This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Administrator J. Brian Atwood
National Consultations on Food Security
Washington, D.C., May 21, 1997
U.S. Agency for International Development
It is a real pleasure to appear on this National Consultation
on Food Security Program with my distinguished colleagues.
Our participation in this event is testimony of our commitment to
global food security.
As Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID), I am responsible for our country's
foreign assistance program, a large portion of which provides
food aid and support for agricultural development to developing
countries. Therefore, food security is a top priority for USAID.
USAID led the international community in what was called
the "Green Revolution." Our work expanded agricultural
production to meet a growing demand in places like India where mass starvation threatened 25 years ago.
The good news is that over the past quarter century, the
percentage of the chronically undernourished population in the
world has been cut in half. During that same time, the number of
undernourished has been reduced by over 100 million despite a
doubling of the world's population. USAID has a major
contribution to improving the food status of the developing world
through its support for agricultural research, policy reforms,
health care and population stabilization programs.
The World Food Summit was a major success in increasing
awareness of the serious problem of food insecurity. High
officials of one hundred eighty six governments endorsed a
comprehensive plan of action.
However, the Summit was only a means toward an end.
And the bad news is that there are still over 800 million
chronically undernourished -- one seventh of the world's
population. Nowhere is the problem worse than in Africa where
one in every three people is undernourished and where the
situation may worsen unless a vastly more effective effort is
mounted. The nations that signed the Food Summit Communique
committed themselves to reducing by half the number of
undernourished in the world by the year 2015.
The U.S. government -- in a unique effort combining all of
the major departments with interests in food security -- has united
to work to eliminate hunger both in the United States and the
world. We hope citizens and organizations all over America will
join us in this effort. The food security challenge will effect us
all and government alone cannot feed the two billion people who will be added to the world's population over the next 20 years.
We think that we know some of the key elements for
success. Those countries that have demonstrated the most
progress in achieving food security are those that have seriously
pursued sound economic policies, while focusing government
investments in health and education.
The United States intends to share our expertise with
selected countries wishing to review and change their national
policies to improve food security. Those countries that have
demonstrated the most progress in achieving food security have
also invested in agricultural research. Technology, as our own
farmers know, has been a driving force for change.
It is estimated that technologies developed by the system of the international agricultural research institutes we helped set up
25 years ago have been responsible for feeding an additional one
billion people in this growing world. The United States wants to
enhance U.S. government support for research and technology
development in agriculture because it will help us meet the food
security problem abroad and it will help our farmers at home as
well.
We will pursue the food security agenda through the use of
agricultural programs, development assistance and food aid. We
will employ an integrated approach to sustainable development,
with a strong emphasis on those countries that show a good-faith
willingness to adopt necessary policy reforms.
And we intend to continue support for international efforts to
respond to and prevent humanitarian crises that create emergency food aid needs.
We welcome your participation in joining to develop a
United States Action Plan to address hunger in both the world
and the United States.
We have discovered that there is a major misconception
about foreign economic assistance -- foreign aid -- in the minds of
the U.S. public. The public feels that twenty percent of the U.S.
budget for this purpose is too much. They feel that two or three
percent, even as much as five percent, may be about right.
The truth of the matter is that the United States spends less
than one half of one percent of our national budget on foreign
assistance. The United States ranks, on a per capita basis, at the
very bottom of the industrialized countries in the amount that we contribute to foreign economic assistance.
Foreign assistance not only improves the lives of people in
other countries, it also directly benefits the citizens of the United
States. Foreign assistance contributes to world peace and
stability, thereby improving our national security. International
collaboration, supported by U.S. assistance, underpins U.S.
agricultural production. Did you know that varieties using
genetic characteristics developed in Asia are sown on almost two-thirds of the wheat area and one-quarter of the rice area in the United States?
Foreign assistance, by helping other countries grow,
contributes to growing demand for U.S. exports, particularly
U.S. agricultural exports. The recent report of the Commission
on International Trade, Development and Cooperation, which included leaders of U.S. agriculture, noted that "It is clear that the future of U.S. agriculture is directly tied to economic growth
in the poorer countries of the world." The Commission
recommended that funding for foreign assistance be increased
every year for the next five years and suggested that America's
international policies are as important to farmers as our domestic
policy.
We hope that you will work with us to propose a Plan of
Action for Food Security that will capture the intellectual power,
the energy and the tremendous accomplishments of the American
agricultural miracle. If we can harness that special achievement
we will be able to feed the world, even in the year 2050 when we
hope the world's population will stabilize at replacement levels.
In conclusion, I want to thank you for your participation during this very important activity. We held a very rich day of public testimony in developing the U.S. position paper for the
World Food Summit. We also held two days of public meetings
in developing our regional paper, with our neighbor Canada, for
the World Food Summit. We included ten advisors from non-governmental agencies and the private sector on the United States delegation to the World Food Summit.
So you see, we greatly value the opinions of American on-governmental organizations. You represent the best of our society and the best of our national values. Thank you.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: July 18, 2001
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