• Home
• About
  • About CFS³
  • CFS³ Faculty
  • Staff
  • UMD Affiliate Faculty
  • External Affiliated Research Faculty
  • Membership
• Research
• SCRI
• Education
• Pressroom
• Databases
• Events
• Contact

PRESSROOM

Global Food Security Act to Provide Funding for Food Safety and Security in Developing Countries

Posted Jul 8, 2009

U.S. Senators Dick Lugar (R-Ind) and Bob Casey (D-Pa) have introduced the Global Food Security Act (s.384) into the Senate for the second time. The bill is aimed at providing additional funding to aid in international agriculture assistance to developing countries and to specifically address the food safety and security crisis.

"Roughly one billion people in the world suffer from food insecurity - they are unable to consume sufficient calories for a healthy and active life," said Lugar, the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Hunger is both a humanitarian and security challenge for the United States. The consequences of hunger are profound. Quality of life for affected families deteriorates as access to food decreases, affecting their productivity, and ultimately the economic growth of nations. Hungry children are unable to learn, and hungry adults are not productive."

The Lugar-Casey bill is a five-year authorization that seeks to provide the most effective solutions to global food insecurity. The bill will create a Special Coordinator for Global Food Security in charge of developing strategy in food security. It will also authorize additional resources for agricultural productivity and rural development designed to strengthen agricultural sciences programs in U.S. institutions of higher education by drawing on their experience and resources. And lastly the bill will create an Emergency Food Assistance Fund that will allow the U.S. to respond to food emergencies more rapidly.

For more information
On the bill, visit: http://lugar.senate.gov/food/