Some highlights from the first part of day two at the Symposium, where the focus is on hunger, problems, and how to solve both.

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Up first, Rick Peyser of Green Mountain, who reflects on the people of Nicaragua who struggle from month to month with food shortages. He poses the problem like this: aside from the humanitarian concerns, which are significant, hunger causes a migration in families away from the coffee industry – hunger at origin means “we are building our house on a shakey foundation”. Rick’s speech was a lead-up to a world premiere of the short film “After The Harvest”, narrated by Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon, and featuring the starvation and plight of families who grow coffee in Nicaragua. You can learn more about the project at www.aftertheharvest.org, and educate yourself on the opportunities this industry has to affect change at origin and differentiate coffee from its status as a mere commodity. This morning’s presentation was a real and palpable articulation of the serious issue of hunger at origin, and we encourage you to check out the project at the link above.

Problem solving was the modus operandi for the rest of this morning, which included presentations from Sarah Beubien on the SCAA’s Sustainability Tracking And Reporting Tool (START), which you can learn more about at the SCAA expo booth. Andrew Sargaent of HRNS blew our minds and stole our hearts with his evocative powerpoint slides, including a farmer’s pyramid, the phenomenology of problem diagnosis, and a call for creating effective projects that can be implemented into public policy. Last, we heard from David Browning of TechnoServe, who insists that “solutions don’t have to be complicated”, and used the Japanese automotive model to illustrate how effective problem solving can close even the biggest differential gap.

More speakers coming soon! Follow along the Symposium with constant tweets @nickcho! See you at lunch!

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