World food summit seeks to reduce global hunger, poverty

In a video taped address, President Bush said, "The United States has identified three priorities for reducing global hunger: increasing agricultural productivity, ending famine and improving nutrition. Science and technology hold great promise in meeting these priorities. By combining new technology and good policy, all the nations of the world can work together to increase living standards."

Veneman said that the answers are not always the latest, biggest and most expensive technologies. "Many conventional technologies already widely used for decades can be adopted to bring significant productively gains to the world's poorest countries," she said. "This may include a good system of farmer extension services, better nutrient management, contour plowing, improved seed varieties or simple irrigation. The goal is not technologies that make developing countries more dependent on the developed world, rather it is to make them better able to feed themselves. Many technologies today are coming from scientists in the developing world, for farmers in the developing world."

For example, science and technology can help increase crop yields with less water and provide early warnings of drought. "Water plays a vital role in human health, economic growth, the environment and in some cases regional stability," Veneman said. "Improved water management is emerging as one of the great issues the world will confront in the 21st century.

Our task is to continue to enhance agricultural productivity and the efficient use of resources in developing countries to meet increasing food requirements, protect the environment and raise incomes."

However, Veneman said technology alone is not a solution. "It is merely a tool. Without supportive policies and regulations, its benefits will not be fully realized," she said. "Policies that promote free markets and good governance produce economic growth. Taken together, technologies along with supportive policies and regulations can accelerate agricultural productivity and economic growth to help alleviate hunger and poverty."

The ministerial conference provides a forum for participants to identify needs, encourage partnerships and exchange ideas and resources with global counterparts. The plenary sessions, technical breakout sessions and field tours will address access to technologies, new scientific research, the relationship between regulation and innovation, the role of economic and trade policies, and the creation of partnerships to help developing countries adopt productivity-enhancing, environmentally sustainable technologies.

Veneman said that the United States is actively engaged in promoting sustainable economic development that is environmentally friendly throughout the world. President Bush has committed the United States to a number of initiatives to address hunger and poverty that include:

--The Millennium Challenge Account that provides for a $5 billion (50 percent) increase in U.S. development assistance over three years, the largest increase in U.S. foreign assistance in 40 years.

--The new U.S. Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief that will direct $15 billion over the next five years to battle the HIV/AIDS pandemic, with the focus on Africa and the Caribbean.

--The United States has committed nearly $1 billion to an initiative to provide clean drinking water to 50 million people in the developing world.

Veneman first announced plans for a science and technology conference last June in Rome at the World Food Summit: Five Years Later. Sacramento was subsequently chosen as the site for the conference due to its location in a region with strong agricultural diversity, the advanced research capabilities at the University of California at Davis and the many start-up and emerging technologies nearby. Additional information about the conference is available at www.usda.gov/.