Agriculture

ECHO hosts delegates from 25 countries at international agriculture conference

WGCU | By WGCU Staff

Published November 13, 2023 at 12:32 PM EST

ECHO delegates attend a workshop with Jesse Wiser at the International Conference in North Fort Myers. ECHO hosted nearly 200 people and delegates from 25 countries at the conference.

Nearly 200 people from 25 countries gathered in North Fort Myers recently for an international conference focusing on hunger and related topics.

ECHO, Inc., a leading nonprofit global development organization, welcomed 190 delegates to its North American Regional Impact Center in Southwest Florida, for the three-day conference.

Topics ranged from sustainable farming, plant grafting, natural farming, mobilizing churches for agricultural ministry, building resilience against hunger through animal agriculture and more.

Delegates left the conference with information they will take back to their countries and used for improving the lives of millions of people who face food insecurity daily.

“In Ghana, we are into growing vegetables, but the gospel component, which is that holistic lifestyle, where we don’t just need food to eat but we need to relate to the soil and plants, is very key, but we haven’t always paid much to attention to that,” said delegate Matthew Atokple. "Here at the conference, we are made aware of the impact this has on people in terms of development and transformation and the change of mindset."

ECHO CEO Dr. Abram Bicksler explained the background of the event.

ECHO delegates attend a workshop with Lauren Daniels-Judge at the organization's recent International Conference in North Fort Myers.

“We’ve been doing this for 30 years. It’s all about connecting. Connecting people to each other, connecting people to ECHO and connecting people to strategies and ideas that they can use to bless the poor, improve the lives of individual farmers, families and communities,” he said. "We’re hosting these events around the world. We have about 19,000 members that are formally connected to ECHO in 109 countries. As we move forward with our five-year plan, we continue to connect the network and serve the network."

Bicksler added that there is still a great need. He said the statistics show there are about 793 million hungry people in the world, and 44 million in the United States alone.

For more information about ECHO call 239-543-3246 or visit ECHOnet.org or ECHOcommunity.org.

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