The Global Food Security Act

The Legislation

On February 5, 2009, Senators Lugar and Bob Casey(D-PA) reintroduced the Lugar Casey Global Food Security Act, S.384.

In his floor statement, Senator Lugar said:

"Food insecurity is a global tragedy, but it is also an opportunity for the United States. The United States is the indisputable world leader in agricultural production and technology. A more focused effort on our part to join with other nations to increase yields, create economic opportunities for the rural poor, and broaden agricultural knowledge could begin a new era in U.S. diplomacy. Such an effort could improve our broader trade relations and serve as a model for similar endeavors in the areas of energy and scientific cooperation. Achieving food security for all people also would have profound implications for peace and U.S. national security. Hungry people are desperate people, and desperation often sows the seeds of conflict and extremism."

Initially introduced on September 23, 2008, the legislation calls for:

• Creating a Special Coordinator for Global Food Security and that would be in charge of developing a food security strategy;
• Reorienting U.S. foreign aid toward rural development and agriculture; and
• Improving the U.S. emergency response to food crises by creating a separate Emergency Food Assistance Fund that can make local and regional purchases of food, where appropriate.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on April 22, 2010, entitled, "Promoting Global Food Security: Next Steps for Congress and the Administration." At this hearing, Senator Lugar said, "We live in a world where more than one billion people suffer from chronic food insecurity – a figure that has increased by nearly 100 million people since Senator Casey and I introduced legislation just last year. An estimated 25,000 people die each day from malnutrition-related causes. Experts advise us that chronic hunger leads to decreased child survival, impaired cognitive and physical development of children, and weaker immune system function, including resistance to HIV/AIDS."

Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement:

In his first round of questions for Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Jacob Lew and Administrator Rajiv J. Shah of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Senator Dick Lugar asked about genetically modified technology in agricultural development, U.S. investments in global and national agriculture research, and how to handle country-led processes in international development.

In his second round of questions for Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Jacob Lew and Administrator Rajiv J. Shah of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Senator Dick Lugar asked about the coordination of the whole-of-government approach: who would lead and how that would be determined.

In his round of questions for former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and former Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program Catherine Bertini, now co-chairs of the Global Agricultural Development Initiative, at the hearing on global food security, Senator Dick Lugar discussed U.S. domestic agriculture production and asked the witnesses for their opinions on the whole-of-government approach to international aid. Senator Lugar followed up with questions on genetically modified technology in agricultural development and how best to change European attitudes.

Lugar Clarifies Food Security Bill for Colleagues

In an effort to ensure full and correct understanding of the Lugar-Casey Food Security bill, Senator Lugar sent the following letter to his Senate colleagues.

It has come to my attention that you may be receiving letters regarding S. 384, the Global Food Security Act, introduced by Senator Casey and myself, that misrepresent one of its provisions. The bill, which was unanimously reported by the Foreign Relations Committee, would re-orient U.S. foreign assistance programs to focus on promoting food security and rural development in countries with large, chronically hungry populations. It is supported by a large number of organizations, including CARE, Oxfam, Bread for the World, ONE, and U.S. land grant colleges.

A small number of critics claim the bill would mandate that U.S. assistance be used to promote genetically modified (GM) agricultural technologies, and that U.S. food aid would be conditioned on recipient countries approving the use of GM products. These are gross misrepresentations that have no factual foundation.

Let me be clear. The bill does not require the use of GM technology by any farmers, implementing partners or government agencies. It does not condition the receipt of food aid on a recipient country’s adoption of GM. The use of any technology must ultimately be left to individual farmers based on their particular circumstances.

In fact, only one provision (Sec. 202) in the entire bill even mentions GM technology. The United States provides a small amount of funding for agricultural research activities at national and international research centers. The provision in question would highlight research on biotechnology, including GM, as eligible for U.S. assistance. The research would include work on the appropriate uses of GM technologies in different environments. While much research has already been done on the development of GM seeds, with profound benefits for agricultural productivity in developed countries, there is a dearth of research on its development and applicability in developing countries. Those countries may have environmental and other challenges that differ from those encountered in the United States. The bill advocates strengthening the local capacity of university and research institutions to find localized solutions to agricultural productivity and food security.

Without advances in technologies that are adaptive to local and regional environmental conditions, the world’s farmers will be hard pressed to meet projected demand of the nearly 9.2 billion people that will inhabit the planet by the year 2050. The development and dissemination of technology, whether it be traditional, biotechnological, or GM, is vital to raising both farm productivity and incomes of poor farmers. Further, without the gains in production per acre that can come from advanced technology, it is likely we will only be able to meet future food demand by greatly expanding the amount of land under cultivation, a development which would necessarily involve substantial forest destruction as well as environmental degradation. GM represents one important tool in this endeavor, and we must do the research to determine where and when it works best.

The bottom line is that a provision of the Lugar-Casey bill directs U.S. assistance in developing local technological solutions to advance agricultural productivity in countries suffering from chronic hunger. It does not require that these solutions be GM, but it does not preclude it, where appropriate.

I hope this information is helpful to you in responding to constituents who have been asked to contact you.

Obama Announces Commitment Initiated by Lugar's Global Hunger Bill

On April 2, 2009, President Barack Obama announced a doubling of assistance for global agricultural productivity and rural development. He also called for a comprehensive food security strategy to alleviate chronic hunger that affects nearly one billion people worldwide.

The announcement tracks provisions of the Global Food Security Act of 2009, authored by Senator Lugar and approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 31.

Foreign Relations Committee Hearing

On March 24, 2009, Senator Lugar discussed the state of agriculture in Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa, exploring how young people and U.S. embassy staff might become more involved in development work at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on food security.

• Watch Senator Lugar's opening statement
• Watch Senator Lugar's first round of questions where he discussed the role of a potential White House Food Czar, one of the tenants of the Lugar-Casey Global Hunger bill, with former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and Former Executive Director of the World Food Program Catherine Bertini.
• Watch Senator Lugar's second round of questions where he discussed the impact foreign aid and assistance could have in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the importance of drawing attention to the global food crisis at the Congressional level and how the United States can work with European and other countries to embrace the benefits of genetically modified seeds and organisms.