WE DO BIG THINGS
For those of us who were listening to the President’s State of the Union address this week, listening for a reference to the fight against hunger through agriculture development, we heard this near the end of the speech:
“This is just a part of how we are shaping a world that favors peace and prosperity. With our European allies, we revitalized NATO, and increased our cooperation on everything from counter-terrorism to missile defense. We have reset our relationship with Russia, strengthened Asian alliances, and built new partnerships with nations like India. This March, I will travel to Brazil, Chile, and El Salvador to forge new alliances for progress in the Americas. Around the globe, we are standing with those who take responsibility – helping farmers grow more food; supporting doctors who care for the sick; and combating the corruption that can rot a society and rob people of opportunity.”
That is the essence of the presidential initiative known as Feed the Future – helping the smallholder farmers of the developing world, particularly those in Africa, feed themselves, rather than us feeding them. It is an effort to reverse the decades of neglect of agriculture development in the poorest countries of the world. It is a recognition that those farmers have a vital role in adding to the global food supply, in helping to feed not only themselves, but to feed all of us.
That the President mentioned this, even if it is only five words – helping farmers grow more food – puts Feed the Future at the center of the administration’s diplomatic and development efforts, a prime deployment of America’s soft-power. The speech was dubbed “Winning the Future.” Feed the Future will be critical to assuring victory. It will help the world meet the need to double food production by 2050 to keep up with the rising appetite of a world population growing both more numerous and more prosperous.
But I believe there was more for the world’s hungry in the State of the Union than those five words. The President concluded his speech with a rhetorical flourish which also surely applies to Feed the Future:
“We do big things.
From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That’s how we win the future.
We are a nation that says, “I might not have a lot of money, but I have this great idea for a new company. I might not come from a family of college graduates, but I will be the first to get my degree. I might not know those people in trouble, but I think I can help them, and I need to try. I’m not sure how we’ll reach that better place beyond the horizon, but I know we’ll get there. I know we will.”
We do big things.”
What is bigger than launching a major assault on global hunger through agriculture development, helping people feed themselves and increase their incomes by improving their harvests?
That’s what America does.
It is a task Congress should embrace. As I’ve written before, funding and authorizing Feed the Future and assuring American leadership on this front is the historic challenge of the 112th Congress. Even for a Congress in budget-cutting mode. Yes, the deficit is huge. Yes, spending cuts need to be made. But don’t be small-minded in the cutting. Don’t do the easy political thing and take a knife to all programs that are considered “foreign” operations or “foreign” aid, calculating that the beneficiaries of those programs don’t vote in American elections.
Do the big thing.
Do what is important for America’s place in the world. Do what is important for really making a difference, for fundamentally changing the lives of hundreds of millions of people – and creating opportunities for American business along the way. Do a big thing.
It is what America does. The hungry of the world are precisely those the president was referring to when he summed up the American spirit of generosity and big-thinking:
“I might not know those people in trouble, but I think I can help them, and I need to try.”
This is the thinking that propelled two of America’s greatest achievements in diplomacy and development. The Marshall Plan was big. The Green Revolution was big. Now, Feed the Future and all related efforts on that front – from the foundations, the humanitarian agencies, the corporations, the universities, the churches – can be big.
How to Win the Future? Feed the Future.
It’s a big thing. With a big question: Will we get there?
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