Global Food for Thought

This Week's Edition of the Global Food for Thought News Brief

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Roger Thurow - Outrage & Inspire

SHE'S THE BOSS

As Rajiv Shah spoke at last week’s Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, I thought about an image in his old office at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation before he became Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.  Hanging on the wall behind his desk was a photo of a child crouching in a blue wash bucket somewhere in Africa.  Only her head was visible above the bucket’s rim.
Tell me about the girl, I asked.

“She’s the boss,” he replied.  She, and not the wealthy and influential Bill Gates, was essentially the one they all worked for at the foundation’s global agriculture development department.

“We’re working to benefit her,” Shah said.

In presenting the guidelines to the Obama administration’s Feed the Future initiative, Shah effectively indicated that that little girl -- and millions of children like her, and their mothers and fathers -- was still the boss.  Not the mighty president, nor the secretary of state, nor members of Congress.  They all need to listen to what the Africans – particularly those Africans struggling to feed themselves – have to say about the priorities of agriculture development.

The crucial aspect of Feed the Future is that the agriculture development spending will follow country-led investment plans.

Expert Commentary - Breakthrough American Foreign Policy May Finally Give a Break to the World's Hungry

In advance of the Global Agriculture Development Initative's Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, the Initiative solicited commentary by leading global food security and international development experts to provide analysis on what critical steps countries must take to help reduce global hunger and alleviate poverty worldwide. This piece originally appeared on Huffington Post's Web site.

By Dan Silverstein

Dan Silverstein is the Managing Member of Heuristic Management, LLC, a business development consulting firm with interests in real estate and private equity investments. Dan is a private sector consultant to UN executives in the Office For Partnerships and the Celebrity Relationships office of the World Food Programme. He is an adviser to Universities Fighting World Hunger at Auburn University and to The Spirit Initiative which is engaged in conflict resolution. 

Breakthrough American Foreign Policy May Finally Give a Break to the World's Hungry

The United States government took a bold step forward last week in addressing the horrifying upward spiral in the number of people throughout the world who go hungry, and, because they are hungry, they suffer from stunted growth, find it difficult to learn, spend every day of their lives just trying to grow enough food to eat, and often die of starvation.

The Feed The Future initiative that was introduced by Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator of USAID is committed to forging bonds with those governments of developing countries which have pledged to make hard choices and to take action. Unlike past colonial domination this initiative has been designed for host countries to own the program. Decisions will be made from the ground up. Results will rule.

This Week's Edition of the Global Food for Thought News Brief

Please click here to view last week's special edition of the Global Food for Thought news brief devoted to The Chicago Council's Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security. Additionally, please click here to view this week's edition of the Global Food for Thought news brief.

If you have not signed up to receive Global Food for Thought by email, please do so by clicking here.

Expert Commentary - Even Those with Full Plates Need Food Security

In advance of the Global Agriculture Development Initative's Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, the Initiative solicited commentary by leading global food security and international development experts to provide analysis on what critical steps countries must take to help reduce global hunger and alleviate poverty worldwide. This piece originally appeared on Huffington Post's Web site. 

By Paul Schickler

Paul E. Schickler is president of Pioneer Hi-Bred. He was named vice president, director, Latin America Operations for Pioneer in 1999, with Africa added in 2002. In October 2003, responsibility for the remaining international businesses was added, and he was named vice president, International Operations. In November 2007, he was named Pioneer president.

Even Those with Full Plates Need Food Security

In the United States, it's easy to take our food supply for granted. Less than one percent of the U.S. population claims farming as an occupation, yet there is no national shortage. To the contrary, agricultural exports are strong. From the dining room of most U.S. consumers, the notion of "food security" -- an adequate supply of daily food for a growing population -- may seem irrelevant. 

And yet, food security is the cornerstone to stable societies. As noted by the late Norman Borlaug, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Father of the Green Revolution: "You can't build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery." And that's a growing challenge with global population -- and demand for food -- expected to double by 2050. 

Roger Thurow - Outrage & Inspire

FEET TO THE FIRE

Now, the work begins.

Just back from Sudan, Rajiv Shah, USAID administrator, came to the Chicago Council’s Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security this morning with fresh evidence that food security is the key to national prosperity, regional stability and international peace.  And he provided more implementation details of the roadmap to achieve that, the Obama administration’s Feed the Future program – ending hunger through agriculture development.  The goal is to increase the incomes of 40 million people in 20 countries over 10 years, and to reach 25 million children with nutrition interventions that will prevent stunting in 10 million kids.

Expert Commentary - From Pledges to Progress: Measuring Agricultural Development Assistance

In advance of the Global Agriculture Development Initative's Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, the Initiative solicited commentary by leading global food security and international development experts to provide analysis on what critical steps countries must take to help reduce global hunger and alleviate poverty worldwide.

By Sir Gordon Conway & Laura Kelly

Sir Gordon Conway is a professor of international development at Imperial College London. Dr. Conway, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005, is a world renowned agricultural ecologist and is recognized as one of the first experts to define the concept of sustainable agriculture. As president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1998 to 2005, he worked to increase that organization’s attention to ecological and food security issues, particularly the promise and challenges presented by biotechnology in the context of world hunger.

Laura Kelly is director of policy for ONE Europe.

From Pledges to Progress: Measuring Agricultural Development Assistance

We need to better understand how and where agricultural assistance is spent in order to make real progress on tackling hunger argue Gordon Conway and Laura Kelly.

Holding global leaders to account has never been easy. But when they come together in the Muskoka region of Canada on June 25-26th, G8 leaders claim they will report on their own progress on tackling global hunger.

How to Follow Tomorrow's Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security

 
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs will be hosting a Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security on May 20 in Washington, D.C.   The event purposes to build and sustain the gathering momentum for change in U.S. food security and agricultural development policy. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is pleased to announce that the event will feature the release of the Feed the Future Guide, the implementation strategy for the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative. 

The event’s agenda can be found here.
 
Those interested can follow the Symposium’s proceedings: 

• Webcast - Sessions from 9:00a.m. – 1:30 p.m. will be webcasted at https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/foodsecurity.
• Twitter – follow and discuss the symposium by using hashtag #globalag. Pioneer Hi-Bred will be tweeting throughout the day’s event @PioneerHiBred. ICRW (@icrw), IFPRI, (@IFPRI), and the World Food Prize (@WorldFoodPrize) will also be tweeting.
• The USG Feed the Future Guide, which will be released at the event, will be available shortly after Administrator Shah’s announcement at www.feedthefuture.gov.
• Global Food for Thought – the blog will include feature commentaries from Symposium speakers, and a special edition of the news brief summarizing the event’s proceedings will be circulated on Friday, May 21st.

Additionally, America.gov will be providing updates on the Symposium throughout the day.

The symposium will be led by the Global Agricultural Development Initiative cochairs, Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the UN World Food Programme, and Dan Glickman, former secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

Keynotes/Distinguished Speakers include: 

• Rajiv Shah, administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Thomas Vilsack, secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Namanga Ngongi, president, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president, Liberia

Confirmed Discussants include:

• Aghatham Ag Alhassane, minister of agriculture, Republic of Mali
• Deborah Atwood, director, Corporate Affairs and Public Policy, Mars
• Rodney Bent, executive advisor, Booz Allen Hamilton
• Doug Bereuter, president, The Asia Foundation
• Gordon Conway, professor of International Development, Imperial College London
• Rosa DeLauro, member, U.S. House of Representatives
• Shenggen Fan, director general, International Food Policy Research Institute
• Raymond Gilpin, associate vice president, U.S. Institute of Peace
• Cheryl Mills, counselor and chief of staff, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of State
• Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, minister, Department of Food and Disaster Management, People’s Republic of Bangladesh
• Paul Schickler, president, Pioneer Hi-bred
• Ritu Sharma, president, Women Thrive Worldwide
• Mark Suzman, acting president, Global Development Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Robert Thompson, Professor Emeritus in Agricultural Policy, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana

This Week's Edition of the Global Food for Thought News Brief

Please click here to view this week's edition of the Global Food for Thought news brief.

If you have not signed up to receive Global Food for Thought by email, please do so by clicking here. 

Roger Thurow - Outrage & Inspire

STARTING EARLY

The clamor begins just inside the door of Ridge Academy elementary school on Chicago’s south side.  Short essays and drawings shout out to all those who pass:

“Many people are dying now because of hunger.”

“In many countries, people do not have enough food or water to survive.  The most kind of people that are dying are children.  We need to get food and water to them before they die.”

“People are sick and I want to help.  If you want to make a difference, get them clean water and healthy food.  We don’t want them to die.”

“When you are hungry your tummy makes a sound.”

“In many places there are people and children who can’t drink good water.  At the school that I go to we are trying to get hungry people to get food and get safe water to drink.  Some – I mean a lot – of children and babies are dying.  That’s all folks.”

That’s all folks!  What more needs to be said?  Simple, declarative sentences from Skylar and Rebecca and Aixa and Camra and Chloe and Vinny, Tia and Joshua that are eloquent appeals to end world hunger.  They are all part of Action Against Hunger’s campaign to get even the youngest citizens involved in the clamor.