Global Food for Thought

Live Blog - Brazil And Food Security: A "Remarkable Story" With Lessons For Others

By Erin Stock, InterAction

In 40 years, Brazil went from importing most of its staples – such as rice, beans and milk – to being a major exporter of food worldwide. How?

Antonio Lopes, the president of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, points to “government decisions” – decisions to strengthen universities, hire and send researchers around the world for training, and create an enabling environment for the development of tropical agricultural.

“It had a tremendous impact on our country,” Lopes told attendees at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs annual Global Food Security Symposium today.

The question of “how Brazil did it” is one that Lopes frequently gets. It arose again today during a panel discussion on “A New Science of Agriculture to Advance Global Food Security," with the moderator calling Brazil's progress "a remarkable story."

Commentary - Today’s Challenge Requires Tomorrow’s Leaders

This post is part of a series produced by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, marking the occasion of its annual Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C., which will be held on May 21st. For more information on the symposium, click here. Follow @globalagdev and #globalag on twitter to join the conversation on May 21st.

Paul Schickler, President, DuPont Pioneer

In order to address the complex challenge of global food security outlined at The Chicago Council Global Food Security Symposium today,  we need the enthusiasm of the next generation most of all. DuPont was pleased to support The Council’s first Next Generation delegation that enabled young leaders to participate in the discussion. And it’s critical they do so.

It is a challenge that will need to engage the best minds in IT to food processing, international trade to water and land resources, political reform to culinary sciences. 

During my remarks, I urged the global leaders in the room to consider how they are supporting not today’s leaders, scientists, or farmers – but tomorrow’s. Because the unprecedented task we face depends as much on those outside of agriculture and the next generation as it does on all of us.

This is a problem that desperately requires the focus and attention—and yes, the enthusiasm—of the very best and brightest of the next generations.

My parents' generation put a man on the moon.  My generation put a computer in every pocket. But they are child's play to the challenge of food security.

Commentary - Stretching the Food Aid Dollar by Building Strong Local Markets

This post is part of a series produced by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, marking the occasion of its annual Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C., which will be held on May 21st. For more information on the symposium, click here. Follow @globalagdev and #globalag on twitter to join the conversation on May 21^st.

Jon Halverson
Vice President of Land O'Lakes International Development

Floods, typhoons and droughts. Market fluctuations and inflation. Unhealthy government transitions and local political flare-ups. Disease-ridden crops and tainted water sources. All of these shocks can devastate any country, but for nations combatting poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition, disasters often precipitate acute food security outbreaks that result in suffering and loss of life. 

The U.S. Administration’s proposed food aid reforms will focus on combatting extreme vulnerability by strengthening disaster-prone communities through market development before emergencies happen. Under a pilot program in Bangladesh, Land O'Lakes International Development discovered that it is possible to deliver sustainable market-driven results in a country that faces recurrent shocks by building local capacity and making business linkages.

Commentary - What Would Norm Say?

This post is part of a series produced by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, marking the occasion of its annual Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C., which will be held on May 21st. For more information on the symposium, click here. Follow @globalagdev and #globalag on twitter to join the conversation on May 21^st.

Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn
President, The World Food Prize Foundation

Given the decade-long relationship I had with him in building the World Food Prize, I am sometimes asked about what the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug might say about a particular topic.

So, if Norm, as everyone knew him, were still here, you might wonder how he would react to the new report just issued by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, entitled Advancing Global Food Security: The Power of Science, Trade and Business.

Dr. Borlaug was a phlegmatic Norwegian from northeast Iowa and not given to wild outbursts of emotion, so I am not sure that he would have actually hugged the two co-chairs who directed the preparation of this report: World Food Prize laureate Catherine Bertini and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman. But most certainly he would have told them how extremely pleased he was with the great emphasis that the report puts on the critical importance of science.

2013 Global Food Security Symposium

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs will be hosting its fourth Annual Global Food Security Symposium tomorrow, starting at 830 am EDT. The event’s agenda can be found here.

Those interested can follow the Symposium’s proceedings: 

• Webcast - Sessions from 8:30a.m. – 4:30 p.m. will be webcasted at www.thechicagocouncil.org/livestream
• Twitter – Follow and join in the conversation by using hashtag #globalag. The Global Agricultural Development Initiative will be tweeting throughout the day’s event @globalagdev
• Pinterest – Follow Global Agricultural Development Initiative Pinterest board for live up-to-the minute updates.
• Global Food for Thought Blog – Visit Global Food for Blog for guest commentaries and live blog-posts throughout the Symposium.
• Live Bloggers – The following bloggers will be continuously blogging throughout the event:
  • Keron Bascombe, TECHNOLOGY4AGRI, blog centered on technological application in agriculture, Trinidad
  • Michael Hoevel, Agriculture for Impact, deputy director, Ag4Impact, London, U.K.
  • Firdavs Kabilov, former research consultant for the International Water Management Organisation, Uzbekistan
  • Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank, expert on sustainable agriculture and food issues, Chicago, IL.
  • Meerim Shakirova, Land Administration, consultant for at the World Bank, Kyrgyzstan
  • Erin Stock, InterAction, former journalist covering international development and humanitarian news, Washington, D.C.

Keynotes/Distinguished Speakers include: 

• Dr. Helene D. Gayle, president and CEO, CARE
• Lauren Bush Lauren, CEO and founder, FEED
• Rajiv Shah, administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Thomas Vilsack, secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Commentary - Community Development Key to Sustainability Efforts

This post is part of a series produced by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, marking the occasion of its annual Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C., which will be held on May 21st. For more information on the symposium, click here. Follow @globalagdev and #globalag on twitter to join the conversation on May 21^st.

By Pierre Ferrari
Pierre Ferrari is Heifer International’s President and CEO.

Now, more than ever, solutions to serious issues facing the world—hunger, poverty and environmental degradation—must be sustainable.  We will always need short-term, rapid response solutions to disasters, but now everything we do—in business, government, science and at my own organization, Heifer International—has to be for the long term, with those caught in the vortex helping provide their own solutions.

For too long, we looked development through a single lens: economic. Then through the Green Revolution, we added an ecologic component with the vow to do no harm. Today, though, we must add a third leg to the development stool to ensure viability and stability—social capital.

We need to be clear on one thing, something we learned at Heifer International a long time ago: Economic growth for its own sake is not a solution. For economic growth to make sense and to make lasting change there has to be community development—it must contribute to a better life for the least of us just as much as it improves life for those of us with the most.

For Heifer, our expertise is agricultural development, but we also apply a community development tool, our Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development, in every project we do. These values, such as gender equity, full participation, sharing and caring, accountability and training and education, are the backbone of our work.

Commentary - Walk The Talk

This post is part of a series produced by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, marking the occasion of its annual Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C., which will be held on May 21st. For more information on the symposium, click here. Follow @globalagdev and #globalag on twitter to join the conversation on May 21^st.

By Dr. Shenggan Fan

Dr. Shenggen Fan has been director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) since 2009. 

The global food system continues to remain vulnerable. Progress to combat global hunger and malnutrition remains fragmented, as nearly 870 million individuals—about 1 in every 8 people on the planet—are undernourished and more than 2 billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Moreover, hunger and malnutrition is disproportionately felt throughout the world, as roughly 98 percent of these individuals live in developing countries. As we move forward and the 2015 Millennium Development Goals deadline draws closer, progress toward halving the proportion of individuals suffering from hunger is not currently on track.

Although many notable commitments to agriculture and food and nutrition security have been made in recent years by various actors—including developing country governments, members of the international community, and other key stakeholders—progress in fulfilling these commitments remains mixed.  It will be essential for actors to “walk the talk” and move from rhetoric to action. Several important actions will be needed including: 

• Investing in agricultural science and technology. These investments should include technologies for improved crop and livestock breeding; advanced biofuels derived from non-food feedstock; low carbon agriculture; resource-use efficiency which saves water and energy, as well as reductions in food losses and waste; and safe food systems. Technologies must be smallholder friendly and regionally applicable.

2013 Symposium Edition of the Global Food for Thought News Brief

Please click here;to view the special Symposium edition of the Global Food for Thought news brief.

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Sustainable Intensification: Making Science the Solution for African Agriculture

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, marking the occasion of its annual Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C., which will be held on May 21st. For more information on the symposium, click here. Follow @globalagdev and #globalag on twitter to join the conversation on May 21^st.

By Mr. Michael Hoevel

Michael Hoevel is the Deputy Director of Agriculture for Impact at Imperial College London.

As the expiration date of the Millennium Development Goals draws closer, our promise to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty remains largely unfulfilled. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 200 million people (nearly 23% of the population) are chronically hungry and 40% of children under the age of five are stunted due to malnutrition. As a global community, we urgently need to establish new models for addressing these challenges.

Science-based agriculture offers such a solution – not only tackling food insecurity but also overlapping with multiple, interacting global threats, from managing scarce supplies of land and water to minimizing carbon emissions and post-harvest losses. Whilst no silver bullet exists to eliminate these threats, scientific approaches can go a long way to manage them. Across the agricultural value chain from agricultural research laboratories to agronomists and extension workers in the field and processors and exporters, scientific interventions can help people at each step to make African agriculture a great deal more productive and resilient, as well as more viable as a livelihood and business for the continent’s farmers.

The Chicago Council’s Global Food Security Symposium and its upcoming report, Advancing Global Food Security: The Power of Science, Trade, and Business, will discuss this very question of how to capitalize on the power of science to end hunger.  Similarly, a recent report from the Montpellier Panel outlines a new paradigm for African smallholders focusing on ‘sustainable intensification’. The term refers to equipping farmers with the innovations required to navigate the joint goals of producing more nutritious food and boosting incomes whilst preserving the environment, adapting to climate change and reducing food waste.

Commentary - The Nexus between Science, Business & Collaboration

This post is part of a series produced by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, marking the occasion of its annual Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C., which will be held on May 21st. For more information on the symposium, click here. Follow @GlobalAgDev and use #globalag on twitter to join the conversation on May 21.

By Dr. Margaret Zeigler

Margaret Zeigler is the executive director of the Global Harvest Initiative

On May 21, leaders from numerous sectors will participate in the Chicago Council Global Food Security Symposium to identify opportunities to alleviate hunger and poverty through agricultural development. In February of 2013, I visited the Philippines to conduct an in-depth look at how that nation’s government and civil society organizations are implementing new approaches to improve food and nutrition security. During meetings with policymakers, farmers, research institutions and the private sector, I witnessed a growing nexus among science, government and business as each sector begins to collaborate to advance the Philippine agricultural system, educate the next generation, and improve livelihoods of those in rural farming communities.

On the trip, I saw this nexus come to life through the CoCoPal Program. CoCoPal, named after the cocoa, coconut and Palayamanan concept of rice-based diversified farming, is implemented by ACDI/VOCA, one of GHI’s consultative partner organizations. In 2009, ACDI/VOCA was awarded a $6.6 million USDA Food for Progress grant. CoCoPal is improving the incomes and food security of 25,000 smallholder farmers and 125,000 indirect beneficiaries through value-chain growth and integration of diversified farming systems. The program also improves post-harvest processing facilities, and practices and standards for cultivation of cocoa, coconut and rice.

Let’s take a closer look at how the program is fostering science, business and collaboration.