Applauds G-8 commitment to the effort and urges passage of his Global Food Security Act
WASHINGTON, DC-U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today made the following statement on the Senate floor on the need to address the urgent issue of global food security:
Statement of U.S. Senator Bob Casey
July 16, 2009
I rise to speak on a significant achievement from last week’s G-8 Summit held in Italy. The G-8 leaders agreed to make a $20 billion commitment over the next three years to international agricultural development, of which the United States will pledge a minimum of $3.5 billion over this period.
As the White House has noted, that comprises a more than doubling of current U.S. levels of agricultural development assistance and represents a dramatic shift in the way our government conceives of global food security.
For too long, the United States has relied on the traditional emergency aid model, a testament to the charity and generosity of the American people, but also an inefficient and often delayed response to hunger overseas.
A real investment in international agricultural development can help the developing world grow self-sufficient in agriculture and provide a livelihood for the significant share of the population that are small farmers.
Everyone is familiar with that old saying: “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.”
And so that is exactly what the international community, led by the G-8 and President Obama’s leadership, is seeking to do, with an emphasis on several key principles, which include:
o Strategic coordination of assistance, to ensure that aid is provided in a fashion that maximizes effectiveness and efficiency;
o Investment in country-owned plans, to provide genuine domestic ownership and inclusive of benchmarks and other standards of accountability;
o A sustained commitment, with follow-through at future summits to ensure that the leading states are carrying through on their pledges;
The G-8 initiative is a complement to the Global Food Security Act, introduced earlier this year by the Ranking Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – Senator Lugar – and myself. As of today, eight other Members have co-sponsored this legislation and Secretary Clinton recently offered her general endorsement of the legislation.
This bill would achieve three major objectives:
1) Enhance coordination within the U.S. government so that USAID, the Agriculture Department, and other involved entities are not working at cross-purposes. We do that by establishing a new position in the White House, the Special Coordinator for Food Security, who would report directly to the President and who would forge a comprehensive U.S. food security strategy;
2) Expand U.S. investment in the agricultural productivity of developing nations, so that nations facing escalating food prices can rely less on emergency food assistance and instead take the steps to expand their own crop production. A leading agricultural expert recently estimated that every dollar invested in agricultural research and development generates nine dollars worth of food in the developing world. This provision can serve as the vehicle for the President’s pledge to more than double U.S. agricultural development assistance over the next three years.
I am especially grateful to Senator Lugar for his bold proposal, called HECTARE, to establish a network of universities around the world to cooperate on agriculture research;
3) Modernize our system of emergency food assistance, so that it is more flexible and can provide aid on short notice. We do that by authorizing a new $500 million fund for U.S. emergency food assistance and enabling the local or regional purchase of food when appropriate;
This bill was marked up in the Foreign Relations Committee this spring and reported out. I am working with Senator Lugar to bring this legislation to the floor so that the full Senate can take it up and promptly pass it.
Mr. President, we should not wait for another massive food crisis like the one that hit the world last summer before taking action on this legislation. Global food security is not only a humanitarian issue of immense proportions, but it is also a national security issue. Hunger breeds instability and can set the stage for failed states.
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