Chicago Global Affairs Council Experts Available to Comment on G-8 Food Security Initiative
Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the UN World Food Program, and Dan Glickman, former U.S. secretary of agriculture, are available to comment on the G-8 food security initiative being announced at this week’s meeting in Italy. Both served as co-chairs of a bipartisan group of foreign policy and development leaders convened by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs for its Global Agricultural Development Project. Project members Peter McPherson, Per Pinstrup-Andersen and Robert L. Thomson are also available to comment.
The project report, Renewing American Leadership in the Fight Against Global Hunger and Poverty, published in February, calls for a renewed U.S. commitment to alleviating global poverty through agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions with more than 700 million of the world’s poorest people.
**To arrange interviews, e-mail Samantha Skinner Monroe or call 312-821-7507.**
Catherine Ann Bertini, a professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, served as executive director of the UN World Food Program (1992-2002) and as UN under secretary-general for management (2003-05). Ms. Bertini is credited with assisting hundreds of millions of victims of wars and natural disasters throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. She was awarded the World Food Prize in 2003. Ms. Bertini is a member of the Board of International Food and Agriculture Development, an advisory committee to USAID; a founding member of the new Global Humanitarian Forum, based in Geneva; and a member of the jury for the Hilton Foundation’s Humanitarian Prize.
Dan Glickman, former U.S. secretary of agriculture (1995-2001), is chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. Under Secretary Glickman’s leadership, the U.S. Department of Agriculture administered numerous farm and conservation programs; modernized food safety regulations; forged international trade agreements to expand U.S. markets; and improved its commitment to fairness and equality in civil rights. Secretary Glickman led the effort to ensure that an effective regulatory approval process based on sound science governs new agricultural technologies. Previously, he was the director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (2002-04). Secretary Glickman also served for 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Kansas’ 4th Congressional District.
Peter McPherson is president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, an association of public research universities, land-grant institutions, and many state public university systems. Mr. McPherson is the founding co-chair of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, and chairman of Harvest Plus, an organization working on breeding crops for better nutrition. Previously Mr. McPherson was president of Michigan State University (1993-2004). From April to October 2003, he also served as the director of economic policy for the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq, working with the currency, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance and the banks of the country.
Per Pinstrup-Andersen is a professor at Cornell University and Copenhagen University. His research includes economic analyses of food and nutrition policy, globalization and poverty, agricultural development and research and technology policy. The 2001 World Food Prize Laureate, he previously served as chairman of the Science Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and president of the American Agricultural Economics Association. He also served as director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, an economist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Colombia, and a distinguished professor at Wageningen University.
Robert L. Thompson is a professor of agricultural policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and serves on the USDA-USTR Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee for Trade and the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council. From 1998 through 2002, he was at the World Bank, where he served as director of Agriculture and Rural Development and as senior advisor for Agricultural Trade Policy. Previously, he served as president and CEO of the Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development (1993-98); as dean of agriculture (1987-93) and professor of agricultural economics (1974-93) at Purdue University; as assistant secretary for economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1985-87) and as senior staff economist for Food and Agriculture at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1983-85).
Other members of the project’s leaders group may also be available for comment. To learn more about The Chicago Council’s Global Agricultural Development Project or to download the full report, visit thechicagocouncil.org/globalagdevelopment.
About the Chicago Council on Global Affairs
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, founded in 1922, is a prominent, independent and nonpartisan organization committed to influencing the discourse on global issues through contributions to opinion and policy formation, leadership dialogue, and public learning. Long known for studies of American public opinion on foreign policy, the Council is expanding its contributions to discussions of critical global issues through studies and task force reports. Topics of recent reports include energy policy reform and Midwest economic competitiveness, examining the future of Chicago as a global city, and increasing the engagement of Muslim Americans in U.S. civic and political life.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Samantha Skinner Monroe, 312-821-7507
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
