by
Ann M. VenemanU.S. Secretary of Agriculture World Food Summit: Five Years Later
Rome, Italy
June 10, 2002
(As Prepared)

Honorable Chairman, Excellencies, Director-General Diouf, Ministers of Agriculture, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor to be here representing President Bush and the United States of America at the World Food Summit: Five Years Later .

President Bush views the alleviation of hunger and poverty throughout the world as "a moral imperative" - those are his words. So today, as I did last November at the FAO Conference, I reaffirm the deep and continuing U.S. commitment to the goals of the 1996 World Food Summit.

As part of our response to that Summit, the U.S. government set a domestic goal of reducing hunger at home by half by the year 2010. Through a coordinated effort involving various levels of government, local communities, charities, and businesses, the United States is well on its way to meeting this objective.

Unfortunately, the global picture is far less encouraging, particularly in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, parts of South Asia, and some other regions. The persistence of widespread hunger and malnutrition exacts an enormous cost in terms of human suffering and lost potential. It is clear that all members of the global community - working individually and in partnership - must significantly accelerate and more effectively focus their efforts.

As we meet today, the clock is ticking. We have 12 more years until 2015. The challenges we face include chronic hunger, recurring famines, and serious nutritional deficiencies. To ensure that the objectives of the 1996 World Food Summit will be met, the United States is proposing to focus on three priorities in partnership with other donors and developing countries:

1. Reducing hunger by increasing agricultural productivity.

2. Ending famine.

3. Improving nutrition.

Increasing agricultural productivity is a way to boost both food availability and access in developing countries. Worldwide, some 800 million people are food insecure, and most of these people live in rural areas where food is produced. Improving their ability to produce, both for themselves and for the market, is one of the most immediate steps we can take to reduce hunger. In many of these countries agriculture accounts for a large share of employment and export earnings. Increased agricultural productivity must be part of a growth strategy to reach the rural poor.

Accomplishing this will require, above all, that countries adopt market-based policies that help stimulate, rather than hold back, their farming sectors. The starting point must be good governance and the rule of law. This means fair and transparent policies. It means policies conducive to private initiative, investment, and trade, and a commitment to broad-based economic growth. We have seen encouraging examples of market reform in such nations as Uganda, Ghana, Peru and Vietnam.

To improve nutrition , the United States will target its efforts toward eliminating

vitamin A and iodine deficiency disorders by 2015; reducing iron and folate deficiencies in women and children by a third during that same period; and reducing stunting in young children and low birth weights. We hope others will work with us to accomplish these tasks. We have the technologies to do this - both longstanding technologies such as fortification and supplementation, and newer ones such as advances in biotechnology to enhance the micro-nutrient content of staple foods.

What the United States Is Doing To Improve Food Security

The United States will work closely with interested partners on each of these three fronts: raising agricultural productivity, ending famine, and improving nutrition. We have a long and proud tradition of investing significantly in domestic and international food security programs. We are building on that tradition, continuing and in many cases expanding projects and activities already underway.

When President Bush proposed a new Compact for Development in March, he said that part of this historic 50-percent increase in our development efforts would be used to "raise harvests where hunger is greatest." We will use these funds in partnership with countries that are, as the President said, "ruling justly, investing in their people, and promoting economic freedoms." Experience shows that these conditions will help ensure that our development investment leads to real, tangible progress in reducing poverty and alleviating hunger.

This partnership is essential because the resources that really drive development come from private sources - domestic and foreign - that are attracted to competitive economies with skilled workers and open, stable, market-based policies. Development assistance can complement and indeed foster these private flows, but cannot substitute for them. It is the combination of policies, private resources, and development assistance that allows nations to grow and prosper, and to achieve food security for their people.

At the same time, we are increasing the emphasis we place on agriculture in our traditional development assistance programs, with funding for agricultural programs increasing more than 20 percent in each of the last two years. Another 25 percent increase is called for in our fiscal year 2003 budget request.

We are the largest contributor to the multilateral lending banks, and we strongly encourage these institutions to significantly increase their efforts to spur agricultural growth, especially where hunger is greatest. We are the leading food aid donor. As we meet today, the United States is the leading donor responding to the complex food security crisis now facing southern Africa.

To reduce the suffering of people in this region who have been devastated by severe drought conditions, the United States is today releasing 275,000 metric tons of wheat to be exchanged for an equal value of corn, beans, and vegetable oil through the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.

While this is just one example of U.S. leadership that is assisting Southern Africa, worldwide we support a broad range of initiatives in maternal and child health, capacity building, research and exchange, training, debt relief, and promoting property rights, access to finance, and gender equality.

Our pilot global school-feeding program is now providing school meals to some 9 million children in 38 countries across Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe. We understand very clearly that when children are fed at school, they are more likely to come to school, which means they are better prepared to learn while at school. And, we are beginning to see the positive results. For example, one project in Eritrea is filling empty stomachs and bringing better nutrition and improved attendance to 35,000 school children.

Based on the pilot school feeding initiative, the U.S. Congress recently authorized the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program and provided an additional $100 million in funding. This is a worthy investment and we encourage other countries to join in this effort that is providing substantial benefits to children in these regions of the world.

The United States also continues to support agricultural research to develop and disseminate technologies that increase production, farm income, and market opportunities. Achieving needed gains in global agricultural productivity and better food distribution will require broader dissemination and adoption of existing and new technologies - from biotechnology and other production technologies to information, packaging, processing, storage, and transportation technologies. As part of the U.S. effort, the U.S. Agency for International Development is launching a 10-year, $100-million Collaborative Agriculture Biotechnology Initiative to boost research on varieties better suited to growing conditions in developing countries and strengthen the overall safety and environmental regulatory process.

Today, I am inviting ministers from around the world to join me for a science and technology conference early next year to focus on the needs of developing countries in adopting new food and agricultural technologies. During this conference, we will look at the role of partnerships and ways to share the benefits of technology.

Current and emerging technologies have the potential to increase farm yields; improve the nutrient content of foods; deliver inexpensive, edible vaccines; improve distribution; reduce food waste; reduce the use of chemicals; and offer new marketing opportunities and income sources for farmers in such areas as biodegradable plastics and bioenergy products from agriculture. This is the power and promise of science and technology.

In today's world, we cannot talk about food security without also talking about HIV/AIDS. The rampant spread of HIV/AIDS in several developing countries presents a direct threat to food security, resulting in lost family income and lost food production. In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 7 million people who once planted and harvested food have died of AIDS since 1985. To help counter this crisis, President Bush has designated $500 million for the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, and he proposes to spend $1.6 billion next year to combat HIV/AIDS around the world.

To grow and prosper, developing countries must have markets for their products. We currently import more than $450 billion in products from the developing world each year - over eight times the amount these countries receive in aid from all sources combined. Many of these countries look to the United States as a major market for their food and agricultural products, a key source of export earnings. We imported nearly $4 billion in coffee, cocoa beans, and other bulk agricultural products from developing countries last year; $2.5 billion in semi-processed farm products; more than $7 billion in seafood products; and close to $12 billion in fruits, vegetables, processed grocery products, and other consumer foods.

Trade can - and must - play a central role in addressing the world's food security needs. In today's global economy, open markets and free exchange will do a far better job of getting food to people if governments do not place unnecessary barriers on the trading system. An open food trading system should be our goal.

The starting point should be the WTO agricultural negotiations now underway as part of the Doha Development Agenda. The United States strongly supports an ambitious three-part agenda: eliminating agricultural export subsidies; substantially reducing trade-distorting domestic subsidies and supports; and reducing market access barriers for agricultural products. Developing countries will be among the biggest beneficiaries of this agenda.

We must give particular priority to those staple food commodities that provide the bulk of the nutritional needs of people living in developing countries. Even as the people of the developing world need easy access to these products, farmers in those countries need to be able to sell their products in regional as well as global markets. We will work closely with others in Geneva to ensure that the trading system plays the fullest possible role in enhancing food security for the world's people. This is good trade policy, good development policy, and good food security policy.

We are gathered here in Rome because we share a common commitment to wiping out hunger, improving nutrition, and building a more peaceful, prosperous, and secure world.

As we review the causes and consequences of food insecurity, we recognize that relief from hunger and poor nutrition can be achieved, with benefits shared throughout the global community. Success will be counted in lives saved and lives made better; in healthier children who can look forward to a lifetime of opportunities; and in freer, more equitable, and more productive societies able to lift people out of poverty through initiative, innovation, and economic growth.

Although challenging, these goals are unquestionably attainable - and ones to which the United States is deeply committed. We look forward to working with all of you - our partners - to achieve these objectives.

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