Drawings from celebrated Argentinian artist, Miguel Rep, were used to create an animated piece about the efforts of young people, teachers and journalists in rural areas of the Americas to highlight the true impact of the daily work of farmers.
Buenos Aires, 23 November 2021 (IICA). A new artistic initiative is the latest effort of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to give the invaluable role of healthy and nutritious food production—in harmony with the environment—greater prominence in the public agenda.
The project is an animated piece created from drawings by celebrated Argentinian artist, Miguel Rep, about the efforts of young people, teachers and journalists in rural areas of the Americas to publicize the true impact of the daily work of farmers.
In a didactic manner that can easily be understood by all audiences, the feature summarizes the consensus messages agreed on by the 34 IICA Member States this year, ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit.
These agreements were expressed in a document with 16 messages, underscoring the need for farmers to participate in discussions about the future of food production; stressing that decisions must be science- based; and emphasizing that agriculture is part of the solution to the challenges faced by humanity today.
Based on the conviction that art is a powerful tool to reinforce the message about the importance of building more sustainable agrifood systems, the animation by Rep—as the Argentinian artist is popularly known—was presented in parallel with the staging of the Global Climate Change Conference, COP 26, in the city of Glasgow.
It also speaks to the urgency of building an agrifood production system in the Americas that will be more resilient to increasingly frequent extreme climate phenomena resulting from the effects of global warming and of making better use of natural resources.
The initiative is a contribution to education to highlight the importance of building prosperous rural zones in which agriculture is seen as an opportunity for individual growth and community development, as these areas produce the food that is consumed in cities.
Thus, it will be broadcast in schoolrooms, educational platforms, as well as in institutions in communities that are seeking to highlight the role of agriculture in the production of healthy food and the vital importance of ensuring retention in rural areas.
In mid-2020, when the grave social consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic were already becoming evident, IICA promoted its Popular Music Tribute to Those Who Put Food on Our Tables, to give greater political and social prominence to agriculture and rurality, given their key role amidst the health crisis.
Through this initiative, 110 musicians from 22 countries contributed their talent, enabling the organization of a virtual concert and production of the program “Food for All”, in partnership with Canal Rural in Brazil. It was broadcast not only that channel, but on Agrotendencia TV, Canal Rural in Argentina, Canal UCR in Costa Rica and Clarín Rural in Argentina, airing throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Gilberto Gil from Brazil; Panama’s Erika Ender; Argentina’s León Gieco, Teresa Parodi and Gustavo Santaolalla; the Ecuadorian group, Jayac, and Mistah Dale from Barbados were some of the participants in this unprecedented mobilization of talent across the hemisphere that used art and culture to spotlight agricultural activity and the scope and importance of technical cooperation of excellence.
Video in Spanish
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
