ECHO Field Trip

I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to ECHO, or Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, in Ft. Myers. ECHO is a non-profit organization with the goal of creating sustainable solutions to the problem of world hunger. They team up with other organizations and networks to educate and lend support to poor farmers internationally and to feed the world. This idealistic goal is incredibly noteworthy to me. I like the fact that instead of "giving a man a fish", ECHO's focus is on "teaching a man to fish". In other words, by providing the knowledge of how to farm sustainably, they are helping people worldwide to implement the same practices and to learn how to feed themselves. This type of work has longterm and far-reaching benefits. Throughout our visit, I saw so many cool and unique things. I loved looking at the different resources they were able to grow crops out of- tires, old shoes, kiddie pools etc. I thought this was an excellent display of creativity at its finest. In every little aspect, the land at ECHO is designed in a way that is purposeful. This stands in stark contrast to the typical view on "American Agriculture". Most American farms are wasteful and lazy. If better thought and planning was put into the majority of farming techniques, incomparable benefits could be reaped. I believe that the mass majority of people would feel like ECHO's ideology is not suitable for the developing world because it requires a great deal of time and effort. Although this is true, the human race needs to get over it's laziness and it's need for constant gratification in order to overcome the countless problems that are earth is currently undergoing. More agricultural organizations like ECHO should step in and help spread these techniques to people all over the world. "Appropriate technology" is a term used to describe tools that fit the social and cultural needs of a society. Lastly, I would love doing some of my service learning with this agency. I appreciate what they stand for and I had a great time learning about all that they do. I'm sure volunteering with them would be a rewarding and educational experience.