U.S. Contribution to World Food Security: The U.S. Position Paper Prepared for the World Food Summit

Report Introduction: Over the past two decades, the international community has taken great strides in reducing the numbers of chronically undernourished people in developing countries. Today, many countries can point to a number of battles won, particularly in terms of economic development and dramatic increases in agricultural production. Nonetheless, a staggering number of people—nearly 800 million—still go to bed hungry or malnourished each night. This is simply unacceptable. For the United States, improving global food security is an essential key to world peace and the national security of our country. Food security is simply too basic and too fundamental to individual human dignity and survival. The November 1996 World Food Summit at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome will help focus the attention of world leaders on the devastating effects of chronic hunger and malnutrition. Food security is often dependent on conditions we cannot control. Farmers and other food producers around the world suffer serious production losses as a result of drought, floods, and other forces of nature. Other factors, however, are more susceptible to human intervention, including national policies, production technologies, population growth rates, resource management (especially soil and water), and political stability. Unless efforts are undertaken now to address the roots of hunger, millions more — particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia — will die of hunger or be malnourished in the next millennium. (See Annex I.) The United States sees an urgent need for all countries to tackle with renewed intensity the challenge posed by food insecurity. Our humanitarian interests, our economic interests, and our national security are at stake. Moreover, if the United States is not part of the solution, it will only end up dealing with the consequences on a scale that makes recent crises in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda pale by comparison. Accordingly, the United States is using the occasion of the World Food Summit to spur a comprehensive review of its policies and actions — past and present — as they relate to global food security. This paper reflects that review, as well as policies and actions the United States will pursue to help the world achieve food security in the future.