The outbreak of Ebola infections in western Africa is disrupting food production so that hundreds of thousands of people will face hunger in coming months, says The Atlantic. Many families rely on the food they grow on their land, often by hand and working together. “Farming unites us,” says the president of a women’s cooperative in the story. “When we go to the farm, we come together.”
With the threat of Ebola, farmers are afraid to hire seasonal workers and they are wary of families with an ill member. Quarantines have halted the flow of migrant workers. “In the areas hardest hit by Ebola, an uncounted number of farms lie fallow,” says the story by Lisa Hamilton. “Rice has gone unplanted in some places and unharvested in others. Where labor was in short supply to defend against weeds, rodents, and birds, yields have suffered. Some areas unscathed by Ebola have still struggled.”