Global Food for Thought

Remarks by the President at Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security

May 18, 2012
Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, D.C.

Thank you so much.  Thank you, everybody.  Please have a seat.  Thank you.  Well, good morning, everybody.  Thank you, Catherine Bertini, and Dan Glickman and everyone at the Chicago Council.  We were originally going to convene, along with the G8, in Chicago.  But since we’re not doing this in my hometown, I wanted to bring a little bit of Chicago to Washington.  It is wonderful to see all of you.  It is great to see quite a few young people here as well.  And I want to acknowledge a good friend.  We were just talking backstage -- he was my inspiration for singing at the Apollo -- Bono is here, and it is good to see him. 

Now, this weekend at the G8, we’ll be represented by many of the world's largest economies.  We face urgent challenges -- creating jobs, addressing the situation in the eurozone, sustaining the global economic recovery.  But even as we deal with these issues, I felt it was also important, also critical to focus on the urgent challenge that confronts some 1 billion men, women and children around the world -- the injustice of chronic hunger; the need for long-term food security.

Commentary - Neglect Reversed, Now Keep the Focus

By Roger Thurow

Too poor, too remote, too insignificant.  That was the unofficial mantra behind the neglect of smallholder farmers in Africa for the past four decades.  It was recited by the farmers’ own governments, by rich world governments, by development institutions large and small, by the private sector.  It has left Africa’s farmers far behind those in the rest of the world.  It has left them unable to feed their own families throughout the year.  It has given rise to that horrible oxymoron “hungry farmers.”

Hopefully, that mantra – and the mindset it fronted – was junked forever this weekend and the neglect reversed.  At the Chicago Council’s Symposium on Food and Nutrition Security and at the G8 summit at Camp David, the smallholder farmers were put on center stage – although few were actually in attendance – and showered with attention.  The powerful and the rich trained their focus on the hungriest and the poorest.  Their overwhelming consensus was that the smallholder farmers of Africa – most of whom are women -- are indispensable in the great global challenge of doubling food production by 2050 to meet the demands of a population that is growing in both size and prosperity.

Finally, the potential and performance of Africa’s smallholder farmers – as I chronicle in The Last Hunger Season -- was recognized and saluted and embraced.  Well done.

Commentary - A Shared Agenda to Grow Africa

By Lisa Dreier
 

Lisa Dreier is Director of Food Security and Development Initiatives at the World Economic Forum USA. For more information, visit our websites at http://www.weforum.org/agriculture or http://www.growafrica.com. This is cross-posted with the World Economic Forum's Blog.

What do three heads of state, 10 ministers, 116 companies and a group of farmer leaders have in common?

They all want to see growth in Africa’s agriculture sector.

So do we – which is why we found ourselves at the Grow Africa Investment Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last Wednesday, in a room packed with nearly 300 people at the closing session. The atmosphere in the room was slightly electric, suspenseful.

One by one, speakers rose to say they felt we were nearing a tipping point. “What an epic moment,” said Josette Sheeran, the new Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum, whose previous position as head of the UN World Food Programme brought her face to face with the brutal realities of hunger. Last week she spoke in front of a room full of business leaders whose investments and technologies could dramatically boost African food production.  “This [Forum] could transform the lives of millions of smallholder farmers,” she said, “this is the potential.”

To explain how we got to this moment, let me step back two years to a mysterious request from an African president.

Commentary - New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition

By Gayle Smith and Dr. Rajiv Shah

Gayle Smith is Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director at the National Security Council and Dr. Rajiv Shah is USAID Administrator.  This item was originally posted on the White House Blog.

This weekend, the leaders of the world’s largest economies and four African heads of state will come together at the 2012 G8 Summit at Camp David for a very different kind of discussion on Africa. Joined by private sector leaders for the first time, the President will host a dynamic discussion on global efforts to fight food insecurity and improve nutrition. In 2009 at the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, President Obama and G8 leaders responded to the spike in world food prices and focused attention on strengthening food security to help countries end hunger. Reversing decades of decline in global agricultural development, L’Aquila committed leaders to supporting comprehensive plans designed by the developing countries themselves and built around smarter, more focused investments.

Commentary - Chicago Council: Business and Innovation in Agriculture

By Danielle Nierenberg

The symposium’s afternoon sessions more specifically addressed the roles that business and innovation will be required to play in agricultural development. “[It is] the end of the era of the handout,” said Josette Sheeran, former head of the UN WFP and current Vice-Chairman of the World Economic Forum. “But the era of hand up is also dated and we’re in the era of the handshake.” According to the World Bank, 78 percent of African countries made regulatory reforms that make it easier to conduct business in their country in the past year. Connecting African farmers with partners on all levels of the value chain is key for the future of agricultural growth.

Attracting more youth to the field of agriculture was also heavily discussed. When asked what is the most important thing he’d like to see changed, Berry Marttin, Executive Board member, Rabobank, said, “That farming becomes attractive to young people.” This is an important idea given, that 65 percent of Africans are under the age of 25. Jeff Simmons, President Elanco Animal Health, agreed, saying, “We can’t have people moving away from rural areas with all of the opportunity in the next 50 years, we need to unlock the heart of the next generation—especially those who feel convicted to work in the fight against hunger.”

Commentary - Chicago Council Symposium: The New Way of Aid

By Danielle Nierenberg

The development landscape is changing, and private and public leaders each have a vision for how the development landscape should change. Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for the Department for International Development (DFID), said that Africa’s major challenges will be a rapidly growing population, an increasing demand for food products, and climate change. He said that business as usual will not be enough and that the recently announced New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition will not business as usual.

Commentary - Obama Calls for an End to “the Injustice of Chronic Hunger” at Chicago Council Symposium

By Danielle Nierenberg

President Barack Obama just delivered the keynote address, calling for G8 leaders to focus on the “injustice of chronic hunger” in the midst of world economic issues and austerity measures. He called for leaders to mobilize the $22 billion that was committed at the launch of L’Aquila in 2009 (of which only 22 percent has been delivered), continue GAFSP, and to mobilize more private capital into agriculture. He said our goal is to make emergency aid less and less relevant—that is how development is supposed to work.

To kick off this effort, Obama announced that 45 companies (both multinationals and African firms) have pledged $3 billion to fast track new agricultural projects that will reach those in need quicker. African agriculture will experience hugh leaps through the development of better seeds and better storage. Cell phone data is now being used to educate farmers about when to plant, harvest, and sell their products. A single bad season or change in season should not plunge a family into poverty. Obama reiterated a common theme we’ve been hearing today: that focus needs to be placed on nutrition—especially in children. It is the smart thing to do, improves a child’s potential, and lowers healthcare costs.

Commentary - Chicago Council Symposium: Advancing Food and Nutrition Security. Notes on the “Improving Nutrition” Panel

By Danielle Nierenberg

Danielle Nierenberg, an expert on livestock and sustainable agriculture, currently serves as co-Project Director of State of World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet for the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based environmental think tank. She has spent the last year traveling to more than 25 countries across sub-Saharan Africa looking at environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating hunger and poverty.

Opening remarks were given by Mike Froman, Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs. Food security will be the sole focus of the G8′s session on development this weekend, as leaders review progress made since the 2009 launch of the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative. Froman emphasized President Obama’s commitment to development—not just assistance—saying that agricultural development is up 8 times the global average where the L’Aquila Initiative has been working. He closed by saying that government assistance alone is not sufficient, and it will require commitment from the private sector, NGOs, and private citizens.

The first panel, Healthy Agriculture: Improving nutrition works for economies and communities, explored the challenge of how nutrition will be incorporated into the agenda of food security. Beverly Oda, of theCanadian International Development Agency, declared that we are in a critical moment and incorporation of nutrition and food security. We need to make sure that all programs integrate nutrition and no longer just focus on food and calories.

Guest Commentary - A Commitment to Help Africa Grow

By Glynn Young

Glynn Young, APR, Fellow, is Director, Online Strategy & Communications for Monsanto Company, and leads the company’s team responsible for social media, video and global web sites. He received his accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America in 1983, and was named a PRSA Fellow in 2005. He’s received nine national awards for speechwriting, including two Gold Quill Awards from the International Association of Business Communicators; and two PRSA Silver Anvil Awards, for community relation relations and employee communications.

This is cross-posted with the Monsanto's Beyond the Rows Blog.  

 

Tanzania is also a country where agriculture is critically important to the economy, employing some 80 percent of the work force. And it may be the key to the future success of the country and its people.

Today, Monsanto’s president, chairman and CEO Hugh Grant is announcing a ten-year, $50 million commitment to in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and will seek broad partnerships with governments, other private sector companies and civil society to grow the agricultural sector.  This commitment is in support of the New Vision for Agriculture Initiative, theGrow Africa Partnership and the G8’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition to support sustained Sub-Saharan Africa agricultural development and growth.

Guest Commentary - President Obama and Bill Gates on Fighting Hunger and Poverty

By Sam Dryden

Sam Dryden, director of the Agricultural Development initiative, oversees the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's efforts to help millions of the world’s poorest farming families boost their productivity and incomes. This commentary originally appeared on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Impatient Optimists Blog.

Today, President Obama as chair of the G8 announced a new global effort to help small farmers in the developing world lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.

The foundation welcomed today’s announcement, and Bill Gates issued a statement supporting these efforts stating “These are exactly the kind of smart, innovative partnerships with African governments we need to accelerate progress."

The challenges smallholder farmers in the developing world face are considerable yet not insurmountable. As Bono said today, we need to take the time to listen to African farmers and learn how best to help them so they can build better lives for themselves, and their families. And now more than ever, they are not alone. The global community, led by the United States government and in partnership with African governments and the private sector, is behind them.

At the Chicago Council of Global Affairs Symposium on Global Agriculture where President Obama made his announcement, I spoke on a panel with private sector leaders from Africa, the United States and Europe. We discussed how public and private agricultural research, innovation, and technology can increase food production and improve nutrition for people in the developing world.