Feeding the future with peanuts

My name is Simon Canelón, I grew up in the Monagas state, Venezuela, a purely agricultural and oil entity, quite far from the center of the country and urban areas, sharing a family passion such as agricultural production, an activity that has been carried out for several past generations of my family, from an early age a search for alternatives to improve my surroundings began, participating from school in different student organizations to the University in being part of the student council of my school and in the Federation of University Student Centers from the Central University of Venezuela, always looking for actions to improve the lives of others, for which reason when I graduated as a Bachelor of Political Science I started with my partner Jiselle Samaan, a company with a social vision promoting projects in rural areas until we reach our current project "Feeding the future with peanuts".

Feeding the future with peanuts focuses to give a nutritional solution for malnutrition, by also promoting the eco-production of peanuts nation-wide in Venezuela, which focuses in the reactivation of national production and representing an impact for the life of many farmers and primary producers, as well as a nutritional solution for the final consumer (pregnant mothers, children and adolescents with malnutrition), articulating our product through civil society organizations, nutritionists and international organizations that tackle food insecurity and malnutrition. 

Our project focuses on the promotion of agro-ecological production with a social purpose, while providin nutritionists and members of humanitarian aid organizations with innovative nutritional solutions that allow these front-line actors to innovate their own practices, generating solutions to the socio-economic crisis that Venezuela is experiencing, which has caused an increase in child malnutrition in the country, due to lack of food security. 

According to ENCOVI 2020 96% of households in Venezuela are in a situation of poverty, this study also indicates that 30% of children under five, show signs of chronic malnutrition. According to the UN, the existing migration crisis has made that over 3 million of Venezuelans flee the country, according to the IMF, the GDP has collapsed 65% in the last six years; all of this triggered by the destruction of the private sector, the submission of the population to government assistance and the dismemberment of public institutions which are some of the causes that make insufficient the national production to cover the domestic market, leading to food insecurity and malnutrition.The whole region is affected by poverty which leads to food insecurity and malnutrition.

Our production system and impact can be replicated in any country with this problematic. For Venezuela, in the first year of production we expect to provide organizations with enough Nutri-Masacua to attend over 120,000 children in year 1 and in year 5 over 600,000 children. While producing our nutritional solution we use national raw material to encourage national production, articulating financing tools between private investors and primary producers in order to promote agroecology development as well. 

Comercializadora Masacua is a company focused in generating solutions in the areas of food security, malnutrition prevention and treatment, agricultural eco-production, agroecology training and rural transformation.  

With our project Feeding the Future we focus on the mass production of a  peanut-based nutritional solution that is gluten free, price-competitive and a fully-made national product, that can recover a child in malnutrition in three months. At the same time, our product contributes in the reactivation of the national eco-production of peanuts (today Venezuela does not produce 300 hectares nationwide), starting from 60 hectares in year 1 to 1400 hectares in year 5, as well as providing capacity building to local farmers in agroecology and peanut production. 

We plan to guarantee its scalability and sustainability in time, through 1) the guarantee of our raw material availability, through the alliance with the primary producers of peanuts, guaranteeing the financing of their plantations by linking the private investors with the producers by offering them the return of their investment plus utility in 6 months (alliance with Peanut Producers Association of Monagas State); 2) bulk peanut marketing, 3) the production and marketing of four product lines: Nutri-Masacua for malnutrition, for diabetes, for seniors and for athletes.

The final consumers of our product, are pregnant mothers, children and adolescents diagnosed with malnutrition problems. In general, these are people with low income levels and geographically located in the interior of our country who do not have minimum hygiene conditions in the home, equipment for food care, drinking water, electricity and sewers, among other services. Another aspect to highlight is that they are usually in unfavorable areas and far from the main consumption centers, such as the periphery of the cities. These places, do not have basic services such as drinking water, which causes a great inconvenience when preparing foods such as powdered milk. Nor access to electricity, making it difficult to keep food at adequate temperatures. 

Our company is committed to work with civil society, local and international organizations that work directly with these vulnerable sectors, to adapt the product to the necessities of the consumers and to maintain a constant surveillance with nutritionist to measure the impact of this nutritional solution. Nutri-Masacua provides per serving 513 calories, providing a high level of protein and energy for the patient to recover in three months, with two or three servings per day depending on their condition.   

Our project contributes to elevating opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind, giving them a nutritional solution and at the same time promoting a rural entrepreneurship for farmers in the marginalized zones of the country. 

In view of the serious economic crisis that our country is experiencing, we were motivated as a team to see how from the production of food with agro-ecological parameters we could help to solve a problem as serious as it is malnutrition in Venezuela, in addition to the enormous impact on the future that this means, an infant with malnutrition is not only affecting his present but also his future because this affects the development of his cognitive abilities, in a country that needs to get out of the poverty traps, the development of projects of this magnitude with a vision of ecological production is very important, not only to care and protect the environment but also with social impact, because no project of the new millennium can leave behind two very important things for our future, our planet and its people. Therefore, as a team, we came up with a strategic food idea that is gluten free and price-competitive product, that its production is also using environmentally friendly techniques, all this is possible with peanuts and a lot of love, in addition to the development of capacities and resources necessary to massify this laudable venture.

From an early age helping the other is a matter that I am very passionate about, one cannot help oneself without having helped the one next to you, all progress is given by the evolution of the environment, which is why in such an adverse environment as the Venezuelan, where corruption and authoritarianism have destroyed a country with some of the best GDP on the continent, reaping hope for its citizens is a necessary task, seeking solutions for the future is necessary, because change begins in small projects, in small groups until we reach the expansion of change, we cannot be disconnected from the harsh reality that most of our country faces, and our future is affected, we are focused on carrying out this project and we are going to continue evolving to massify our food solutions, all help and resources are important to keep moving forward in this beautiful goal. 

My preparation has been on the ground from my childhood to my time as a student leader, and as a political science professional. I have always been connected with the least favored sectors, seeking and consolidating solutions from agri-food as well as social projects, from the nutritional and educational point of view, this is part of my day by day, which is why being in this country is the greatest motivation to close the huge inequality gaps that exist in our country, inequality not only of resources but of opportunities, we have suffered two decades of a failed political project that has led to famine, for which we must seek solutions to this social tragedy that our country is experiencing, it is time for comprehensive solutions that seek to motivate all the productive levels of the country, for which reason this project is a small cube, it is a huge building but undoubtedly very necessary because it attacks the bases of the problem such as malnutrition, a malnourished infant will later be an a adult without future, so the solutions of the present will mean the stability of the future.

In Venezuela, you are forced to demonstrate your ability to cope with adversity. I have to face a father with cancer in Venezuela, where the shortage of medicines is one of the largest in the world, life gives us personal challenges that we must overcome. 

An extremely important obstacle in Venezuela is obtaining resources, in a country where the banking system has been destroyed, you cannot get an ally in banking to solve problems, which is why through an innovative system of small participations we managed to get Venezuelans abroad to invest in the project, so when faced with a difficult obstacle we got the opportunity to expand the team because they are not only investors but people concerned about the project consolidating, they are part of the Masacua family, also we have enormous challenges facing Covid-19 and the enormous fuel shortage that our country is experiencing, so we have had to innovate to continue producing and keep the project alive, it is not easy in such a complex environment to continue operating but it is our day-to-day motivation, continue producing to be able to massify our strategic food and consolidate a national solution to the problem of malnutrition .

My experience as a social leader comes from school, from very small steps such as coordinating a small sale to achieve the objectives of the course, to managing to get drinking water intakes for my school at the University, in addition to renovating the toilets at the University by small grants from private companies, every small step in the organization is necessary to achieve solutions, it does not seem to me that a leader is the one who has the best speech with romantic phrases but rather the one who seeks the best solutions, managing to include the greatest number of people, the solutions are like snowballs that can start small but they get bigger and bigger, one solution and one action is linked to another, which is why they grow by causality. And now is the time to believe that solutions to public problems can be consolidated from private companies, this vacuum that the State has left regarding food must be compensated by private initiative, each individual has the power to positively impact your environment, this is the time to be the snowball, we just need more support and help.

In Comerzializadora Masacua, we want to make the contribution to society of immediate solutions in the area of food security a reality, reactivate national production and generate greater job opportunities in the country's rural communities. Our company team is leading this project.