Transcript of remarks by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns At the USDA-USAID International Food Aid Conference

Transcript of remarks by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns At the USDA-USAID International Food Aid Conference

SEC. MIKE JOHANNS: "Well, good morning everyone. And let me start out if I might and remember my manners and say to J.B., thank you. I thought you did that very, very well. I appreciate the kind, generous words.

"I also want to start out to say thank you to Administrator Natsios who spoke this morning; as well as really a good friend of mine and just a great guy, Senator Pat Roberts-- who I understand will be joining you today after lunch.

"Now I'll make this promise to you at the start of my comments I won't talk too long. I know that the morning can be a little bit on the long side, and am I the only speaker between you and lunch? Is that -- yeah. That's really a bad deal, folks.

[Laughter.]

"I recognize that when I'm all that's standing between you and lunch that's not a good situation. So I'll try to keep my comments to the point.

"I mentioned my appreciation to these men, each of them, from their opposite ends of Washington, have shown enormous compassion in their efforts to utilize our amazing productivity to reach out to those in need in the world. J.B. mentioned that soon after coming to office I talked about our food aid programs, and I feel very, very strongly about them in doing all we can to reach out to the world with food.

"You know, because we are here talking about compassion, the only thing is we're not just talking about compassion, we're talking about compassion on a very massive scale and certainly helping the neediest in our world. We are talking about not just shipments of food and food products, though those are enormously important. But we are also talking about reaching out with education, with technology, and sometimes reaching out with just our two hands.

"We are also talking about our entire food chain. It is not just the government that provides food aid, and we recognize that. Ladies and gentlemen, it's far from that. The government, remember, doesn't grow food. It does not process it, and at least on the large commercial scale it doesn't even transport it. It is our agricultural community that shows that uniquely American combination of compassion and good business sense that results in our amazing efforts around the world.

"What we can do in the government however is to help provide the financial support to aid this effort. That is why I am pleased today to announce new allocation of $91 million for the McGovern-Dole International Food For Education and Child Nutrition Program. This assistance will help feed more than 3.4 million children in 15 developing nations in Africa, in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

"McGovern-Dole helps support education, child development, and food security in low-income, food-deficient countries that are committed to universal education. This program is just one of the many that the USDA administers in order to do our part in the international food aid effort, which is needed now I would suggest more than ever.

"Hunger and malnutrition are still the number one risks to health worldwide, and despite dramatic economic and agricultural growth. U.S. food aid plays a critical role in addressing food insecurity in over 80 countries across the world. Our food aid packaging is easily recognized as being made in America. Some of the bags actually carry the words 'A Gift from the People of the United States,' and all have the markers 'USA.'

"That's what I would call brand recognition.

"The quality and abundance of American agriculture is broadcast throughout the world through our food aid. As a result, emerging countries that have been recipients in the past often become a marketplace. They move from aid to trade as J.B. pointed out. In other words, good deeds always beget good will.

"Successful agricultural production here and eventually everywhere must lie at the foundation of this effort though. The market affects food aid just as it affects every other part of production agriculture.

"Commodity prices and transportation costs have had a real impact on food aid budgets. We all know that. Commodity prices were affected in 2004 by record-breaking U.S. production. Ocean freight costs have changed as well. They were affected by increased demand from China, and all transportation continues to be affected by an increased fuel costs.

"But while commodity and fuel prices are beyond our control, many other factors are not. Partnerships are a prime example of how we can make scarce resources go even farther. I often call partnerships in our business at the USDA 'force multipliers.' By working together we can do more and sometimes do more with less.

"So USDA works closely every day with our sister agency USAID in combating hunger. This conference, as a matter of fact, is an excellent example of that working relationship. Here we have brought together all sectors of food aid with representatives from over 20 countries, and I welcome them here to this conference.

"We worked with the many private voluntary organizations that are represented here today in this room. These are the groups that are on the ground where the rubber meets the road getting the food to the most needy. From the bottom of my heart I say, thank you for your efforts.

"USDA is joining with these groups and others, both industry and nonprofits, to improve the nutritional quality of the foods that we provide.

"Our partnership with the agriculture industry's suppliers is also critical in the food aid chain and the link back to our farmers who are producers. These suppliers are companies really of all sizes, from all parts of the country. They range from a dry bean processing and packaging plant in North Dakota to a community rehabilitation program sponsored plant in Tennessee that packages vegetable oil into cans.

"The packaging industry manufactures the bags and cans, and the transportation industry moves the products. We're all proud to work with them as well.

"Every one of these sectors, every single one of them makes a difference in our food aid efforts. And they all combine to support the goal of providing nutritious and culturally acceptable and economical products, products, again, to go to those most in need.

"We help in ways other than direct aid as well. For developing countries, trade liberalization is another vital key to market access development and to economic growth. Trade is the best means of generating the capital investment needed for growth. Jobs are created, employment grows, incomes rise, and the living standards of millions can be lifted as opportunity spreads throughout the economy.

"President Bush is ambitiously pursuing this trade strategy on three fronts-- bilateral such as a group of free trade agreements stretching from Australia to the Panama with a lot of countries in between; regional such as our efforts for the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, or as we call it CAFTA-DR, which is awaiting ratification by our Congress; and multilateral such as the World Trade Organization Doha Development Round.

"The promise of the current round of WTO negotiations is much greater than the last round, and this is especially true in the area of agriculture. We remain committed to negotiations to achieve broad-based farm trade reform that tackles export subsidies, market access and subsidy reform.

"But we also remain committed to direct assistance.

"The facts. The fact is, both the last 50 years United States has donated more than $50 billion in food aid to many countries, and we remain the largest food aid supplier. In Fiscal 2004 the United States provided about $1.1 billion worth of food aid supplying 3.7 million metric tons.

"All of us in this room understand the important, often life-saving role of food aid. Unfortunately, others in some countries take a dim view of the way in which U.S. food aid is delivered, characterizing it as subsidy for our producers. We here know that this is not the case.

"Some countries prefer food aid in other forms-- cash-only donations or commodities donated primarily through the United Nations World Food Program. The WTO framework agreement forged in Geneva last July does not compromise the structure of existing U.S. food aid programs. Although we think current rules governing food aid are adequate, we do understand that new disciplines in food aid may be a part of the WTO agreement.

"The real challenge will be agreeing on disciplines that still encourage donors to meet vital humanitarian and development needs. We believe that food aid can often be delivered quickly and efficiently through private voluntary organizations and governments as well as through the World Food Program.

"The calls for cash-only aid present an even more challenging environment to meeting world food aid needs. The reality is that any requirement for cash aid only would erode political support in the availability of food aid resources in the United States-- the world's largest donor nation. The same could happen to other donors.

"What the world needs is more food aid commodities, more cash, and more donors-- not new and impractical rules that require everyone to contribute in exactly the same way. We also believe that any new disciplines applied to food aid should be discussed by international food aid experts, not just by trade experts negotiating the trade agreement.

"In the end we must remember this. The focus should be on addressing the needs of the world's poorest countries. The United States has done a huge amount in this area. This is a question of compassion, and we are a compassionate people. Our farmers, our ranchers, our processors, our packers, our truckers, our train engineers-- they are all a part of a huge chain of compassion that flows from the heartland of America to the needy across the world.

"That is something we can be proud of, and it is something we need to work to preserve. Thank you, all of you, for your efforts."

[Applause.]

MODERATOR: "Thank you, Secretary Johanns. He's agreed to take a few questions from the audience if anyone would have any for the Secretary.

SEC. JOHANNS: "JB Just whispered in my ear that Secretary Espy is here. Secretary, please rise. Let me acknowledge him."

[Applause.]

SEC. JOHANNS: "It's good to see you here. Questions anyone? Yes, sir."

QUESTION: "Secretary Johanns, Jim Hershey with the World Initiative Restoring Human Health with the American Soybean Association.

"It's perhaps an unfair question to somebody who's been on the job I guess three months, but you've got a great team working with you and a lot of effort going into not only the compassion you've mentioned but one initiative that's on a lot of people's minds which is HIV-AIDs. Could you tell us a bit or toss it somebody who could, Department of Agriculture's efforts in the area of food and nutrition for HIV?"

SEC. JOHANNS: "I can offer a thought on that. JB may want to back me up or Ellen or somebody. Science would seem to indicate that nutrition is essential for the success of those drugs that put HIV-AIDS in remission if you will. We recognize that. And so it seems to make sense that as we do what we can to address this worldwide problem really, that we stay focused on food aid as being a central part of that regimen in terms of treatment for HIV-AIDS.

"So that's probably as direct as I can be. JB? Bert?"

BERT: "Yeah. I'd add also that the Farm Service Agency in coordination with others, we've got a project going with the Sustain Organization. I mentioned that in my remarks this morning. But a central part of that effort is to look at the nutrient profile of all the food aid products that we provide in serving HIV-AIDS. The nutrient profile for that plays a major part in our study and our effort in that project."

QUESTION: "Hello, Mr. Secretary. My name's Ellen Levinson. I represent a group of [inaudible] that are active in food aid. First of all, we want to thank you very much for your remarks and thought they were excellent, on the trade agreement, the status in the U.S. decision. So actually, just thank you very much.

"Second, I wanted to mention that I think the U.S. carries an incredible burden for having to provide food aid. It seems that other donor countries are just not stepping up, and so that places a huge budget burden on the United States at a time when we're facing budget constraints. Despite that, we believe we need to give more from the United States, and to plan ahead and seek it early in the appropriations process, not supplemental appropriations.

So we hope we can work with you on that but also hope that you and also Mr. Natsios can work together to help encourage other countries to step up and donate instead of talking about the problems with our programs. Thank you."

SEC. JOHANNS: "Thank you. Those are good comments. I don't even know how I follow up on that. So. First of all thank you for your generous compliments. I appreciate that immensely. The second thing I would offer, and I'm drawing on memory here, that I believe on the day that we released the budget plan for 2006 in one area that I remember McGovern-Dole I believe we increased that by 15 percent if I'm not mistaken, in an environment focusing on deficit reduction, cutting the federal deficit in half over the next five years.

"If you look at our Nutrition Programs at the USDA, we are involved in food in a substantial way, not just internationally but also in our country as you know. One of the things that I learned is that in the USDA budget there's a tendency to think that we are out there representing farmers and ranchers-- we are. We do a lot of work in that area; we're proud of our work.

"But 59 percent of our budget relates to food aid in some form or fashion. It might be the free and reduced lunch program here in the United States. It might be Food Stamps, it might be WIC, it might be our aid programs in the international marketplace. So these are very, very important areas for us.

"This President's been very supportive of these programs at a time again where his focus, all of our focus should be on deficit reduction. He's really stepped up to the plate on that part of the budget, and I think increased funding, and in addition in some areas even tried to build in a contingency fund. I applaud him for that. I just think it's a very strong compassionate statement again in a time where we're trying to deal with the federal deficit and get that under control.

"Again, thank you for your generous comments."

MODERATOR: "Any other questions?"

SEC. JOHANNS: " All right. Ladies and gentlemen, have a great conference! Thank you."

[Applause.]

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