Joe Biden, U.S. Senator for Delaware

May 14, 2008

Washington, DC – Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) held a hearing this morning entitled “Responding to the Global Food Crisis.” The United Nations estimates that global food prices have risen 83 percent over the past three years. According to the World Bank, rice prices have risen by around 75 percent while wheat has jumped 120 percent. The United States is experiencing the worst food inflation in 17 years. All of this and more has led to a global food crisis unparalleled since the 1970s.

At the hearing today, the Foreign Relations Committee heard from two panels of expert witnesses. The first witness panel included Henrietta Fore, the head of USAID and Edward Lazear, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. In the second panel, the Committee heard from Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the United Nation’s World Food Program, the largest humanitarian agency in the world; James R. Lyons, Vice President of Policy and Communications at Oxfam American, one of the most important non-government organization (NGO) voices weighing in on the food crisis; and Peter McPherson, former USAID director.

The full text of Sen. Biden’s opening statement from this morning’s hearing is below.

“Today the Committee on Foreign Relations will examine a topic that is making headlines around the world – the global food crisis.

“Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, has said: ‘Without food, man can live at most but a few weeks; without it, all other components of social justice are meaningless.’

“Today, as we meet here, millions of men, women, and children around the world face at best hunger, at worst, starvation. The price of indispensable staples – wheat, rice, maize – has doubled in the last three years.

People are worried and angry; some are even rioting.

“From Haiti to Egypt to Bangladesh, riots have broken out as people demand the right to affordable food. For the billion people in the world who live on less than a dollar a day, higher food prices are the difference between a full stomach and hunger. For many, it is the difference between life and death.

“The effects of the global food crisis are also felt here in the United States. At home, the price of eggs has jumped 35 percent. A gallon of milk costs 23 percent more. Even Sam’s Club and Costco are limiting the amount of rice consumers can purchase. This has had a serious effect on retired persons and working class families.

“This crisis has caught policymakers unprepared.

“For 20 years, foreign assistance funding for agriculture development has been declining. This is not a criticism of the Bush Administration; it was a problem for the Clinton Administration and for the first Bush Administration as well. Necessary investments have not been made. Donor nations lack a coherent food security strategy. Our response has been, I think, belated and disjointed.

“The typhoon that devastated Burma, the earthquake that hit China – these natural disasters bring their own challenges. But the food crisis, which has been called a “silent tsunami,” did not come without warning. Many of the factors have been obvious for years.

“This crisis is unacceptable morally, and it is unsustainable politically and economically.

“Along with Senator Lugar, I recently convened a series of hearings on smart power to examine whether we have the right institutions and non-military instruments to deal with new threats and challenges. The global food crisis is just such a new challenge. Our response exposes our weaknesses; but it also points the way to needed reforms.

“Experts cite many factors for today’s high food prices. Few seem to be new. With proper planning, foresight and coordination, this crisis might have been managed.

“But we have not changed course as the price of food has nearly doubled in the last three years. Only now, with widespread hunger and civil unrest has the drumbeat of concern reached a high enough pitch to awaken us to action.

“As all of the world’s religions tell us, we have a moral obligation to feed the hungry. We once had the vision to do that. It was called the Green Revolution. It transformed agriculture practices in countries from Mexico to India. It allowed food production to keep pace with population growth. It saved a generation from famine and starvation.

“It was a model of what vision, planning, and resources can do. But since then, our global food policy has lacked vision, lacked planning, lacked resources.

“Without concerted action from our government and the international community, I think we are in danger of erasing recent progress to eradicate hunger and poverty. The World Bank estimates that potentially 100 million new people could slip back into extreme poverty because of high food prices.

“Today, I am inquiring of the witnesses about a new approach to food policy and the global food crisis. I believe it is imperative that we rededicate resources and attention in four areas, the details of which I am anxious to hear fleshed out by the witnesses:

“First, we need to reinvest in agriculture development. Some have called for a “New Deal for Global Food Policy.” I support those calls – what the world needs is a second Green Revolution. That means funding for innovation, research, new techniques.

“Second, we need to make sure our institutions are organized effectively to address the food challenge. A report from the Government Accountability Office to be released later this month concludes that the U.S. and other donors have not made food security – cutting hunger in half by 2015 – a top priority. This report also shows that we lack an integrated strategy for dealing with agriculture development and food policy. Various U.S. agencies are pursuing isolated agriculture strategies that do not share a common vision. Reform needs to happen quickly and immediately.

“Third, we should ask the hard questions about our existing food policies. Does our current bio-fuels policy, which I have supported, that diverts corn from food to fuel make sense? How much is it diverting? I have heard varying estimates. Should we provide more flexibility to our food aid program and allow USAID to locally purchase food abroad to feed hungry people instead of requiring them to buy American and shoulder all the transportation costs associated with that?

“Finally, the international community should consider a global compact on food that will eliminate crippling food tariffs affecting the poorest countries. With those countries, trade is not a matter of competition – it is a matter of fairness.

“Both panels today are well placed to help us with this inquiry and to address three critical questions: why is there a food crisis? Could we have avoided this crisis? How do we need to respond in the immediate, and to make a future crisis much less likely?

“Administrator Henrietta Fore and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Edward Lazear will start off the hearing. They are at the forefront of U.S. Government efforts to respond to the food crisis. Ms. Fore is just back from Burma, facing the aftermath of the typhoon.

“On our second panel, we will be joined by Executive Director Josette Sheeran of the UN World Food Program, Dr. Peter McPherson, a former Administrator of USAID and President Emeritus of Michigan State University, and James Lyons, Vice President of Communications and Policy at Oxfam.

“I would close with the following. President John F. Kennedy once stated:

“‘Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world -- or to make it the last.’

“That was more than a generation ago. It seems to me that it still holds today. I look forward to your testimony this morning.”