Release No. 0338.00

by
Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman
Introductory at The Millennium Lecture
of Professor Gordon Conway
September 25, 2000

        "Thank you very much, Eileen, and thank you all for joining us here at USDA for another of our Millennium events. This Millennium series has given us a chance to leave aside for a moment our short-term deadlines...to step back from the trees and get a glimpse of the entire forest...to focus on some of the macro-issues confronting us as policymakers and concerned citizens in the 21st century.

        "And perhaps there is no such issue more pressing than that of world hunger. Every day, approximately one out of every seven and a half people on earth goes hungry. And with the world population expected to increase to 9 billion in the next half century, this challenge will only become more acute.

        "A few months ago, I visited some of the more devastated regions of Africa, and I was both shocked and saddened at what I saw. Men and women, hands outstretched, relying on American generosity for their only meal of the day. In the Masai village that I visited, conditions were so dry that the men have to take the cattle hundreds of miles away to find pastureland and drinking water, leaving the women and children behind with little to sustain them in the meantime.

        "I believe that every prosperous, developed, agriculturally abundant nation must be a part of a solution to the global food security crisis. Under this Administration, the United States has been very active in international hunger relief efforts. Last year, our government shipped 9.6 million metric tons of food aid overseas, more than three times the 1998 level. Thanks in large part to our efforts this year, the UN has reported that a full-blown famine has been avoided in the Horn of Africa. It is my hope, though, that the European Union and other developed nations will be more active in food aid efforts in the future.

        "Fighting world hunger is not only a moral imperative, it's also part of any pragmatic approach to foreign policy. Food shortages have historically been a major source of armed conflict around the globe. So promoting food security advances American national security interests by promoting peace and stability in the less stable regions of the world.

        "But simply parachuting into the developing world with our commodity surpluses isn't enough. We need to be creative and innovative about the distribution of this food, ensuring that it gets in the right hands and mouths. To that end, President Clinton has directed me to lead a new pilot program called Global Food for Education, which seeks to globalize the success we've had with our domestic School Meals programs.

        "This initiative, which is the brainchild of George McGovern and Bob Dole, calls for a $300 million investment to set up school and pre-school feeding programs in developing countries. By feeding children in school, by attacking hunger through early intervention, this program promises to have a far-reaching impact

        "It will encourage more children to stay in school and reduce dependence on child labor. It has the potential to raise academic performance and increase literacy rates, thus cultivating human capital and creating more knowledge, more professionals, more scientists, more lawyers, more entrepreneurs and so on.

        "But the potential benefits are even greater. Education, for example, is an important initial step in the prevention of AIDS. It has also been demonstrated that when young girls stay in school, they bear fewer children. So our program could lead to more responsible family planning and therefore more sustainable population growth and improved environmental conditions.

        "This program has been well-received on Capitol Hill. Senator Kennedy, among others, has been a key champion. And the initiative is moving forward. We have conducted an initial review of applications and selected 20 Private Voluntary Organizations who have the capability of carrying out a school feeding program in developing countries. Proposals for specific projects are due this Friday.

        "It's important to recognize, though, that there's more to food security than food aid. Our ultimate goal is not to create a relationship of long-term dependency, but to empower developing countries and help them achieve agricultural self-sufficiency.

        "That means providing technical assistance on conservation and sustainable agricultural practices. It means supporting agricultural research and nutrition education. It means helping build strong rural infrastructure, promoting urban agriculture, encouraging effective food safety regulation and more. And it also means working toward a rules-based world trading system, where developing countries are full and active participants.

        "We can't talk about world hunger and food security without also talking about biotechnology. Unless we find ways to squeeze greater yields out of a shrinking arable land base, there is no way we'll be able to feed this growing world in an environmentally sustainable manner.

        "Unfortunately, biotech's humanitarian potential has been obscured by a divisive and polarizing debate that has generated a whole lot more heat than light. As with any new technology, we mustn't embrace genetic engineering blindly. We must proceed enthusiastically but cautiously, with a full understanding of the potential risks and a respect for those who remain skeptical.

        "And that's exactly what we're doing in the United States. We are constantly improving on what is a strong, exhaustive, science-based, transparent regulatory system, which ensures -- as best we possibly can -- that no product makes it to market that poses any threat to human or environmental health.

        "Now, I want to turn the podium over to our guest, who has forgotten more about these issues than most of us will ever know. Gordon Conway is an internationally acclaimed agricultural ecologist, a prolific author and a world leader in international development. As a young government research officer in Borneo, he became one of the first to practice integrated pest management. He has had a long and distinguished career in academia, most recently as Vice Chancellor of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, and he spent three years as the Ford Foundation's representative in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Two and a half years ago, he became the first non-American to be named president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic organization devoted to lifting up the most impoverished and underserved people on earth.

        It's a great honor to have with us...Professor Gordon Conway".

#