11:00 A.M. EDT 
MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome Michael Hage, the North America Regional Information Office for the Food and Agricultural Organization. He's here today to discuss some of the events taking place on World Food Day – October 16th. I'll let him get started with opening remarks and then there's a presentation. If you could please state your name and affiliation before asking your question, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you.
MR. HAGE: Thank you, Kim.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for making it through very tough weather. I want to first thank the Foreign Press Center and everybody associated with organizing this event for and inviting FAO to be with you today.
We're here to talk about World Food Day, which is celebrated on the 16th of October of every year to mark the anniversary of the founding of FAO in 1945.
To begin today's presentation, we'll have, as was mentioned, a video presentation for about four minutes. I'll speak for maybe another three or four minutes afterwards then take your questions.
So without further ado.
(Video Presentation.)
MODERATOR: Again, if you could, after Mr. Hage's remarks, please state your name and affiliation as we are transcribing this.
MR. HAGE: Where's Alyssa?* I want everybody to understand why we're having so much rain in New York because our latest addition to the New York office, Alyssa*, brings rain everywhere she goes. She was in Libya and Libya was suffering from drought and Alyssa* arrived there from Finland and then non-stop rain so please let us know how long you plan to stay in New York. (Laughter.)
It is my pleasure to bring to you the message of the FAO Director General Dr. Jacques Diouf on the occasion of World Food Day. And as you have seen in the presentation, agriculture and intercultural dialogue is the theme of this year's World Food Day. It recalls the contribution of different cultures to global agriculture and argues that sincere intercultural dialogue is a precondition for progress against hunger and environmental degradation.
Throughout history, the intercultural movement of crops and livestock breeds revolutionized diets and reduced poverty. As we have seen in the presentation, Africa gave the world coffee, now a popular beverage worldwide and a mainstay of Latin American agriculture.
Asia domesticated rice, today the staple food for over half the world's population; and sugar cane, a major cash crop in many regions.
The introduction of the camel to Africa from Arabia allowed people to live and travel in more extreme environments and contributed meat the milk to diets.
All of this happened centuries ago. How about agriculture today? FAO statistics show that at the start of the new millennium, over two and a half billion people depended on agriculture -- hunting, fishing, or forestry for their livelihoods -- including those actively engaged in those activities and their non-working dependents, they represent 42 percent of all human beings.
Agriculture powers the economies of most developing countries. In industrialized countries, agriculture exports are only worth about $290 billion in 2001. Historically, very few countries have experienced rapid economic growth and poverty reduction that has not been either preceded or accompanied by agricultural growth.
Such statistics look at agriculture only as an economic activity. Agriculture as a way of life, as heritage, as cultural identity, as an ancient pact with nature, has no price tag. Other important non-monetary contributions of agriculture include habitat and landscape, soil conservation, watershed management, carbon sequestration, and conservation of bio diversity.
Most cultures, especially those in which the principle activity is agriculture, have profound religious beliefs, values and rituals concerning food and respect for the environment. Lessons are there to be learned by other cultures that are striving to feed growing populations while sustaining the resource base on which future generations will depend for sustenance.
Intercultural dialogue in the broadest sense occurs every time people from different cultures meet and listen to one another's point of view. In agriculture, this takes place through travel and migration, international institutions and meetings and trade negotiations. It occurs every time an expert from one culture shows an expert from another something new in the lab or field and gets feedback on its appropriateness in the local setting.
More than 850 million people around the world remain hungry. At the World Food Summit held in Rome in 1996 and again at the World Food Summit five years later in 2002, leaders vowed to reduce that number by half by 2015. Moreover, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals commit world leaders to reduce the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by half by 2015 while ensuring environmental sustainability.
Many international initiatives and civil society networks, such as the International Alliance Against Hunger, are promoting intercultural dialogue to help achieve these goals. World Food Day provides an opportunity at the local, national and international levels to further dialogue and enhance solidarity.
Human and cultural ingenuity, the right vision, partnership and support, including that of FAO and the international community, can truly lead to progress in achieving food security for all.
I hope that the DG's message and the movie and the short DVD presentation we saw gave you some idea about why we chose intercultural dialogue as the theme for this year's World Food Day. With that, I'll be very happy to take your questions.
QUESTION: Madeline Amberger, Kurier, Austria. Well, what I'm interested in is there has just been a global summit about -- and the important point was to look at the progress of the Millennium Goals and progress wasn't that great, to put it mildly. How would you assess what has happened since, you know, 1996 and 2001 and 2000?
MR. HAGE: Well, there has been some success stories. However, in the aggregate, to achieve the World Food Summit goal of cutting the number of the hungry by half by 2015, we'd have to be reducing hunger annually at a much faster pace.
QUESTION: (M.A., Kurier)How much (inaudible) reduce and actually not?
MR. HAGE: Well, let's put it this way. At the present rate, we will not reach the 2015 goal until 2150 so we need to do more and the blueprint on what needs to be done has been publicized in connection with the World Food Summit five years later, which is the Anti-hunger Program, which details exactly where more investments were needed and where the money would come from. But it takes political will to commit to actually getting all those actions.
QUESTION: (M.A. Kurier) You're saying that there's not enough political will?
MR. HAGE: Exactly.
QUESTION: (M.A. Kurier) By whom?
MR. HAGE: By everybody concerned. This is the responsibility of developing countries and developed countries. This is the responsibility of international financing institutions and of regional financing institutions. Everybody is concerned.
QUESTION: On a more logistical question, what is the reason for the summit taking place in Rome this year as opposed to --
MR. HAGE: This year there is the -- you mean the World Food Day celebration? It's -- we're having the main event in Rome this year because it's the 60th anniversary and there will be some nomination of new Goodwill Ambassadors for FAO as well as honoring heads of state with the Agricola Medal for their contribution to the agricultural development in the world.
Because it is a landmark event -- the 60th anniversary -- the main celebration this year will be in Rome. A lot of organizations, a lot of nongovernmental organizations, national committees throughout the world will continue to have observances. World Food Day is observed in over 150 countries. In the U.S., for instance, we have the National Committee for World Food Day and they're having a teleconference event tomorrow. This is an event that could be broadcast live to hundreds of campuses across the United States, Canada, as well as embassies throughout the world.
So as far as FAO organized events, the main event will be in Rome, but this doesn't take away from grassroots and national committees everywhere.
QUESTION: What's the involvement of the FAO with the bird flu? You are monitoring bird flu?
MR. HAGE: Well, bird flu is a crisis that we have been working on for some time now. We've been arguing that we need to have -- to deal with bird flu as an animal disease issue before it becomes a human disease -- becomes a lot costlier. We are monitoring the situation very closely. We are working with member-states at the regional and national levels. We are working with them to put in place mechanisms to detect the problem early on and provide them with the expertise on what needs to be done, once it's found; also, working with the international community, we've put out an appeal. We've launched an appeal for $150 million to help developing countries do exactly what needs to be done to prevent this from becoming a human pandemic.
QUESTION: But it still has kept spreading since 2003?
MR. HAGE: Yes. We have only got -- we've only got so far $30 million and I think there was a mention of it in yesterday's editorial section of The New York Times. Only 30 million have been -- I mean, we cannot donate money to ourselves. We need the active involvement of the donor community to help us fully engage in this process.
QUESTION: Is it only a problem of throwing money at it or isn't it also -- because there has been criticism by flu experts that there is not enough cooperation between animal monitoring organizations and organizations that deal with human health.
MR. HAGE: Well, it is -- I mean, we work very closely with the World Health Organization. We are obviously involved with this issue on two fronts: On one, as an animal disease because we have animal health as part of our mandate; and as an additional issue because you don't want people to be consuming infected poultry. And we work very closely with the OIE as well as the World Health Organization. And I think that in terms of cooperating with those that we need to cooperate with, we're doing everything we can.
QUESTION: So were you involve on a preventive level in Turkey, for instance?
MR. HAGE: That's what we do. In Turkey? Well --
QUESTION: Yeah. It's the latest front.
MR. HAGE: Well, I haven't read much about the Turkey situation since I've -- the story surfaced in the news. But we are involved in this in a global sense and we work with member-states as the need arises with each country.
QUESTION: I have a quick question. I just saw in the video, sort of in a broad sense, the kind of work that FAO does and you just brought up a success story with regard to helping to combat avian flu. What would you also mention as -- or list as some of your noteworthy good news stories that FAO has been or is, you know, currently undertaking?
MR. HAGE: Well, we've seen, you know, the question of political will was brought on earlier. We've seen examples, for instance, in Brazil when the new leader of Brazil made achieving food security for all -- combating hunger, zero hunger, a policy in this country as a goal. I mean, we think that's very conducive to achieving food security for all -- and food security just for the record, is having access at all times to nutritious food so people could lead healthy and productive lives. That's what is needed.
The world produces more food than we need to feed every man, woman and child on earth, but we still have 850 million people who go to bed hungry every night. What we need is we need to (inaudible) the assets of those communities, mostly rural people in developing countries, so they could produce more of the food they need and be employed gainfully so they could raise their living standards and that would be good for everybody involved.
The assistance that FAO is providing -- the technical assistance and the bird flu situation is important, but we're still, you know, this is not over yet, but there has been success stories in dealing with other transboundary diseases in Africa, for instance, that have (inaudible) and other diseases. We need to use those as examples in dealing with animal diseases at the level of animal health issues before they become much costlier, especially if they turn into human diseases.
QUESTION: What examples of the animal -- the good ones --
MR. HAGE: I will give you a list of those.
QUESTION: Chen Guang Bian, Science & Technology Daily, China. Recently, there are many serial natural disasters in Asia and I want to know what actually you did and what technical advice you provide for promoting food security?
MR. HAGE: Well, let's take the latest problem and the latest earthquake in Pakistan. We issued an appeal today for $7 million to bring the seeds, tools, and livestock needed for affected farmers in rural communities and the affected area in Pakistan so they could stand back on their own, because food aid is important but it doesn't last very long. We need to get families starting*, getting them their feed and well on their way to meet the requirements of the next season, so that's what we did -- what we're doing for Pakistan.
In the tsunami affected areas, we've had an extensive program starting from helping people with having boats, restocking them with boats and nets and fishing gear to helping others deal with the salinity in the soil as a result of the high seas and waves that intruded on their agricultural lands, to producing fresh water and so and so forth. So we're very, very actively engaged in the aftermath of tsunami as well.
QUESTION: Eiko Teshirogi, Nikkei Publishing. I think and -- if we see the future food supply, I think it is quite important that sustainable agriculture and (inaudible.) So do you do something full and sustainable agriculture or --
MR. HAGE: Absolutely. Everything that we promote has to be sustainable agriculture. And by sustainable we mean that it has to be environmental friendly -- environment friendly and that it doesn't feed to today's generation at the expense of the future generation. So sustainable agriculture is the only agriculture we preach and practice.
We understand the need for increasing production because today we have six billion people or a little over six billion people -- 20, 30, 40 years down the road we're going to have nine billion people -- and to feed them, we need to increase productivity. And already in many places in the world we have forests being slashed, we have fragile ecosystems that are being tapped to the limit.
So we need to have better ways of tapping these resources, use better use of water management, you know, more crop per drop and issues of that sort that would really maximize the use of available resources without infringing on the rights of future generations to have good environment and sound place to live and grow food.
QUESTION: (E.T. Nikkei Publishing) In terms of assessable agriculture, do you work with the local governments in each country or something?
MR. HAGE: Yes. Our main partner in a country is the government and we work with nongovernmental organizations and former groups and people who are involved in the many projects that we carry out.
MR. HAGE: And we involve them as well. We involve NGOs and civil society organizations and policymaking mechanisms. For instance, in our regional conferences, there are ministerial conferences. These are statutory bodies that meet every two years. Along each one of them we have consultations for nongovernmental organizations and CSOs. Their findings would also contribute to the final document that comes out from the ministerial conferences, the regional conferences. So we do consult with people at all levels.
QUESTION: Did you want to touch upon the International Alliance Against Hunger?
MR. HAGE: Absolutely. Thank you for that question. Again, it all takes us back to the political will issue of how we can get to the point where we are making big difference in reducing the number of the hunger in the world. Out of the last -- of the World Food Summit fives years later, there was a recommendation to have this international alliance against hunger. This was a voluntary proposition where people would be -- governments, nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations would be part of an alliance on the national level and on the international level working in tandem to raise awareness about the plight of the hungry and to help everybody involved -- the governments, the private sector, everybody -- to pull in resources from every aspect of society in order to move forward in the war against hunger. It's now present in 19 countries. We have it in the U.S. and I have a list of which other countries already have an International Alliance Against Hunger Committee established. But it is now in 19 countries, including the United States.
MODERATOR: Any other questions? Well, thank you so much, Mr. Hage, for coming from Washington. We really appreciate coming down on such a rainy day as well.
This will be on our website probably in the next 24 hours. We'll also send it out to you. And thank you very much again.
MR. HAGE: Thank you so much for making this possible, for inviting me and organizing it. And thank you all for coming on such a -- (laughter) -- I mean, you're the guys who've done, you know, major (inaudible.) Thank you so much.
MODERATOR: Thank you.
