a call for a strategic u.s. approach to the global food crisis

8/14/2019 A call for a strategic U.S. approach to the global food crisis

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Cochairs

Senator Robert P. Casey (D-PA)Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-IN)

Project Directors

J. Stephen Morrison

Johanna Nesseth Tuttle

CSISCENTER FOR STRATEGIC &

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

july 2008

a call for a strategic

u.s. approach to the

global food crisis

A Report of the CSIS Task Force on the Global Food Crisis

Core Findings and Recommendations


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Cochairs

Senator Robert P. Casey (D-PA)Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-IN)

Project Directors

J. Stephen Morrison




july 2008

a call for a strategic

u.s. approach to the

global food crisis

A Report of the CSIS Task Force on the Global Food Crisis

Core Findings and Recommendations


3/14

About CSIS

In an era o ever-changing global opportunities and challenges, the Center or Strategic and Inter-national Studies (CSIS) provides strategic insights and practical policy solutions to decisionmak-ers. CSIS conducts research and analysis and develops policy initiatives that look into the utureand anticipate change.

Founded by David M. Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke at the height o the Cold War, CSISwas dedicated to the simple but urgent goal o nding ways or America to survive as a nation andprosper as a people. Since 1962, CSIS has grown to become one o the worlds preeminent publicpolicy institutions.

Today, CSIS is a bipartisan, nonprot organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. Morethan 220 ull-time sta and a large network o afliated scholars ocus their expertise on deenseand security; on the worlds regions and the unique challenges inherent to them; and on the issuesthat know no boundary in an increasingly connected world.

Former U.S. senator Sam Nunn became chairman o the CSIS Board o Trustees in 1999, andJohn J. Hamre has led CSIS as its president and chie executive ofcer since 2000.

CSIS does not take specic policy positions; accordingly, all views expressed in this publica-tion should be understood to be solely those o the author(s).

2008 by the Center or Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph: AP Images (Amritsar, India shot by photographer Aman Sharma)

The CSIS Press

Center or Strategic and International Studies1800 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006Tel: (202) 775-3119Fax: (202) 775-3199Web: www.csis.org


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ii | Global Food Crisis

COCHAIRS

Senator Robert P. Casey(D-PA)

Senator Richard G. Lugar(R-IN)

PROJECT DIRECTORS

J. Stephen Morrison

Co-Director, Arica Programand Executive Director,HIV/AIDS ask Force, CSIS


Vice President, StrategicPlanning, CSIS

TASK FORCE MEMBERS

Rev. David BeckmannPresident, Bread or the World

Neil BrownProessional Sta Member,

Senate Foreign RelationsCommittee

Marc J. CohenResearch Fellow, InternationalFood Policy Research Institute

Mauro De LorenzoResident Fellow, AmericanEnterprise Institute or PublicPolicy Reasearch

Jeralyn Eddings

Independent Consultant

Charles FreemanFreeman Chair in ChinaStudies, CSIS

General Carlton FulordU.S. Marine Corps (ret.)

Laurie GarrettSenior Fellow or Global Health,

Council on Foreign Relations

Helene D. GaylePresident & CEO, CARE USA

Charlotte HebebrandChie Executive, InternationalFood & Agriculture radePolicy Council

Julie HowardExecutive Director,Partnership to Cut Hunger

and Poverty in Arica

Jof JosephForeign Policy LegislativeAssistant, Oce o SenatorRobert P. Casey

David KauckSenior Policy Analyst,CARE USA

Jim KolbeSenior ransatlantic Fellow,

Te German Marshall Fundo the United States

Gawain KripkeDirector, Policy & Research,Oxam America

Sarah O. LadislawFellow, Energy & NationalSecurity Program, CSIS

Nora LustigMember, Board o Directors,Center or Global Development;Visiting Proessor oInternational Aairs,George Washington University

Rev. James L. McDonaldVice President or Policy &Program, Bread or the World

Amr MoubarakCenter or Global Development

Phillip Nieburgask Force on HIV/AIDS, CSIS

Rajul Pandya-LorchChie o Sta, InternationalFood Policy Research Institute

John S. ParkSenior Fellow & Director,Northeast Asia Programs, U.S.Institute o Peace

Eric P. SchwartzExecutive Director,Connect U.S. Fund

Ann TutwilerFormer President & CEO,International Food &Agriculture rade PolicyCouncil

Connie VeilletteSenior Proessional StaMember, Senate Foreign

Relations Committee

Frank A. VerrastroDirector & Senior Fellow,Energy & National SecurityProgram, CSIS

Cathy WoolardExecutive Vice President,Global Advocacy & ExternalRelations, CARE USA

Frank J. YoungVice President, StrategicPlanning, International Lineo Business, Abt Associates

csis task force on the global food crisis


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Morrison and Nesseth Tuttle | 1

preface

In May 2008, in response to the growing global

ood crisis, the Center or Strategic and Inter-

national Studies (CSIS) launched a task orce

to assess the rising humanitarian, security,

developmental, and market impacts o rising

ood costs and shortages. Its cochairs, Senators

Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) and Robert P. Casey

(D-PA) charged the task orce with identiy-ing, by late July 2008, a easible but bold plan

o action that the Bush administration, the

presidential campaigns, Congress, and the next

administration could embrace on a bipartisan

basis. Te result, outlined in the ollowing

report, is an argument or modernizing and

doubling emergency assistance, elevating rural

development and agricultural productivity to

be new oreign policy priorities, revising the

U.S. approach to biouels so that uel and oodsecurity objectives are eectively de-conicted,

acting on an urgent basis to conclude the Doha

Development Round, and creating a strategic

U.S. approach to global ood security that inter-

links approaches to relie, development, energy,

and trade and that is backed by new robust

organizational capacities.

Te task orce grew out o extensive prior

work CSIS carried out with the UN World

Food Program on global ood relie issues,

particularly with respect to Aghanistan,

Sudan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, and Somalia. In

April 2008, Josette Sheeran, executive director

o the World Food Program, delivered a major

policy address at CSIS on the rising global

ood crisis. Te evening prior to the address,

CSIS hosted a dinner at which Ms. Sheeran

engaged with representatives rom the Senate

Appropriations Committee, the U.S. Depart-

ment o State, the U.S. Agency or Interna-

tional Development, the U.S. Department

o Agriculture, CARE, the Center or Global

Development, the International Food Policy

Research Institute, the Gates Foundation, andthe military. Sentiment at that session was

strongly in avor o CSIS launching the task

orce in order to better clariy or a Washing-

ton audience the gravity o the threat present-

ed by the global ood crisis, the major actors

driving it, and a way orward. Subsequently,

we were ortunate to receive, on a rapid basis,

support or the task orce rom the Connect

U.S. Fund and special thanks are reserved or

executive director Eric Schwartz.

Te task orce is especially grateul to Sena-

tors Lugar and Casey, both champions o

development, agriculture, health and nutri-

tion, oreign aairs, and energy policy, and

both highly supportive o the CSIS eort. Jo

Joseph in Senator Caseys oce and Connie

Veillette in the oce o Senator Lugar were

each also very helpul in guiding our eorts.

Te task orce was led by J. Stephen Morrison

and Johanna Nesseth uttle o CSIS and com-

prised a diverse group o senior-level repre-

sentatives o nongovernmental organizations,

ood relie experts, and ormer government

ocials who generously gave their time and

energy. Jeralyn Eddings, independent consul-

tant, provided extensive drafing and editorial


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2 | Global Food Crisis

expertise. Karen Meacham, Kate Hoer, and

Kate Schuster o CSIS contributed mightily to

organizing the task orce.

Te task orce convened two high-level

meetings in May and June 2008 that eaturedexpert presentations by Henrietta Holsman

Fore, administrator, U.S. Agency or Inter-

national Development, and director o U.S.

oreign assistance; Helene D. Gayle, president

and CEO, CARE USA; Rajul Pandya-Lorch,

chie o sta, International Food Policy Re-

search Institute; Colonel Daniel Pike, Oce o

Arican Aairs, U.S. Department o Deense;

Karen Monaghan, national intelligence ocer

or economics and global issues, National

Intelligence Council; Laurie Garrett, senior

ellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Doug

Arent, director, Strategic Energy Analysis

and Applications Center, National Renewable

Energy Laboratory; Ambassador Al Johnson,

Al Johnson & Associates, and ormer ambas-

sador and chie agriculture negotiator, Oce

o the U.S. rade Representative; and Suzanne

Hunt, independent consultant and bioenergy

specialist. All o these busy, gifed individuals

gave generously o their time and energy.

Te task orce also received expert input rom

representatives in the elds o ood sup-

ply, energy, biouels, trade, relie eorts, and

agriculture. We are particularly indebted to

Ronald rostle and other senior economists

at the U.S. Department o Agriculture; Susan

Outt, chie economist, U.S. Government

Accountability Oce; Nazanin Ash; Josette

Lewis, biotechnology adviser, U.S. Agency orInternational Development; Daniel Gustason,

director, Food and Agriculture Organization,

Washington; David Jhirad, vice president or

research and evaluation, Rockeeller Foun-

dation; Michael Usnick, UN World Food

Program; Jennier Parmelee, UN World Food

Program; and Kirsten Knoepe Torne, Pub-

lic Policy Advisor, Chevron Corporation.

Both the analysis and recommendations o

this report reect a strong majority consensus

among task orce members, but it is not as-sumed that the members necessarily endorse

every nding and recommendation.


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Te global ood crisis is hitting with alarming

speed and orce, challenging the United States,

other nations, and key international organiza-

tions to respond with a strategic and long-

term approach.

Te crisis is historic and a call to conscience. It

is global in reach, not conned to a particularregion o the world, or caused by a single disas-

ter or event. It is a moment o great opportuni-

ty. It presents the chance or American leaders,

joined with others, to place hunger, poverty,

and rural development at center stage and to

upgrade dramatically the United States and

others approaches to ood relie, energy, global

trade, and oreign assistance. It presents the

chance or accelerated growth o rural produc-

tion and wealth in the developing world.

Te crisis poses three undamental threats.

A moral and humanitarian threat , which

is pushing an additional 100 million people

into poverty and deepening global hunger

and chronic malnutrition, with the grav-

est impact among poor pregnant women

and children. Eorts o the UN World

Food Program (WFP) to meet immedi-

ate emergency shortalls have risen rom

$3.1 billion in 2007 to almost $6 billion in

2008. Such radically elevated emergency

demands will persist into the uture.

the stakes

A developmental threat , which is erasing

the economic gains o the past decades,

while putting at risk the recent historic

investments in public health and nutrition,

improved education, and community devel-

opment in poor countries. Without eective

action to reverse these trends, developing

countries could see a disabled generation,stunted both physically and mentally and

chronically in need o assistance.

A strategic threat , which is endangering

the stability o developing countries due to

rising cereal prices combined with rapidly

rising uel prices. Te surge in prices has re-

duced the purchasing power o poor people

and inhibited the ability o poor countries

to import ood or their hard-pressed popu-

lations. Tirty countries have experienced

ood-related riots and unrest in 2008, hal

in Arica. Acutely at risk are large, heavily

urbanized nations such as Egypt, Pakistan,

Ethiopia, and Aghanistan. Te orecast or

the next several years is that a wide range o

developing countries will struggle to access

aordable, adequate ood supplies, with

uncertain consequences.


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the drivers

Te root causes o the global ood crisis are

complex, uid, persistent, and multidimen-

sional. Tis is not a simple problem.

Soaring global energy prices contribute to

cost increases in agricultural production

and transportation, impacting all points

across the arm-to-market chain.

Te rise in the production o biouels

based on ood grains has contributed to

global ood price increases since 2006,

though estimates vary widely over the im-

pact, ranging rom 3 percent to 65 percent.

High oil-price trends drive the demand

or biouels, while preerential taris,

subsidies, and mandates contribute to the

rise o American and European producer

preerences or biouel crops. Tis is a

global phenomenon, aecting markets

or wheat, maize, sugar, oil seeds, cassava,

palm oil, and beyond. Te shared dilemma

or Europe and the United States is how

to respond responsibly and eectively to

intensiying pressures to promote ood and

uel security simultaneously.

Demand or cereal grains has outstripped

supply over the past several years, gen-

erating a global imbalance and a decline

in surpluses. Rising demand rom Chinaand Indiaresulting rom their growing

middle classeshas increased the strain on

global supplies. China has almost doubled

its consumption o meat, sh, and dairy

products since 1990 as over 200 million

people have been lifed out o poverty. So

long as the rise o China and India con-

tinues, the structural shif in global cereal

demands will intensiy.

Bad weather, linked possibly to global

climate change, has hampered production

in key ood-exporting countries. Severe

weather events have impacted harvests

rom Australia to West Arica to Bangla-

desh and are now striking at Americas

heartland. Although we know that climate

change is a actor, we know less about how

it will shape specic global ood outcomes

in the near to medium term and what spe-

cic ameliorative steps to take today.

A gross underinvestment in the past

several decades in agricultural production

and technology in the developing world

by donors and developing countries

alikehas contributed to static produc-

tivity, weak markets, and underdeveloped

rural inrastructure. Te question now

is how to correct systematically or this

historic underinvestment.

Te present global agricultural production

and trading system, built on subsidies and

taris, creates grave distortions. It struc-

turally avors production among wealthy

countries and disadvantages producers in

poor developing countries. Imperiled devel-oping countries are today responding to the

current crisis by restricting or banning ood

exports. Until macro incentives are reor-

dered to open the way or investment and

production in developing countries rural

sectors, no durable solution is in sight.


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An antiquated international system o

mobilizing and deploying ood relie slows

the response to emergencies and imposes

unacceptable costs and ineciencies. Un-

der the current U.S. system, U.S.-procured

commodities (mandated by law, and ac-

counting or over 40 percent o WFPs sup-

plies) can take up to six months to reach

intended beneciaries; shipping, handling,

and other management costs were con-

suming 65 percent o budgets as o early

2007, with the percentage continuing to

rise; and U.S.-origin grain ofen arrives

late and dampens rural grain prices. It is

a broken, expensive, $1.6-billion per year

program that is yielding declining returns

at the very moment when perormance tomeet urgent new needs is most acute. Any

eective U.S. long-term strategic approach

has to somehow transcend this inheritance

and devise policies in tune with emerging

new global realities.

what is to be done?

Te stakes in this crisis are high. Demand

and supply or global ood have changed

undamentally, are out o synch, and gener-ate human, developmental, and security

havoc. Te crisis is expected to persist at least

into the next three or our years, and even

though ood prices may eventually decline

somewhat, experts believe the era o cheap

ood and uel is overat least or the oresee-

able uture. Urgent action is needed on two

ronts: emergency relie and related saety net

programs; and longer-term eorts to reduce

poverty and hunger.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, World

Bank president Robert Zoellick, and WFP

executive director Josette Sheeran have

each demonstrated exceptional leadership.

And several important emergency mea-

sures have been taken recently to ameliorate

the immediate ood relie crisis. Te Bush

administration requested $770 million in

emergency ood and development assistance,

and Congress built on the presidents request

by enacting FY 2008 supplemental undinglegislation that allocates more than $1.8 bil-

lion in emergency ood assistance and related

disaster relie. Saudi Arabia committed $500

million toward the WFP. Te World Bank

allocated $1.2 billion and allowed emergency

budgetary support. Te United Nations

launched the Secretary Generals High-Level

ask Force on the Global Food Security

Crisis, which issued a comprehensive action

plan. In early July, the Group o Eight (G-8)nations made ood security a top priority at

its Hokkaido Summit, reinorcing the call or

a coordinated response and comprehensive

strategy. Tese steps are all very welcome,

but more is needed to address the structural

roots o the current crisis.

an opening for u.s. leadership

With the current crisis, a window has opened.

odays ood crisis is an abrupt wake-up call

and a powerul incentive to put together a

new, coherent vision that is not piecemeal

or business as usual, but instead strategically

integrates U.S. approaches to emergency relie,

development, global trade, and energy.

Te United States has the opportunity,

through intensied bilateral and multilateral

initiatives, to put global hunger and malnutri-

tion at the oreront o U.S. policy concerns.U.S. leadership is essential, as it has been tra-

ditionally in earlier global crises, in devising

durable solutions.

Internally, within the U.S. government, a new

strategic approach to the global ood crisis


10/14


will require sustained high-level leadership,

greater interagency coherence and exibility,

and new resource levels. Success will hinge on

the current and uture administrations work-

ing with Congress to cement a new bipartisan

compacton redressing the global ood crisis.

Bold U.S. leadership, carried out over several

years, will not be easy. Tere will be new costs,

dicult trade-os, and sensitive issues that

cut across domestic and international bound-

aries, such as changes in subsidies or devel-

oped country ood production, adjustment o

subsidies and mandates or biouel production

in the United States and Europe, and enlarge-

ment o trade access to global markets by

developing country producers.

Te challenge comes at a time when Ameri-

cans are anxious about rising ood and energy

prices at home, when oods and other severe

weather events have damaged arm crops and

displaced many in the arming community.

But Americans understand and have always

embraced the core values o U.S. global

humanitarianism. Tey empathize withpoor, vulnerable populations whose ability to

eed their children is under siege. Tey also

understand that it runs counter to U.S. global

security interests to see rising violence and

social upheaval among weak states.

We are also at a moment in history when our

leaders are being called on to restore Amer-

icas weakened standing in the world and to

demonstrate a new ethic o close cooperation

with partner states, international organiza-

tions, and civil society in redressing transna-

tional threats. Te global ood crisis is a zone

where U.S. strengths and moral commitments

can generate major returns.

It is essential that the United States ocus on

immediate adjustments, on bold new steps,

and on taking care not to worsen matters.

A special challenge is answering immediate

short-term emergency needs without com-

promising long-term development require-ments. I not careul, expanded international

engagement might ocus overwhelmingly on

immediate response, reinorce urban biases to

the detriment o long-term rural development

needs, and encourage more migration into

urban areas.


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five priority

recommendations

Te CSIS ask Force recommends:

Modernize emergency assistance.1.

Increase the scale o U.S. commitment

and signicantly improve the speed, agil-

ity, liquidity, and exibility o the U.S.

response. In the ace o this massive crisis,

the United States should concentrate ondevising the means to deliver assistance

to larger numbers o people earlier, more

reliably, and at a much lower cost per

beneciary and with much higher nutri-

ent benets. Te United States should

also give priority to the development

o improved national policies and local

emergency response capacities within at-

risk countries.

Double the U.S. level o annual commit-

ment to emergency ood relie rom $1.6billion to $3.2 billion. It will be essential

also to monitor volatile global market

conditions closely to ascertain whether this

increased level o U.S. assistance is ad-

equate to deliver the intended tonnage and

nutrient content.

Require that no less than 25 percent and

as much as 50 percent o these expanded

emergency unds be available or local

and regional purchases. Te targets orlocal and regional purchases should be

raised over a ve-year period, so that ulti-

mately at least 50 percent and as much as

75 percent o emergency unds is available

or local and regional purchases. Under

this scheme, no less than 25 percent o

U.S. emergency assistance ($0.8 billion)

will be set aside or U.S.-origin ood

shipped on U.S. carriers.

Pursue a robust multilateral approach: re-

constitute the Food Aid Convention to bet-

ter reect current tonnage and nutritional

needs and reinvigorate donor commit-

ments; renew regular international consul-

tations on emergency ood relie response;actively test the easibility o emergency

regional ood stocks and the capacity or

rapid regional purchases (virtual stocks).

Intensiy U.S. ood security diplomacy:

encourage major oil-producing countries

to contribute more to ood relie; press or

more stable and predictable international

nancing mechanisms or supporting the

WFP and its implementing partners.

Enlarge, bilaterally and multilaterally,emergency social saety net programs such

as budget support, school eeding, and

ood or work. Pursue innovative nancial

and risk management tools such as vouch-

ers and insurance schemes. Expand nu-

tritional assistance programs to pregnant

women and children.

Make rural development and agricul-2.

tural productivity U.S. oreign policy

priorities.

Elevate agriculture to be a top priority o

the U.S. oreign assistance strategy. Set

an ocial target to signicantly increase

productivity in the developing world in

the next decade and to signicantly reduce

hunger, poverty, and malnutrition.


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Commit $1 billion per annum o U.S. bilat-

eral development assistance toward:

Improved, pro-growth developing

country policies; expanded delivery o

seeds, ertilizers, extension services,

rural credit; improved access by smallarmers to markets; and development o

new arming technologies.

Investment in a global network o uni-

versities committed to training, applied

research, and exchanges.

Expansion o public-private partner-

ships that mobilize the U.S. government,

private oundations, universities, and

corporations to bring orward new seed

varieties and other new biotechnologies.Expansion o research and pilot proj-

ects to ameliorate the eects o climate

change on agricultural production.

Support the doubling o agricultural pro-

gramming by multilateral institutions such

as the World Bank and the International

Fund or Agricultural Development in the

least-developed countries.

Better coordinate and integrate U.S. or-

eign assistance programsincluding U.S.HIV/AIDS programs under the Presi-

dents Emergency Plan or AIDS Relie

(PEPFAR) and the Millennium Challenge

Corporation (MCC)to ease ood insecu-

rity. MCC has the potential to strengthen

agricultural productivity and aordable

market access to ood by the poor, and the

next administration and Congress should

consider augmenting MCC programs to

more directly address ood insecurity chal-

lenges in present and uture MCC-compactcountries. Worsening ood insecurity and

malnutrition directly aect many PEPFAR

beneciaries and, by implication, threaten

the integrity o mass antiretroviral programs

and related prevention and care eorts.

Open a dialogue with the Chinese, Indian,

and Brazilian governments to coordinate

eorts at promoting agricultural develop-

ment in Arica. Te Chinese have become

a major player in Arica and will ocus on

agriculture at the next Forum on China-

Arica Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in

Cairo in late 2009.

Revise the U.S. approach to biouels.3.

Issue an ocial policy statement outlining

the steps the United States will take to ex-

pand ood crops or consumption purpos-

es and to decouple ood and energy issues

so that the debate progresses rom one o

uel versus ood to uel andood security.

Accelerate eorts to bring on line the

next generation o cellulosic-based andother biouels in order to reduce depen-

dence on corn.

Bring into orce new sustainability criteria

to assess the lie-cycle costs and carbon re-

quirements or alternative biouels. Adjust

subsidies to reect true input costs.

Aggressively oster trade in biouels to al-

low the most ecient producers and eed-

stocks access to U.S. and world markets:

through a phaseout o barriers to trade,including preerential taris; improved

technical standards to acilitate biouels

trade; and expanded trade rom countries

that currently have access to the U.S. mar-

ket under ree-trade agreements (FAs).

Commission analyses o agricultural pro-

ductions dependence on energy inputs, in

both developed and developing countries,

including options or reducing agricultures

reliance on ossil uels.

Focus U.S. trade policy on promoting4.

developing country agriculture.

Make the promotion o developing country

agriculture a goal o U.S. trade policy.

Press on an urgent basis or a success-

ul conclusion o the Doha Development


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Round that promotes investment and

trade in developing country agriculture

and reduces long-standing subsidy and

tari barriers. Focus U.S. executive-con-

gressional dialogue on concrete measures

that could expedite U.S. approvals o Doha

outcomes. Make the successul conclusion

o the Doha Development Round a oreign

policy priority in diplomatic relations with

member states o the European Union

(EU), member states o the Arican Union

(AU), and emerging markets such as India

and Brazil.

Pursue targeted international and regional

trade discussions that can bring rapid

ollow-on benets to developing country

agriculture. Examine how existing U.S.trade preerences, already in place or many

developing countries, might be used to re-

duce technical barriers to developing coun-

try agricultural exports to the United States

and build trade capacity in those countries.

ake deliberate bilateral and multilateral

diplomatic action to ease export bans and

restrictions that have contributed to higher

ood prices, including strengthening World

rade Organization (WO) rules on export

restrictions. Te World Bank says that 26

net-ood-exporting countries have main-

tained or introduced such measures, mak-

ing it hard to acquire and ship ood to the

most needy even when unds are available.

Strengthen U.S. organizational capacities.5.

Create a White Houseled standing

interagency mechanism on global ood

security. Charge that body with rapidly

devising and overseeing a comprehensive,

long-term strategic vision on global ood

insecurity that interlinks U.S. approaches

to ood, energy, development, and trade;

that better coordinates with partner coun-

tries and with the World Bank, the World

Food Program, and other UN organiza-

tions; and that prioritizes building agri-

cultural production and trade capacity in

developing countries.

Create a Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition

Bureau at the U.S. Agency or Interna-

tional Development (USAID) charged

with leading U.S. operational programs.Ensure that bureau is restaed with ad-

equate career expertise.

Conclude a National Intelligence Estimate

on global ood security by the end o 2008.

Tis should be ready or the next adminis-

tration and or public dissemination.

Authorize and und the U.S. Arica, South-

ern, and Pacic Commands to initiate

civil-military dialogues and exchanges on

nutrition and ood security, including inor-mation sharing and analysis.

the challenge

Te current crisis is unlike any ood emergen-

cy the world has aced in the past. It is caused

by a web o interconnected orces involving

agriculture, energy, climate change, trade, and

new market demands rom emerging markets.

And it carries grave implications or economic

growth and development, international secu-

rity, and social progress in developing coun-

tries. ime is o the essence in ormulating a

response, and U.S. leadership and bipartisan-

ship are essential, as well as expanded U.S.

coordination with international organizations.

Te Bush administration, the presidential

campaigns, the congressional leadership, and

the next administration all have a responsibil-

ity to move U.S. leadership orward.


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