Water is life and we live on a water planet, though it doesn’t appear that way in the many places we call home. With the twin problems of desertification and commdification escalating, water is becoming more and more of a scarce resource. One area hit especially hard is sub-Saharan Africa where the weight of this burden disproportionately affects women and affects the family at large. It is estimated that women in sub-Saharan Africa collectively spend about 40 billion hours a year collecting water.

In honor of World Food Day, EarthAction is posting some of its best materials on desertification. We cannot achieve global security without food security, and we cannot achieve food security without combatting desertification.

The aim of achieving food security across the globe will become increasingly elusive unless countries factor the planet's nature-based services into agricultural and related planning, a report released today from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says.Safeguarding the underlying ecological foundations that support food production, including biodiversity will be central if the world is to feed seven billion inhabitants, climbing to over nine billion by 2050 argues the study Avoiding Future Famines: Strengthening the Ecological Basis of Food Security through Sustainable Food System.