is an organization that helps communities with their agriculture in third world countries. They travel to these countries and implement their environmental techniques so that those towns can survive. While they are visiting these places they teach them how to grow fruit and other vegetables more efficiently and provide them with the various seeds so they can start their supply of food. ECHO will train interns at their Fort Myers location for a few months and then will send them abroad to apply what they learned at ECHO and help the town grow their food efficiently. The guide told us that the hardest thing to do is to convince these people to change their ways even after they explain the benefits. This is understandable because they have been used to farming “their” way and why would they want to change it. ECHO does not go to these countries to teach them to farm rather they educate them on more efficient ways to grow food under the harsh conditions that they live in. The global farm is divided into six different areas that represent the climate that is found in other countries, it allows the interns to study these habitats as they will be visiting ones just like this in a year.

The soil in every one of the six different climates at ECHO has a different type of soil and is very similar to the country’s in which they are trying to help. It was very interesting to see all of the different climates and environments that they have created there. They were all very different and had unique characteristics. Some would have very moist soil like the Tropical Rainforest and the Hot Humid Lowlands. Some other climates would have very arid and dry soil like the Semi Arid Tropics which only receive 10-30 inches of rain per year.

The economic relationship that ECHO has with the state would be that it is there to educate the community about the agricultural farms that they grow and study, as well as how in other countries that they struggle everyday for food. ECHO is open for guided tours that anyone can attend, they educate their visitors about the third world countries and how they teach the people more efficient ways to grow their crops. As a nation, ECHO sends interns in these countries and they are representing the United States as a nation. The people in these countries can truly see that they are trying to help their town and to stop world hunger. This agribusiness in the world will show other counties that they too can help out in this attempt to help other countries farm their crops. The potential ECHO has in enormous and can only grow more as it becomes more world renown.

Some environmental issues that could concern the business in this area are that each of six the different environments could be really hard to maintain and keep up with the weather that they are used too. Fort Myers obviously has very different weather patterns than some of the other third world countries ECHO is trying to study and help. As well as with the hurricanes that hit the state of Florida can have a huge affect on the crops. Some economy issues that this business could face would be the workers that have to travel to the different countries. It can be a very hard and difficult transition, the third world economies can be very dysfunctional and a challenge to live in. Since most of these countries speak a different language it could be difficult to communicate, even knowing the language some of these people have not received the same education and explaining the process could be quite complicated.

I can become involved and find solutions to feed the hungry by donating money online or donating stock to ECHO. Another way is to stay involved with the organization and donate my own time to help further expand the knowledge and awareness of ECHO. Keeping up on the most current events that ECHO posts on their website is a great way to learn more ways on how I can help learn solutions to feed the hungry. I truly believe that this activity is sustainable and a huge help to diminishing world hunger. The ECHO organization has been around for a very long time and throughout the years they have grown into a large and well known organization.

I believe that ECHO is the solution to ending world hunger. Once they become an even larger organization I believe that anything is possible. They will be able to expand and be available in other places around the world which would create awareness to people who live in that community. This would result in more volunteers and possible donations that can kick start this huge notion of ending world hunger. ECHO has worked so hard with the six different agriculture farms, and have seen the results that it has been beneficial to the third world companies they have helped.