FOURTH AFRICAN-AFRICAN AMERICAN SUMMIT Remarks Release No.0247.97 BY DEPUTY SECRETARY RICHARD ROMINGER U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOURTH AFRICAN-AFRICAN AMERICAN SUMMIT HARARE, ZIMBABWE -- JULY 23, 1997 Thank you. I am privileged to be among this distinguished company and deeply honored to represent the United States Department of Agriculture to the Fourth African- African American Summit. These Summits are less than a decade old, but they are accorded the respect due an institution that offers the opportunity to shape the future and change lives. My appreciation to the Reverend Leon Sullivan for bringing into clear focus the promise and the possibilities of Africa. My thanks for the strength of his goals and his conviction that Africa's potential will become fulfillment if linked to education and investment through cooperation and partnership. It's been my experience that we don't often get the chance to influence history. But this is such an opportunity. It was clear yesterday in the ideas thrown open for discussion at the Agriculture Workshops that I had the honor of co-chairing with Permanent Secretary Takavarasha. And it's clear in the reform we see around us, and the opportunities it creates to help young democracies become a driving force for economic growth, political stability and food security throughout Africa. Food security is an issue that dominates United States' thinking and actions. I want to bring you up-to-date on our progress on this fundamental responsibility. I assure you that the message I bring comes not only from Washington, D.C., but from the conscience of the American people. As we stand on the cusp of a new millennium, perhaps the greatest challenge we face is one that's been with us for centuries. One in seven of the world's people suffer from hunger and malnutrition -- an estimated 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and other parts of the globe. No country has been able to escape its grip -- not even our own. This is a theme President Clinton, Vice President Gore and our highest officials have taken around the world in the past year ... the World Food Summit in Rome ... the U.S.-South Africa Binational Commission meetings in Cape Town ... the economic "Summit of the Eight" last month in Denver, Colorado ... and the Earth Summit at the United Nations in New York. Each forum was different. Each shed light on the complex factors contributing to malnutrition and hunger. And each stressed the range of positive steps that we can -- and must -- take to advance to a more food-secure future. It is the position and conviction of the United States that hunger is a fundamentally unacceptable human condition -- whether it exists on American soil or anywhere in the world. These are not just words. The United States has responded to the vast humanitarian crisis in the Great Lakes region of Africa with a major share of the humanitarian assistance. As the world's most agriculturally abundant nation, as the world's leading democracy and a major supplier of food aid, we clearly have an obligation to lead. This Administration will not shy away from it. But victory will require much more than a federal commitment alone. Two months ago, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman opened national consultations on food security to lay the foundation for what we hope will be an unprecedented U.S. effort to uproot hunger wherever it occurs. We can only meet our goal of cutting in half the world's hungry and undernourished by the year 2015 by getting at the root causes of hunger --poverty, income inequality, and political instability. That's the heart of the issue. In large measure it underlies the African Growth and Opportunity Act that President Clinton announced last month at the White House in Washington, D.C. Reverend Sullivan and many other dignitaries were there. What they heard was more than a strong policy statement. It was more than a trade initiative now in the U.S. Congress. This bill reflects the fact that the United States cares deeply about the future of Africa. It represents our determination to help fulfill the promise of a stable, prosperous and democratic Africa. We are committed to building the future with the nations of Africa that in the words of President Clinton,"can help us work for peace, preserve the environment, fight disease, and grow our own economy." American agriculture has an important self-interest in Africa's economic success. We value our trading partners in sub-Saharan Africa. Our mutual agricultural trade has grown significantly since early in the decade, and U.S. agricultural imports from sub-Saharan nations are back on the growth track. For example, U.S. agricultural exports to sub-Saharan Africa including food aid increased more than 80 percent between 1990 and 1996. Even excluding our largest single market in the region, the Republic of South Africa, these exports reached $580 million. That's well above U.S. agricultural exports to all of Central and Eastern Europe. And the U.S. is an important market for the region, with agricultural goods from sub-Saharan Africa totalling over $770 million last year. The African Growth and Opportunity Act eases the transition from development help to economic self-reliance for African countries committed to economic and political reform, market incentives, and private sector growth. It significantly increases access to our markets for African exports. If the bill is approved, the number of products that African countries will be able to export to the U.S. duty free will increase by almost 50 percent. And the most committed African reformers will receive even greater access. In the future, we will be prepared to negotiate free trade agreements with these countries. The bill also does something for the people of Africa that we strive to achieve for citizens of our own rural communities back in the United States -- and that's to hold out a hand to help them bridge tough barriers that separate them from their fair share of economic opportunity. As a partner to Africa, the United States has a long-term stake in the economic self-reliance of those countries committed to reform. This bill -- if approved -- will increase private investment in Africa. Through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, it will create a new $150 million equity fund to finance increased private investment, and a $500 million fund for infrastructure investment in the sub-Saharan region. Both funds will pay special attention to women entrepreneurs. They will support innovative investments that expand opportunities for women and increase working opportunities for the poor. This is something we can do. But, first and foremost, we look to the leaders of the developing world. Any kind of long-term solution to the scourge of starvation must start from within. Leaders must set in motion democratic and free-market reforms to pull their countries out of poverty and halt the cycle of dependence, to stabilize their countries, serve the needs of their people, and strengthen their economy and infrastructure. Without these changes, there is little the outside world can do. With these changes, the United States stands ready to help them improve their own food security. Along with freer agricultural trade worldwide, development will empower more countries to grow or purchase enough food for their own people. But none of us -- anywhere on the globe - will know true food security without a serious commitment to worldwide sustainable development. In the United States, this concept has driven historic reforms of our conservation policies. As we're putting our most productive farmland to use, we're protecting our most highly erodible land. This is an aspect of my work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture that's tremendously rewarding. By background, I am a farmer from the state of California. My sons and my brother still farm there. So my interest in feeding a growing world while preserving and protecting our lands, our soil and water is professional, but it is also very personal. Secretary Dan Glickman and I have travelled the world talking with officials about hunger, global population, sound science, trade, and the race to preserve our natural resource base while increasing yields. We've accepted the challenge of sustainability that came out of the United Nations Conference in Rio de Janeiro. If we think from a perspective beyond our own years, then sustainable development should rank among the highest global priorities -- whether it's preserving farmland, forests, or fisheries, or reducing population pressures on our resources. The United States stands ready to share our expertise and promote worldwide sustainable development. We will continue to support implementation of the Cairo Program of Action and move toward voluntary population stabilization. Like the environment and its fragile resources themselves, these are issues that bind all of us and connect us and our children to the future. These are tough matters, easy to state, difficult to achieve, and very dependent on economic and social factors. I want to acknowledge President Robert Mugabe's powerful speech last month at the United Nations on the African struggle to achieve sustainable development. President Mugabe touched many people with his words and his message was heard -- and reflected upon -- throughout the world. We must also look to technology for serious answers to tough questions: How do we feed a growing world while protecting our land? And how do we produce more food from existing farmland? Over the next 25 years or so, global population will increase by more than two billion people. That's the equivalent of two more India's or three additional sub-Saharan Africa's. Without biotechnology, we will be forced to exploit highly erodible farm and forest land. This may meet short-term needs, but in the end our legacy to future generations will be a barren earth. The alternative and the hope are in the laboratories and research centers of our dedicated scientists around the world -- places like the International Center for the Improvement of Corn and Wheat in Mexico. This is the birthplace of Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug's Green Revolution. From this site, Borlaug helped develop the high-yield, low-pesticide dwarf wheat that much of the world's population now depends on. From a rice germplasm lab to a plant gene expression center, I've seen firsthand the miracles our scientists are working. I've talked with U.S. agricultural researchers, and I know that science is on our side. Biotechnology moves us constantly closer to food security by improving disease and pest resistance, increasing tolerance to environmental stress, raising crop yields, and preserving plant and animal diversity. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who is also a farmer and who has a deep personal commitment to Africa, has captured the essence of the argument for biotechnology. " ...it is grievous," he says, "that we have within our power the ability to prevent starvation, but fail to act on it. We cannot turn back the clock and only use methods that were developed to feed a much smaller number of people... new scientific discoveries now have the potential to improve the yield, dependability and quality of agricultural crops in ways that build upon -- but go significantly beyond -- traditional plant breeding... Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy; starvation is. Without adequate food supplies at affordable prices, we cannot expect world health, or peace." The connection that former President Carter makes between food and peace was also noted some 30 years ago by another U.S. statesman, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. A fine orator and a great humanitarian, Vice President Humphrey once said, How I wish those whose hearts cry out for peace would concentrate their attention and their emotions and their sense of morality and spirit upon the subjects of world hunger and world want." The fact is that every nation with a critical interest in world peace and security has a critical interest in ending world hunger. The path is complicated, but the destination is straightforward. Hunger is unacceptable. Let us concentrate not just our attention and emotions -- but our actions and our partnerships -- on achieving for all our citizens the basic human dignity of a food-secure world. Thank you. # NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at http://www.usda.gov