Miller Magazine Issue: 123 March 2020

71 ARTICLE MILLER / MARCH 2020 ons in Japan, Myanmar, Singapore, Spain, Ukraine, Nepal, Madagascar and Argentina, to name just a few. And I had the pleasure of personally participating in events highli- ghting pulses that were organized by the government of India in New Delhi and the UN FAO in Rome. What was the occasion, you may ask? Since 2019, Feb- ruary 10th has been officially recognized as World Pulses Day. The UN FAO proclaimed it so in recognition of the nutritional, health and environmental benefits of pulses and the important role they can play in achieving several Sustainable Development Goals. Pulses are the edible seeds of plants in the legume fa- mily. They grow in pods and encompass a diverse group of food crops that includes peas, lentils, chickpeas and beans. Because pulses are nutrient dense and a high-qua- lity source of protein, they can help address the problems of hunger, malnutrition and obesity. And because pulse crops use fewer chemical fertilizers and water than most competing crops, they are vital to the sustainable food systems we need to feed a global population projected to hit 9.8 billion by 2050. Equally important, pulse pro- duction provides a livelihood to millions of smallholder farmers, most of them women, in much of the developing world, and can therefore play a key role in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals of no poverty and zero hunger. And this brings me to a lesson I learned as a child. I was born into a family of farmers and, growing up on the family farm in Menomonie, Wisconsin, one of the things my father imparted to me was that farmers cannot be removed from consumer demand, and consumers need to have a connection back to the land. Now, as the president of both Chippewa Valley Bean, my family’s agricultural business, and the Global Pulse Confederation, the peak body of the global pulse industry, Source: pulses.org