[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6162-6163]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             FOOD SECURITY

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about an issue that 
was the subject of a Foreign Relations Committee hearing today, of 
course, chaired by our chairman, John Kerry, and the ranking member, 
Senator Dick Lugar.
  Today in America and worldwide, every 5 seconds a child dies from 
starvation. Every 5 seconds across the world, every 5 seconds every day 
is the reality that stares us in the face. While the United States has 
historically played an important role in addressing hunger 
internationally, this simple fact should serve as a galvanizing call to 
action on this issue.
  The 2008 global food crisis brought attention to the fact that 
emergency food assistance was not enough, as generous as our country is 
and as important as that strategy is to confronting the problem. The 
emergency food assistance that year was not enough, and donors in 
recipient countries that need to work together to address this systemic 
problem need to do so even more so today.
  The Obama administration has rightly prioritized food security and 
the political support in the Senate is growing every day for the Lugar-
Casey Global Food Security Act. I commend Senator Lugar for his work on 
these issues for many years and, of course, I wish to commend and thank 
the work that our chairman, Senator John Kerry, is doing on this issue 
every day as well.
  Creating an environment where local farmers can produce for 
themselves and their communities as well as easily trade to get their 
goods to market is the key to fundamentally changing this ongoing 
crisis.
  With a host of competing priorities for the attention of the United 
States, I believe there are at least two reasons food security matters, 
even in the midst of some of the challenges we are facing domestically.
  First, this is a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions that we 
can go a long way toward solving. I think when we talk about this 
issue, no matter who we are, no matter what our station in life is, 
this is an issue that we come to, summoned by our conscience, and I 
think that is true in the Senate as well.
  As one of the richest countries in the world, I believe we have a 
moral obligation to do all we can to help. This crisis is solvable with 
a combination of assistance and emphasis on providing small farmers 
around the world the know-how, the technology, and the means to provide 
for themselves.
  The second reason, in addition to this being a humanitarian crisis as 
to why this is so important, is global hunger is a national security 
issue. Instability arising from conflict across the world over access 
to food is a documented problem. The 2008 food crisis, unfortunately, 
brought this into sharp, acute focus.
  We saw it in Somalia, where struggles to gain access to food have 
enveloped population centers in violence. We have seen it in Egypt as 
citizens rioted for access to bread. We have seen it in Haiti more 
recently, where hospital beds filled in 2008 with those injured during 
food riots. Increased instability in any of these countries has a 
direct impact on U.S. national security interests.
  The root causes of this perfect storm of crisis are well known but 
worth recounting. In 2008, food demand was driven higher due to 
expanding population and rising incomes. More cereals were needed to 
feed livestock for the production of meat and dairy products and to 
fill increasing demand for biofuels across the world. Higher oil 
prices, combined with weak harvests and rising global demand, created a 
scramble for resources. Wheat prices more than doubled and rice prices 
more than tripled between January and May of 2008.
  Twenty-eight countries imposed export bans on their crops, driving up 
commodity prices and limiting supply. This led to political unrest 
across the globe. It concentrated among developing countries with 
large, food-insecure, poor urban populations.
  While this was indeed a perfect storm of events, the underlying 
issues that created this crisis continued. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for 
example, 80 to 90 percent of all cereal prices remain 25 percent higher 
than they were before the crisis began. In many Asian and Latin 
American and Caribbean countries, prices are still more than 25 percent 
higher than in the precrisis period of time. In the wake of the 
economic crisis, the World Food Programme began receiving requests for 
assistance even from countries that previously were able to provide for 
themselves.
  The peripheral effects of food insecurity are considerable. High 
rates of hunger are shown to be linked to gender inequality, especially 
in terms of education and literacy, which also negatively affects the 
rate of child malnutrition. This number is stunning. It is estimated 
that 60 percent of the world's chronically hungry are women and girls--
60 percent--20 percent of whom are children under the age of 5. It is 
almost incalculable. Those numbers are staggering and should do more 
than just bother us and just inform our conscience; they should also 
motivate us to do something about this crisis. I cite these figures, 
and too often in Washington we are guilty of doing just that--citing 
figures. But they have real impact and real meaning.
  I have had the privilege of personally working with some very special 
women in Pennsylvania who took it upon themselves to really highlight 
some of these issues. The Witnesses to Hunger is a project that started 
in Philadelphia, PA. These women were given cameras to photograph their 
own lives, to tell us the truth of their experiences, and to raise 
awareness on many critical issues, including specifically hunger.
  Last year, I had the honor, as did my wife Teresa, of bringing their 
exhibit to Washington, and in November we launched a tour across 
Pennsylvania to highlight this issue. I cannot begin to describe how 
moved I was--as were so many others who saw this exhibit--to see the 
photographs taken by these women and to hear their stories of hunger 
and of poverty. Their bravery and rare courage in sharing the struggles 
they face to provide a safe, nurturing home for their children will 
always stay with me.
  These mothers who brought Witnesses to Hunger to life are constant 
reminders that the programs we in Congress advocate for and the new 
initiatives we can develop can have a profound impact on people's 
lives, whether it is in our towns and communities in Pennsylvania or in 
any other State or around the world, because this is a problem our 
world and our country face.
  Hunger in a country such as Pakistan poses both a humanitarian and a 
security issue. Last year, over 77 million people in that country, 
Pakistan, were considered food insecure by the World Food Programme. 
That is nearly half of their population. As their military conducts its 
continued operations against extremist forces, their numbers could 
increase. Hunger and competition for food can lead to further 
instability and potentially undermine the Pakistani Government's 
leadership at a very critical time.
  The global food crisis is still a serious problem, and despite the 
efforts of the administration, we still have a lot of catching up to do 
in order to respond properly. According to the Center for Strategic and 
International Studies, the U.S. commitment to agricultural development 
has declined in recent years, though emergency food assistance 
continues at robust levels. Worldwide, the share of agriculture in 
development assistance has fallen from a high of 13 percent in 1985 to 
4 percent

[[Page 6163]]

between 2002 and 2007. The U.S. development assistance to African 
agriculture fell from its peak of about $500 million in 1988 to less 
than $100 million in 2006. We can do a lot better than that.
  The USAID has been hardest hit during this period. The USAID once 
considered agricultural expertise to be a core strength but today 
operates under diminished capacity. That is an understatement. Here is 
what I mean. In 1990, USAID employed 181 agricultural specialists, but 
in 2009 just 22--from 181 to 22 in just those years, less than 20 
years. That number has gone up from 22 recently, with the new 
administration, but it is still far too few to work on this problem.
  In the 1970s, the U.S. Government sponsored 20,000 annual 
scholarships for future leadership in agriculture, engineering, and 
related fields. Today, that number has fallen to less than 900. So we 
are not developing the workforce and expertise we need.
  We simply don't currently have adequate infrastructure in our 
government to respond to this crisis. The administration is making 
progress, though. The administration's Global Hunger and Food Security 
Initiative, known by the acronym GHFSI, is a comprehensive approach to 
food security based on country- and community-led planning and 
collaboration. I welcome this opportunity to hear directly from the 
administration about this effort. While I know the Obama administration 
has worked assiduously to coordinate an interagency process and 
selection criteria for country participation around the world, 
questions remain in terms of overall leadership of the initiative, as 
well as its plan to develop internal expertise and capacity that is 
sustainable over the long term.
  In the Senate, we have worked to bring attention to the world's 
hungry. Senator Lugar, as I mentioned before, a respected leader in 
this field for decades, and I have joined together to introduce the 
Global Food Security Act. I will highlight three provisions before I 
conclude.
  First, the Global Food Security Act would provide enhanced 
coordination within the U.S. Government so that USAID, the Department 
of Agriculture, and other agencies are working together and not at 
cross-purposes.
  Second, this bill would expand U.S. investment in the agricultural 
productivity of developing nations, so that other nations facing 
escalating food prices can rely less on emergency food assistance and 
instead take steps to expand their own crop production. Every dollar 
invested in agricultural research and development generates $9 for 
every dollar worth of food in the developing worlds.
  Third, this bill, the Global Food Security Act, will 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.
  This is one of those rare occasions--unfortunately, too rare--where a 
serious crisis was greeted with substantial response by an 
administration--in this case, the Obama administration--as well as 
bipartisan collaboration in the Senate and the House. I am encouraged 
that there has been positive movement toward fundamentally changing how 
we look at food security issues. Such support, however, is not 
permanent, and we should enact this multiyear authorization bill to 
ensure that such congressional support exists in the future, many years 
from now. We cannot wait for another massive food crisis before taking 
action on this legislation. This is the right thing to do, and we will 
ultimately enhance the security of the United States and our allies.
  Mr. President, this isn't just a matter of being summoned by our 
conscience. That we know is part of the reason we are doing this. This 
is also a grave national security issue for us and our allies. For that 
reason and so many others, we need to pass the Global Food Security Act 
and support the administration's efforts on the Global Hunger and Food 
Security Initiative.
  I yield the floor.

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