How to End Hunger

How does our research happen?

Here’s an example: Most of the information in Bread’s materials comes from trusted outside sources. Suppose that a researcher interviews farmers in India. They say their top priority is building storage facilities. Currently, a lot of their harvested crops spoil before they can be brought to market.

Another researcher wants to learn how farmers who support their families by selling their crops at market are able to do it. How are they different from farmers who try but can’t? She gathers detailed information from people in both groups about their farming practices. It turns out that one difference between the groups is that the successful farmers have a way to store their harvested crops.

Americans who are concerned about hunger don’t have the time or inclination to read these studies. Even if they did, how could they know whether the research is valid? What if most other research didn’t reach these conclusions?

A lot of other questions arise. For example:

• Is storage a top concern for most farmers? Or is it mainly a priority among people who grow certain crops, or people with the fewest resources, or some other group?
• Could the problem of spoilage have other solutions that are simpler or less expensive? Maybe there’s a way to get crops to market faster.

Even for policymakers, it’s impossible to evaluate so much complex information. So Bread staff talk with experts and sift through research. They evaluate how important an issue is in the larger context of ending hunger. In the example above, investing in crop storage facilities for smallholder farmers could become one of Bread’s recommendations. In their advocacy, Bread members would use the information supplied by Bread to tell policymakers that crop storage, along with other issues identified through research, is an important concern for hungry people overseas.