Food Security is National Security
Floor Speech
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, at the end of January, the United Nations reported that the cost of basic food commodities--basic grains, vegetable oils, sugar--were at their highest levels since the U.N. created this index in 1990.
Two weeks ago, World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced that the Bank's food price index shows food prices are now 29 percent higher than they were a year ago. Zoellick warned the G-20 to put food first when they next meet.
The World Bank estimates that these recent food price spikes have pushed about 44 million people into extreme poverty. That's under $1.25 a day.
This is a global security crisis.
The lack of food security contributes to political instability. Food was a primary reason people first took to the streets in Tunisia. Food and poverty were right at the top of the list in the squares of Egypt right next to the call for political freedom.
In 2007 to 2008, the last global food crisis, there were major food riots in nearly 40 countries. In May 2008, my fellow cochair of the House Hunger Caucus, Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, and I were briefed by the GAO about the lack of coordination and continuity in U.S. food and development programs. We started calling for a comprehensive approach to address global hunger and food insecurity.
Now, thanks in large part to the efforts and leadership of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and USAID Director Raj Shah, the U.S. Government responded to that call and, over a 2-year period of time, initiated a comprehensive, government-wide approach to reduce global hunger and increase nutrition and food security--not because it feels good, not even because it's the right and moral thing to do, but because it's in our national security and economic interest to make countries' food secure, more productive, healthier, and more stable.
This strategy is known as the Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative. It includes our bilateral programs and efforts with other governments and multilateral institutions. To be successful, everyone has to pitch in.
Feed the Future is the signature program of the U.S. strategy. It works with small farmers and governments to increase agricultural production and strengthen local and regional markets in order to reduce hunger and grow economies.
Other key elements include the McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program that brings kids to school and keeps them there by making sure that they get at least one nutritious meal each day at school. This program has proven to be especially effective in convincing families to send their daughters to school.
And finally, there is our Food for Peace Program, which provides food to millions of women, children, and men caught in life-threatening situations brought on by natural disasters, war, and internal conflict. This program provides U.S.-grown commodities and locally purchased foods that literally keep people trying to survive in the world's most dangerous situations alive.
Mr. Speaker, I have never heard anyone say that they would like to see more hunger in the world, that they would like to see children too weak from hunger to be able to learn, or young girls forced to work long hours because they no longer are being fed at school. But that's exactly what the budget cuts that passed the House 1 week ago would do.
The House cut $800 million out of the food aid budget and over 40 percent from the development assistance, which is where Feed the Future is funded. If these shortsighted and, quite frankly, callous cuts are allowed to stand, we would literally be taking the food out of the mouths of over 2 million children. We would be depriving over 18 million people the food that keeps them alive in Haiti, Darfur, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Kenya, and elsewhere. We would be turning our backs on countries where we made commitments to help boost the production of their own small farmers so they could finally free themselves of having to depend on U.S. and international food aid to feed their own people.
Enough, Mr. Speaker, enough.
This isn't a question of charity. It's an issue of national security, of what happens when desperate people can't find or afford food, and the anger that comes from people who see no future for their children except poverty and death.
I ask President Obama to stand up for his programs and fight for them. I ask the White House to hold a global summit on hunger, nutrition, and food security. I ask the media to wake up and grasp the consequences of these shortsighted cuts. And I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fund these programs so they can be successful. It really is a matter of life and death.
[From the New York Times, Feb. 24, 2011.]
The Food Crisis
Food prices are soaring to record levels, threatening many developing countries with mass hunger and political instability. Finance ministers of the Group of 20 leading economies discussed the problem at a meeting in Paris last week, but for all of their expressed concern, most are already breaking their promises to help.
After the last sharp price spike in 2008, the G-20 promised to invest $22 billion over three years to help vulnerable countries boost food production. To date, the World Bank fund that is supposed to administer this money has received less than $400 million.
Food prices are now higher than their 2008 peak, driven by rising demand in developing countries and volatile weather, including drought in Russia and Ukraine and a dry spell in North China that threatens the crop of the world's largest wheat producer. The World Bank says the spike has pushed 44 million people into extreme poverty just since June.
In 2008, 30 countries had food riots. That has not happened, at least not yet. Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, has benefited from improved agricultural productivity. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warns that Mozambique, Uganda, Mali, Niger and Somalia are extremely vulnerable to instability because of rising prices, along with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in Asia, and Haiti, Guatemala, Bolivia and Honduras in Latin America.
Misguided government policies could make matters worse. Some countries are stockpiling food. When India did that last year, food ended up rotting in storages. Others are imposing agricultural export bans, which discourages investment in production. The world's wealthier nations must press them to rethink these polices and back that up with real help.
The Obama administration has proposed worthy initiatives, but even when Democrats controlled Congress it had a hard time getting the money. The administration pledged $3.5 billion to the G-20 effort. So far, it has delivered only $66.6 million to the World Bank fund.
It is now asking for $408 million for the fund--part of a $1.64 billion request for its Feed the Future initiative, which aims to bolster poor countries' food production capabilities. Congressional Republicans are determined to hack as much as they can out of foreign aid. The continuing resolution passed by the House cuts $800 million out of the food aid budget--bringing it down to about $1 billion, roughly where it was in 2001.
The White House needs to push back hard. This isn't a question of charity. It is an issue of life or death for millions of people. And the hard truth is that if the United States doesn't keep its word, no one else will.
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