A Champion for Land, Livelihoods and the End of Hunger
Roy Prosterman, one of our founders and a pioneering advocate for land reform , passed away on February 27, 2025. Throughout his life, Roy championed land reform programs that put land directly in the hands of smallholder farmers, proving time and again that secure land tenure leads to increased agricultural productivity, better food security, and stronger, self-reliant communities. His approach was not just about legal reforms; it was about shifting power to the people.Enabled through his decades of work, millions of people have been able to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.
In the early 1960s, as a professor at the University of Washington Law School in Seattle, Roy worked with governments to implement large-scale land reform programs, ensuring that smallholder farmers had the legal power to own and cultivate the land they worked. His work particularly recognized the importance of mobilizing women, as access to land is foundational to food production, economic independence and community resilience.
This work inspired filmmaker Keith Blume to produce The Hunger Planet, a documentary first shown on February 14, 1977, which catalyzed the creation of The Hunger Project. In that film, Roy articulated the deep injustice faced by smallholder farmers, stating:
“Throughout history, most people have been trying to feed themselves, by making their living directly on the land as farmers…. Of the billion poorest people in our world, most are peasants, and most work on land owned by someone else…. Grievances run deep when you see half the food you’ve grown taken away in a landlord’s truck. This results not only in hunger, but in violence.”
Roy became The Hunger Project’s expert voice, speaking at all of our original launch events across the United States. He later joined our Board in 1979, serving for ten years. He traveled extensively with our Founding President, Joan Holmes, including to India in 1988 to help launch The Hunger Project’s first village development program in the Bayad Taluka.
A champion for grassroots engagement, he believed deeply in the role of individuals in the commitment to end hunger. His work continues to drive the global land rights movement, particularly through Landesa, the organization he later founded.
Today, we honor his extraordinary legacy and reaffirm our commitment to creating a world without hunger—a world where every person, regardless of gender or economic status, has the resources they need to thrive.
Photo: Roy Prostermam, one of Hunger Project’s founders, in 1980.
