okay good afternoon everyone I’m Terri
Garcia and I’m the chief science and
exploration officer here at National
Geographic and this is our first panel
it’s entitled food security in an
insecure world and you know in a world
that’s buffeted by change environmental
political demographic the question is
how do we feed a growing population and
we have four experts here who are going
to tell us how so starting at the far
end from me is Dan Glickman who is
co-chair of how do you pronounce this is
it agree or agree whatever makes you
happy
well I said Audrey I like the a capital
G all right agree which connects leaders
around the world with food and
agricultural issues he’s the executive
director of the Aspen Institute
congressional program which seeks to
educate congress which i think is a good
thing members he was a member of
Congress for 18 years US Secretary of
Agriculture and chairman of the Motion
Picture Association of America so held
some of the coolest jobs in Washington
tjada mckenna next to Dan is deputy
coordinator for developments at the US
Feed the Future initiative of USAID
she’s also acting an assistant
administrator of USAID x’ bureau for
food security she’s held senior
positions at the Gates Foundation
Monsanto and the McKenzie and company
Danielle Nierenberg is co-founder and
president of food tank it’s described as
the food think tank for the seven
billion who have to eat each day she is
an author and co-author of a number of
books that range from topics such as
gender and population factory farming
and the developing world and sustainable
agriculture she’s traveled extensively
in her job some 30 plus countries
sub-saharan Africa Asia Latin America
and was a Peace Corps volunteer in the
Dominican Republic and then next to me
is Jackson Claire who is the executive
vice president of the grocery division
at Walmart us he has responsive
ability for Walmart’s grocery
merchandising at more than 4,000 stores
throughout the United States he’s been
in the retail food business since 1982
holding senior positions at Tesco and
Safeway among others so let’s start with
an easy question first a softball for
you guys
Jonathan says that it’s unlikely that we
can double food production so what is it
going to take to meet the nutritional
needs of an additional two billion
people in the next 40 years given that
we’re not even coming close at this
point so maybe I’ll start with Dan first
of all thanks to National Geographic
can you imagine 20 or 30 years ago
having this conversation food and
agriculture and diet they finally made
it to the level where energy and war and
peace and other issues have been at the
top so that’s really a terrific thing
and but to answer your question what’s
it going to take in addition to the
issues that John talked about and more
funding for research basic research
especially but research on water on
sustainability on drought on nutrition I
mean we’ve let our funding schemes for
the research budget and for agriculture
and food fall rather dramatically and
that’s that’s what’s built this industry
and our ability to feed the world but
but let me just say two things one is
I’m an old politician so politics is
such a foundational issue for everything
that John and Denis talked about
politics and America
politics worldwide I was just in Japan
and Japan has got a different system of
Agriculture that they’re working their
darndest to protect and it’s a very very
small scale agriculture you look at
agriculture in the United States you
look at agriculture in Europe and and
these issues dominate the way policies
are made and so if we’re going to really
address this these issues then the
political leaders have to be part of the
game and to date they really haven’t
been very much part of the game the
second is governance in these countries
if we’re going to make real strides
we’ve got to have systems of governance
that allow people small holder farmers
average people consumers have impact
into the policies and and all
so the democracies to the best extent
possible can flourish so that decisions
are not made just because what’s the
rich and powerful think or just only
because what’s in the best interest of
the poor but for all the population as a
whole so politics governance and
research I’ve got more things to say but
I think that that has as much to do with
this as anything else one final thing
there’s an issue that hasn’t been
mentioned by anybody here and that’s the
issue of health if you believe you are
what you eat and you watching the amount
of non communicable diseases
dramatically rise all over the world
cardiovascular diabetes health related
diseases in almost every context they’re
due to what you eat or what you don’t
eat so the politics of food is also
related very much the politics of health
yeah Jay did you want to yeah I
absolutely agree with Dan and and I’d
like to answer that question from a
different dimension and that is the
dimension of the individual farmer so in
our work every day we think about the
eight hundred and sixty million people
that go to bed hungry every night most
of them are small farmers predominately
women who are working the land every day
for their food so what does that mean
for them they need the access to the
research and the technologies that Dan
mentioned they need to be able to have
the better crop varieties and the other
tools to get as much out of their land
as possible they need access to
information about nutrition and other
behavioral change things so that they
can get more calories from what they’re
eating they need a lot of small scale
solutions like local storage and things
that they don’t waste the food that they
have but they also need better safety
nets and other things that help them to
be more resilient and to plan and to be
able to do more in in lean times whether
that be crop insurance which is the
thing that most American farmers take
for granted or just even access to
savings account and finance to buy food
when when there is a lean season
Danielle did you Karen I would echo a
lot of what Dan and Jada said but I
think we also need to start investing in
the things that we already know work you
know we’ve had this practice of
agricultural abandonment for 30 or 40
years now where we completely ignored
small-scale farmers we ignored
agriculture and then you know
food crisis of 2007 and 2008 hit you
know that really hasn’t gone away and
we’re interested in agriculture again
because we’re scared we see food riots
we see people really suffering and who
have long been ignored so investing in
things like nutrient-dense crops and not
the starchy staple crops that have
gotten so much investment over the last
three or four decades investing in the
things that actually nourish people will
go a long way in solving some of these
problems
things that you know Jada mentioned you
know investing in women women make up 43
percent of the agricultural labor force
and yet get very little in terms of
services they don’t have access to
education or extension services they
don’t have access to financial services
or credit and and they they don’t get
access to inputs and some of the
services that male farmers do and if if
we can give them those services and find
ways to create that access IFA predicts
that we could lift 100 to 150 million
people out of hunger and poverty so
those are some steps that need to be
taken and Jack yeah first of all thanks
to National Geographic for what they’re
doing it I really think it’s terrific
they’ve always National Geographic to me
when I was a little boy was always a
window in the world and I think putting
a window in the world of this issue is a
really important one so I really
appreciate the fact that we’ve all be
pulled together here when it comes to
how we think about the challenge of
sourcing the amount of food that Walmart
we sell more food than anybody else our
big challenges how do we source more of
that food and we think the challenge
that we face are trying to buy a lot
more food kind of mirrors the challenge
of how do we create more food for the
world and it really is I thought some of
the the discussion that we had just a
moment ago some of the things that
you’ve all talked about how do we create
more food more efficiently as we look at
the challenge of buying a billion pounds
more bananas between now and 2018 how
are we going to use water more
effectively how are we going to use the
the resources of the planet more
effectively to produce that we
fundamentally believe technology plays a
huge role in that the role of technology
at trying to make
food more efficient and more efficiently
produced we think fundamentally those
opportunities to use areas of the world
where there is fertile land available to
produce we think in the United States
about the Mississippi River Delta the
opportunity to produce more food in that
environment and those opportunities
within the local farming to within the
local farming movement which are very
supportive of how to create more crops
closer to where we sell the food that we
want to produce and the other point I
think is really important is the food
waste point food waste is such a kind of
it’s all morally bankrupt the amount of
food waste that happens in the in the
world and part of the issues are small
issues of what happens in consumers
homes there’s some packaging
opportunities in that as ways of of we
as a consumer company making some
improvement there those challenges in
terms of the supply chain
how do products travel such a long way
in the waste that’s involved in that
traveling those ways of doing that more
efficiently going forward and we’re
thinking about that and then there’s
some pretty big things I they had the
opportunity to be in Peru last last week
which is a fascinating country a real
natural greenhouse where the cooling
airs of the Antarctic me they’re a very
warm country appropriate for a lot of
agriculture growth but irrigation
schemes that allow the deserts to turn
into blueberry fields and asparagus
fields astonishing to watch but you need
roads
you need airports you need ports to
enable some of that product to get to
the cut to get to the consumer so we’re
getting last waste if you look to the
chart there India’s an amazingly fertile
country it’s astonishing the amount of
food that’s produced in India and then
wasted because it just can’t get to
market because the infrastructure aren’t
there which downlinks a lot to the
politics of how do we create the
politics to create the infrastructure
and I think USAID and some of the what
you guys are doing to try and make that
come alive it’s going to be important
going forward good good
right now you’re very ambitious let’s
maybe we stick with how do you source
more food and I’d like to get your
comments on this this growing phenomenon
that we’re seeing of rich countries
buying or it’s been called renting food
poor ones to increase their own food
supply and how big an issue is that or
problem and if it is what do we do about
it and I think I’ll start with Jada it’s
done correctly it’s an opportunity if it
provides a market for for food from
these countries and allows more income
for the people that are benefiting from
that trade to then be able to buy other
food locally that that’s appropriate
where it’s irresponsible is where people
think of the plan grabs and that and
that is something that there’s a lot
more transparency needed in terms of
what’s happening where land is going
more responsible land tenure systems and
there are other safeguards that we need
to put in place to prevent that from you
know if you were if you’re from China
and you’re looking down the road you
have 1.3 billion people and you want to
keep those people happy and not marching
in Beijing the Great Hall the people
then you’re going to kind of figure out
how you’re going to feed these people in
the future well you’re going to buy a
lot from like the United States and
elsewhere which they do but you’re also
going to try to source that as much as
you possibly can and so they’re out
Latin America and East Africa and other
places buying a lot of land and it’s a
problem I have to tell you it because
often with those purchases do not go
good farming practices good
sustainability practices and democracy
building activities so it’s got to
really be watched carefully and folks
like the UN University people we need to
make sure we have the data on this so
people see it happening but on the other
hand the fact that matter is we’re
telling people to eat more fruits and
vegetables you know I wish we could grow
them all in the United States but then
let until global warming really hits us
we’re not going to be able to grow as as
much blueberries and tangerines and
citrus and avocados and other things in
the United States so we’re going to have
to buy those elsewhere and there’s a
great opportunity I think as long as
we’re fair in our trade practices and as
long as we try to build up working
conditions in places where we buy
because we buy coffee almost everywhere
in the world and a lot of the companies
are in fact doing a better job of making
sure that people are treated well there
is we’ve got to make sure as we buy
these that we
encourage sustainable practices in the
process and if we do that then we can
build up those countries and not tear
them down this is an opportunity for
groups like the rainforest alliance who
works very closely with smallholder
farmers all over the world to put those
practices in place so that both the
farmers are getting a fair price for
what they’re growing and we as eaters
can feel good about it so that we don’t
because there’s not this transparency in
the food system that we would all like
you know these these sorts of Fairtrade
standard and certification programs are
very important and the rainforest
alliance really does this better than
anyone so I certainly think transparency
is gonna help all of us I think there
that the inevitability is we are we have
to source food from all over the world
you go no matter how good your local
program is we have to buy bananas from
Costa Rica it is just the way it is and
that’s because and people want to buy
that we’ll always be standing for giving
people choice to buy or anything that
they want to buy and finding a way of
creating availability for customers
within that context we have to try and
do it as efficiently as we can an
efficiency often comes from sharing best
practice it’s really interesting when
you look at things like the use of
fertilizer if we could use less
fertilizer I think the world will be in
a better place for carbon emissions and
the impact on on climate but it’s quite
interesting in certain parts of the
world it’s being used very efficiently
another part of the world not being used
efficiently how can I think there’s
opportunities for us to learn in terms
of what’s happening in one place and
applying in other places which actually
well I think strengthen food security
going forward
and actually hopefully bring price of
food down one of the challenges that we
we always think about is as we try and
get to food security what is the impact
on the price for the customer because
the biggest threat to food security is
if the price of commodity price of foods
go up and people literally get dragged
into hunger so the thought that the
forces that try and bring the price of
food down to drive efficiency is a very
important force to ensure that we get
the
security of the food that we need can I
just mention one u.s. farm policy let’s
bring a little bit down to earth for
years and years if you were a US farmer
and you wanted a subsidy from the
government and you planted one of the
major crops wheat corn cotton rice and
soybeans
you were given a crop base you could
grow on that but you couldn’t grow
anything else on that so if you wanted
to grow peaches or pears or tomatoes on
your weak base now this is modern
America this isn’t 19th century or 20th
century Russia this is America you
couldn’t plant those crops or else you’d
lose all your payments on your base of
wheat corn cotton rice and soybeans so
what did that mean that meant that vast
areas of the country that could be
planted to alternative crops in addition
to the base crops couldn’t because a
farmer couldn’t do it this farm bill
changed that a little bit it also
allowed for the first time to buy risk
management and crop insurance on new
crops so I mean it’s just kind of a
simple thing that you know you tried it
want to bring as much flexibility into
the American folk I’m just I’m an
American farm world the European farm
world is even far more complicated and
rigid in the American farm world but
just a thing that maybe that will help
us realize we can grow a lot of things
in this country that we haven’t been
growing and I think that I as the price
of energy continues to rise there’s more
opportunities to have more local
production it’s really interesting in in
Arkansas which used to be I’m from
Arkansas you can tell from my Arkansas
used to grow a lot of the nation’s
apples and because the soil in
Washington is better and it’s easier to
grow up there won’t arraign it but
apples started to produced a huge volume
and a lot of second third generation are
Kansans our own Washington grown apples
as the price of energy changes that
bringing it across the country it’s not
changes not drives I think that’s going
to be one of the economic drivers to get
more local production of crops are
perfectly perfectly high-quality and can
be done the right way
closer to home yeah I’m at you know I
think the the drought that hit the
Midwest in the 2012 in 2012 and the
drought that’s occurring in California
right now is making farmers and eaters
sort of rethink
production you know because the crops
that they could grow you know 10 or 15
years ago aren’t going there they might
not be able to grow them 10 or 15 years
from now and this is a real opportunity
for us to learn what you know from small
farmers in the developing world have
been adapting to variations in weather
and climate change for a while now
they’ve they’ve been able to change
their practices and we have a lot to
learn from them it’s it’s not always the
other way around where we have you know
we can teach them something that we can
also learn from them okay so Jonathan
mentioned in his opening remarks that we
also have to change behavior you know
how and and what we eat and at the
beginning of this panel we talked about
the fact that we have a growing
population two billion more people are
going to be added but we’re also seeing
this other phenomenon of massive
urbanization around the world where in
many cases you’re going to have a richer
population demanding more food how is
that going to impact this this dialogue
that we’re having now this issue we’re
looking at the opportunities that that
creates so for one of the things that
we’re trying to do is keep rural
environments healthy and strong and to
provide good livelihoods for rural
producers in the developing world so
those urban markets become a source of
that those are markets for those farmers
so we’re looking for transport solutions
and storage solutions to get to them I
mean the other piece of that behavior
changes as we know and as Jonathan
talked about as consumers get more
income their diets change or they begin
to think things that they might have had
back in the village and a field like the
indigenous vegetables that were grown
there all of a sudden aren’t good enough
well they’re great enough they’re much
healthier than some of the other things
that they might replace those things
with so I think there is this there’s
this continuing education and behavior
change dynamic especially for the urban
populations occur further away but also
as the rural economies grow convincing
those rule that the some of the foods
that you were eating before like sorghum
are these leafy green indigenous
vegetables they’re still great foods
that you should continue to eat and
that we should continue to be marketing
an urban environment you know you know
I’ve got this everybody I’m sure
everybody in this room has one of these
things I just came back from Guatemala
and Honduras on a care sponsored trip
I saw more cell towers in Guatemala than
I’ve seen in the United States they’re
everywhere the the ability to access the
internet it was better outside of
Guatemala City than any place in
Washington DC that I was at ok and so
what does that mean I mean that has a
powerful factor in terms of information
ability to communicate understanding
what’s happening and giving consumers
more power everywhere even poor
consumers so so the democratization of
the food movement is I think very
consistent with new technologies and it
will allow a lot more ability for the
consumers to demand things that they
want and I think that’s a big factor in
this whole area that it’s somebody said
I think John said it’s not all bleak
well part of its not bleak because
people have the ability to access
information everywhere but it does
present a problem because if the world
is rapidly urbanizing and if 70% of the
water is going to feed crops how do you
think the people in urban areas are
going to react when they can’t get water
what do you think that Chinese
government is going to do to try to
quell let’s say disturbances on the
ground when people can’t get water and
so I do think that as we talk about this
issue of urbanization and we are going
to see more farmers markets more growing
of crops locally somebody said they were
going to be growing more crops on
building roofs and all that things it’s
possible I hope so
but it does present a enormous potential
conflict of water rights and the ability
of consumers in cities to have water and
the ability of farmers to go crops and
raise animals to have water that is an
enormous challenge with regard to
urbanization I think one of the things
that’s quite access to food is not that
good in the urban markets of the United
States not that far not far from where
we’re sitting here to know here just
know does not greet access to
high-quality fresh foods if you go to
Chicago and Los Angeles New York it’s
not easy to access
well priced affordable fresh fruits and
that’s certainly when certainly that’s
an important part of some of the things
we’re trying to do at Walmart and
building some stores and in urban areas
we’ve got to pretty close to here
they’ve opened in the last year and part
of that is how do we bring access we’ve
been very encouraged by the the Let’s
Move program that Michelle Obama worked
on we’ve been trying to support that you
know in a very proactive way some of the
things about changing people’s diets you
can only do so much people have to
choose but the one thing we can do is
make sure price is not a determining
factor in people choosing unhealthy
diets / healthy diets so simple things
like high sodium soups against low
sodium soups why can we not at least
have them at the same price it tends to
be that the low sodium versions or the
the lower sugar versions are the lower
fat versions tend to be more expensive
than they stand and we’re doing a lot of
work to try and equalize so the choice
that people make is based on the choice
that they want to make from the diets
point of view not based on price and too
often there’s not enough access to
healthy foods fresh foods at the right
prices and that’s something that I think
we can make a difference on and just to
go back to both Dan and Jada’s point
about different kinds of foods and and
water again for me it really gets back
to this investment that needs to happen
in in in different kinds of crops and
nutrient dense crops and perhaps that
can preserve water resources that it can
enhance soils and you know it takes some
education and awareness about these
indigenous foods that people have looked
down upon because they consider them
poor people’s foods or weeds and you
know it’s very interesting when you walk
into you know a market or a small
grocery store in Dakar Abita John you’ll
you’ll see very few products actually
produced you know from Senegal or Cote
d’Ivoire in in those markets in those
grocery stores so really sort of having
a program to really help people value
the food that they grow up on the foods
that are regional and local that are
culturally
over it and again nutrient-dense and
diverse that can really help I think a
lot in urban areas so let’s move to a
non-controversial topic what and I’d
like to hear from each of you what’s the
role of genetically modified plants and
and should we be seeking to improve
genetic features and characteristics of
crops let’s watch the star question
coming George saw yeah yeah um
technology’s got a key role to play in
terms of driving efficiency and driving
the economics of producing food more
effectively and more to enable us to
produce more food with less resources
when I had a really interesting
conversation with a farmer from Illinois
this week it was Dana we convened a
group of people together at in
Bentonville and Gilad CEOs from Monsanto
and PepsiCo and made some commitments
very specific commitments in their in
the agriculture space and how we can
reduce greenhouse gases and a number of
things and the conversation we had with
the with a farmer a second thought
generation farmer from Illinois family
farm showed his picture of all his of
all his children and his grandchildren
and what he talked about was and he very
specifically made the plea please talk
please don’t tell me I can’t use
genetically modified crops Walmart a
genetic genetic Lee modified materials
Walmart because my son and my grandsons
are able to produce food without
spraying insecticides which I had to do
and I want to be able to spray I want
them to be able to not have to use
insecticides so the benefits of GM there
are real benefits of GM it’s not the
panacea to any of the challenges of
producing food in the world and I think
some of the initiatives in smallholders
and making sure we go back to some of
the principles that worked really
effectively in agriculture over many
centuries are really important as well
and it can’t be a very simple solution
that says GM’s are all the answer and GM
not the answer it’s incredibly
polarizing issue but I think that a
middle ground that makes sense
of maximising the production of food
that we can get from scarce resources
making the environment a better place
going forward while using them
effectively while not abandoning all the
other sensible and creative ways that we
can make food more efficient so before I
leave you could could you just come in
on how Walmart is addressing this in
terms of educating the public for or
against on the on this issue well it’s
it’s we don’t see it as a rule to
educate the public we work we will stand
for choice we’ll put products in front
of people and give them the choice and
we’re expanding our organic we think the
best way for customers to access non-gmo
products which the which a lot of them
want to do is for us to provide a much
broader organic assortment we’ve made an
announcement the last two or three weeks
where we’re going to launch a brand
called wild oats where the pricing of
organic is going to be the same pricing
is conventional so people can access
organic food and that’s I think the best
way for a customer that’s got a very
clear view that they don’t want GM in
the food to enable them to access that
comfortably without having to pay a
premium for it anybody else on sure uh
you know there’s no question that that
agricultural biotechnology is very
interesting and sexy and it creates
obviously a lot of controversy for me
who’s someone who has had this
incredible opportunity to talk to
hundreds of farmers and farmers groups
all over the world for me to what it
comes down to is is biotechnology and
agriculture living up to its promises
and in some cases I think it’s not
conventional yields versus organic
yields versus biotech yields are pretty
much the same and often organic comes
out ahead and and you know again because
of my experience you know my question is
always is this helping improve the lives
of small farmers are they getting
greater income are they eating more
diverse foods are they able to you know
really just improve their overall
livelihoods and and for me I haven’t
seen that I think there may be potential
there but again it really comes down to
investing and what we already know works
the things that are sort of below hang
fruit in the food system the the things
that John Foley talked about a little
while ago food waste is the low-hanging
fruit where we’re wasting or losing you
know it at least thirty percent of all
the food that is produced but there are
very simple measures that farmers can
take to prevent food loss from from
field you know to market to fork very
low cost inexpensive things that can be
done from better drying techniques to
better cooling and storage systems to
very simple things like roads and so if
we’re going to invest in something I
think it should be those things and
instead of just you know looking at and
again I think it’s a very interesting
and it could be a potential solution but
we have to make these changes now we
have to feed people now and we have to
really find ways to do that better
the US has is is home to some of the
largest areas of organic production in
the world as well as some of the largest
areas of GMO and conventional production
in the world and what that’s and that’s
because of choice farmer small holder
farmers have to be able to make the
choice of what’s good for their climate
for their soils what kind of farming is
best for them and consumers are making
choices about what kind of food they
want to eat genetically genetic
engineering has a lot of 10 provides is
an important tool and can do things to
enhance the nutrient of crops it can
also enhance the production of crops and
so it’s an important tool in the tool
kit it’s not a magic bullet but it’s
certainly one that people deserve to
have access to the choice and and to
have a full array of tools in front of
them to decide what’s the best solution
for their farming system if their
farmers if their consumers what’s the
best solution for what I want to eat
well I’m a little bit like Jack I’m kind
of in the middle of the road on this I
recall there was an Ag Commissioner in
Texas named Jim hi ter and he said the
only thing in the middle of the road is
a yellow stripe and a dead armadillo
okay
so and probably Jack and I you know I
have complained to some of the seed
companies that the traits that they’ve
produced don’t seem to benefit consumers
I’ve said if you maybe make some traits
that would grow hair in addition to
resisting end
maybe Jack and I would but here’s the
deal okay so I was down and I Guatemala
Honduras visiting smallholder farmers I
mean what they need is some fertilizer
they need better seeds they don’t
necessarily need GMO crops right now
they can double and triple their yields
by just using more modern farming
techniques which AI D is helping them on
which extent they’re building extension
systems and so to large parts of the
world these are not necessarily issues
that relate to them as Danielle said on
the other hand we you know there’s an
ideologue there’s an ideology out there
about this it’s like you’re either for
or against GMOs kind of on your on the
left or you on the right the fact the
matter is is that it’s why we need a
supple research budget to look at all
these things to examine the options now
if we’re facing climate change in global
warming which I think we are we’re going
to see a lot more plant disease we’re
going to see a lot less water and we’ve
got to can’t just reject the options
that are out there to grow more food
with less water and have plants that are
more less susceptible to stress and
disease we’ve got because of lack of a
lot of genetic diversity we’ve got some
crops out there like wheat that are very
susceptible to a worldwide plant
epidemic of disease so you’re going to
need some technologies new technologies
and just to say no GMOs is just to close
the door on science which is a terrible
thing for us to do for the population
this world it’s going to need to eat
reliably in a vastly changing world with
vastly changing climate yeah let’s maybe
we can stay with climate because you
you’ve mentioned one thing that we could
do perhaps in response to a change in
climate the the most recent report
that’s come out of the IPCC is not the
most encouraging it indicates that
greenhouse gases are increasing faster
than we thought and that it is possible
that we could exceed that 2 degrees
centigrade ceiling that we hoped we
would never
passthrough what else can we do as we
begin to approach this this uncertain
you better change the politics of this
in fact I’m involved with Chicago
Council on global affairs we’re going to
have a symposium on this in Washington
two weeks to talk about climate change
and weather variability but in this
country the politics divide the country
almost in half whether you believe
climate change is real or whether you
believe it’s not real and then the
process we’re gridlocked on these issues
on issues of for example how we deal
with carbon emissions and and I think
most farmers out in the countryside know
that something’s happening weather is
changing it’s getting warmer and drier
and the weather is more volatile than it
used to be now whether this is because
of the natural evolution of of weather
in climate whether it’s because of more
carbon emission in the atmosphere
whether it’s man-made caused or whether
it’s natural it’s happening so we have
to deal with it and what’s happening is
is that the United States I think has
been stuck on these issues because of
the politics and the ideology of climate
change and therefore we haven’t been as
participatory in the rest of the world
it it is it’s been looking at these
things at the same time I think there
are a lot of folks in the u.s. feel that
maybe some other folks look at this from
an ideological perspective and not from
good science perspective but and I you
know I understand that but I would hope
that maybe one of the things that come
come out of this conference and out of
the series that National Geographic is
going to do is is a kind of description
of the problems of weather and climate
in a way where the American people can
understand it better becomes less
political less ideological and a little
more objective in terms of discussion
back to you again Dan the the role of
research I actually had a question on
that you raised it you’ve raised it
several times now what do we do about
that how do we find the resources that
are necessary to have a robust research
and scientific paper thought that if we
put all agriculture research within the
Department of Defense
we would get funny money you know but uh
you know or the National Institutes of
Health you know you know ultimately you
got to get political support for this we
have you know good research institutions
but the level of research in agriculture
and food and real dollars has been going
down the company’s a lot of the big
companies do a lot of their own research
but that does Jack and I were talking
about before that doesn’t deal with some
of the basic issues plant genetics
understanding growth patterns that we
need to do so it just needs to be a
higher priority within the agriculture
world and the food world and one final
thing in the last farm bill when we had
it took three years to get this farm
bill passed there was virtually no
discussion of research none the
discussion was almost always on what was
going to be the payments to farmers
under the existing programs and so as we
talk about these issues today in the
United States we need to kind of and
I’ve been a big advocate of farm
programs over the years and I’m from
Kansas and we have been a beneficiary of
a lot of this program but then
agriculture itself we have to look these
issues much broader and much more
holistically than just how much each
farmer is going to get in payments from
Uncle Sam yeah under Feed the Future we
have the United States government has
increased its investment in research an
agricultural research for the countries
in which we serve dramatically and a lot
of that a lot of how we’re trying to get
more out of our investment dollars is
through collaboration so we work very
intensively with the US University
community we have a series of it we have
23 innovation labs that seek to leverage
US innovation and expertise also in
partnerships with private companies so
DuPont or Monsanto may be developing
drought tolerant varieties for rich
farmers we as government’s can work with
them to also adapt those technologies
for poorer farmers we also are investing
a tremendous amount in working with
local countries to invest their own
local agricultural research institutes
because we need in developing countries
we need those research institutes to be
doing cutting-edge science on the crops
and the pests and the different things
that affect their agriculture so it is
really an integral part of
a program and something we’re really
connecting scientists as well as
increasing the investment we think will
have huge dividends uh yeah it’s not
only connecting scientists which is so
important but connecting scientists to
farmers on the ground who are actually
doing the work and that’s why
participatory research is so important
you know and engaging those farmers and
you know helping us understand what they
need rather than telling them what they
want in so many cases I also think it’s
important on the research side to
recognize you know some some groups that
may not be traditional scientific
research institutes or universities you
know the rodeo Institute who I think is
here somewhere in the audience today has
been doing these 30 year studies of how
to really not just you know adapt to
climate change and mitigate climate
change but also you know really turn
back climate change through some of
their work on soils so I think that’s
important to understand and I’m sure
Jerry Glover who’s on the next panel
will talk about the important work that
the land institute has been doing for
many years so it’s it’s important to
really you know for lack of a better
phrase to think outside the box when
we’re talking about research it’s not
you know just always scientists and labs
it’s it’s a lot of the work that needs
to be done in fields and kitchens all
over all over the world so from from our
point of view we’ve got a program called
the future of food which is a we didn’t
copy National Geographic but we look at
where we’re gonna be five years from now
in terms of what we need to source
globally and it always comes back to how
are we going to use our resources more
effectively so if you go to a country
like Israel and see how they are
developing their technologies to utilize
water more effectively it’s it’s
astonishing to see the kind of drip
irrigation and innovation that’s coming
in terms of a rootless one centimeter
from the other gets more water than the
other depending on what it needs from
its nutrients and providing capital
solutions with that kind of research so
in order to fulfill our needs going
forward we’re signing a number of
research agreements we’ve done it with
two institutes and ezreal we’re doing
some working in holland how do you
create the technology to make it more
efficient for us to produce more
but cheaper I don’t pretend to
understand how the politics of this’ll
all play out but ultimately we we think
that research please the fundamental
rule and the research I’m talking about
one step removed from the research that
I think needs to go on to really truly
get us agriculture where it needs to be
going forward because it’s always been
if you think about something at Norland
norman borlaug one of the great
americans who transformed agriculture
from what he did we need that kind of
fieldwork that went on behind that and
the combination of the science and
technology that goes to make that work
more effectively and anything we can do
to encourage on anything all of you can
do can encourage that I think will make
a significant difference to the US and
to the capacity for the planet to feed
its population great ok now for the hard
part of the day we’re going to take
questions from the audience we’ve been
trying to warm them up and give them
time to think about what they want to
ask we have time for a few questions and
somebody has a microphone that they’ll
be bringing around I see someone right
down here
thank you David Lambert great panel I
get the sense from what I’ve read
recently and what I’ve heard today that
the political alliance is on climate
change you’re about to change really
dramatically when Walmart has trouble
sourcing food and Nike can’t source
cotton and coca-cola can’t source water
and citrus is industry our company is
beginning to think we may be on the
wrong side of this fight and will that
help raise awareness in Congress about
climate change
well my judgment is if you ask me what
most who is the most important force in
the world today on agriculture I point
to Walmart not the United States
government not the United Nations and
Walmart and others not just you know
pressure
because their ability to listen to their
consumers and then to source product
based upon what they think is in their
interest which is becoming more
sustainability better working conditions
better water better treatment of growers
and climate they can have this powerful
impact they and others like them and I
think it’s happening now and the US
government and others may be following
behind not leading in this regard I
think it’s important that the
corporation’s I think the thing I said
surely we convene well must get the
power of convening we don’t do anything
else but buy things and sell things but
we’ve got a power of convening and the
opportunity that we had this week in
bentonville with coca-cola and Monsanto
and Cargill and the dairy farmers of
america and a number of other people to
say what are the key issues and
agricultural inputs are one of the key
issues facing all of us the scarcity of
that and the impact that using it in a
button with over-indulgence the impact
that’s having on climate change and then
the impact that’s having the opportunity
made a number all made a number of
commitments behind that I think they all
play a key role within it but I do think
the government’s got a big role to play
in terms of how you can support the
whole industry and add that back to this
research and the science and supporting
science I don’t again I don’t pretend to
understand the politics of it and I
think it is too polarizing but it seems
to me that primary research has got a
really key role to help organizations
like coca-cola and PepsiCo and Walmart
be more effective of what we do as well
so do we have time for another couple of
questions yeah yeah okay anyone else oh
there’s somebody with a hand up right
there hi thank you for this wonderful
forum my name is helen damballa
I am with the National Farm to School
Network and we’re talking a lot about
the future of food and part of the
future is our children so farm to school
is not just about getting local
farm-fresh products into schools which
you know reduces food miles gives
farmers a bigger share of the dollar
supports Community Economic Development
but it’s also about school gardens
and educational curriculum so it’s not
trying to teach every kid to want to be
a farmer granted we do have an aging
population of farmers in this country
almost 58 years old so we do need some
kids to want to be farmers but it’s
knowing that the future generation are
our future eaters our future researchers
so I’m curious if any of you are looking
at that that younger generation and
considering the importance of educating
children in the work that all of you do
or it perhaps if that’s part of what
National Geographic is looking at thank
you
anybody care done absolutely it’s a
really important part of three tanks
work we want to cultivate the next
generation of agricultural leaders and
as you said that’s not just farmers
it’s well-informed eaters it’s food
scientists and researchers which you
know especially women and girls we want
to encourage them to partake more in
that that sort of work we want to help
entrepreneurs in the food system really
get the the resources and the tools they
need to be good at for businesses small
and large and so I think without that as
you said you know the the average age of
farmers according to the latest AG
census is fifty eight point three years
old in the United States it’s gone up
since the last one in sub-saharan Africa
it’s roughly 57 years old so we have
this aging population of people who are
providing food for all of us and so how
do we you know how do we capitalize on
programs like yours where you’re
teaching kids to appreciate food you’re
teaching them how to grow it you’re
probably teaching them how to cook it
you’re teaching them how to share it
these are all important things for
really the future food for us all and
I’d say 4-h does an amazing job and now
more and more in urban areas get your
local school districts all over the
country to really get involved in this I
think the transparency of food and
making making us all passionate about
how foods grown and how foods produced
and inspiring children can inspire all
of us in terms of the real passion for
that when they get involved in it and I
think there’s a lot more we can all do
and I think the food industry needs to
become much more transparent about how
it
things and what it does things and be
very comfortable with letting people in
our farms and letting people on our farm
you know see how things are grow and see
how animals are raised and and there’s
some there’s some real opportunities I
think for all of us to get banged that
this is a question from Twitter user
modern farmer he asks how do we make
sure that relevant technologies reach
rural farmers for increased in quality
production if I understand the question
correctly that’s historically been a big
in the u.s. it’s been a big role of
extension through the land-grant college
movement to get education on modern
techniques and agriculture food
production nutrition to farmers and to
local folks more urban and rural and I
know that AI D is very actively involved
in this whole concept of extension and
using this model this amazing model that
was developed during the administration
of Abraham Lincoln that changed America
profoundly and some of those same
techniques are just applicable all over
the world yeah exactly so and we’re
looking at a variety of extension so
there’s there’s a lot of private company
extension there’s still government
extension agencies that we need to beef
up as well as like using your people’s
cell phones as extension tools radio is
extension to lots of ways to promote and
disseminate technologies more a
corollary to that that’s actually also
very important is making sure there’s
equitable access to those technologies
so those technologies are available to
women in those rural committee
communities that the women’s use of
those technologies is thought of when
those technologies are designed so we
promote them and we think about ways to
disseminate them but also making sure
that they are available to women and
that accessible to women is a big part
of adoption and really getting it out
there yeah okay I’m afraid that’s gonna
be the last word I want to thank this
panel you guys did a great job
give them a hand
you
Garcia and I’m the chief science and
exploration officer here at National
Geographic and this is our first panel
it’s entitled food security in an
insecure world and you know in a world
that’s buffeted by change environmental
political demographic the question is
how do we feed a growing population and
we have four experts here who are going
to tell us how so starting at the far
end from me is Dan Glickman who is
co-chair of how do you pronounce this is
it agree or agree whatever makes you
happy
well I said Audrey I like the a capital
G all right agree which connects leaders
around the world with food and
agricultural issues he’s the executive
director of the Aspen Institute
congressional program which seeks to
educate congress which i think is a good
thing members he was a member of
Congress for 18 years US Secretary of
Agriculture and chairman of the Motion
Picture Association of America so held
some of the coolest jobs in Washington
tjada mckenna next to Dan is deputy
coordinator for developments at the US
Feed the Future initiative of USAID
she’s also acting an assistant
administrator of USAID x’ bureau for
food security she’s held senior
positions at the Gates Foundation
Monsanto and the McKenzie and company
Danielle Nierenberg is co-founder and
president of food tank it’s described as
the food think tank for the seven
billion who have to eat each day she is
an author and co-author of a number of
books that range from topics such as
gender and population factory farming
and the developing world and sustainable
agriculture she’s traveled extensively
in her job some 30 plus countries
sub-saharan Africa Asia Latin America
and was a Peace Corps volunteer in the
Dominican Republic and then next to me
is Jackson Claire who is the executive
vice president of the grocery division
at Walmart us he has responsive
ability for Walmart’s grocery
merchandising at more than 4,000 stores
throughout the United States he’s been
in the retail food business since 1982
holding senior positions at Tesco and
Safeway among others so let’s start with
an easy question first a softball for
you guys
Jonathan says that it’s unlikely that we
can double food production so what is it
going to take to meet the nutritional
needs of an additional two billion
people in the next 40 years given that
we’re not even coming close at this
point so maybe I’ll start with Dan first
of all thanks to National Geographic
can you imagine 20 or 30 years ago
having this conversation food and
agriculture and diet they finally made
it to the level where energy and war and
peace and other issues have been at the
top so that’s really a terrific thing
and but to answer your question what’s
it going to take in addition to the
issues that John talked about and more
funding for research basic research
especially but research on water on
sustainability on drought on nutrition I
mean we’ve let our funding schemes for
the research budget and for agriculture
and food fall rather dramatically and
that’s that’s what’s built this industry
and our ability to feed the world but
but let me just say two things one is
I’m an old politician so politics is
such a foundational issue for everything
that John and Denis talked about
politics and America
politics worldwide I was just in Japan
and Japan has got a different system of
Agriculture that they’re working their
darndest to protect and it’s a very very
small scale agriculture you look at
agriculture in the United States you
look at agriculture in Europe and and
these issues dominate the way policies
are made and so if we’re going to really
address this these issues then the
political leaders have to be part of the
game and to date they really haven’t
been very much part of the game the
second is governance in these countries
if we’re going to make real strides
we’ve got to have systems of governance
that allow people small holder farmers
average people consumers have impact
into the policies and and all
so the democracies to the best extent
possible can flourish so that decisions
are not made just because what’s the
rich and powerful think or just only
because what’s in the best interest of
the poor but for all the population as a
whole so politics governance and
research I’ve got more things to say but
I think that that has as much to do with
this as anything else one final thing
there’s an issue that hasn’t been
mentioned by anybody here and that’s the
issue of health if you believe you are
what you eat and you watching the amount
of non communicable diseases
dramatically rise all over the world
cardiovascular diabetes health related
diseases in almost every context they’re
due to what you eat or what you don’t
eat so the politics of food is also
related very much the politics of health
yeah Jay did you want to yeah I
absolutely agree with Dan and and I’d
like to answer that question from a
different dimension and that is the
dimension of the individual farmer so in
our work every day we think about the
eight hundred and sixty million people
that go to bed hungry every night most
of them are small farmers predominately
women who are working the land every day
for their food so what does that mean
for them they need the access to the
research and the technologies that Dan
mentioned they need to be able to have
the better crop varieties and the other
tools to get as much out of their land
as possible they need access to
information about nutrition and other
behavioral change things so that they
can get more calories from what they’re
eating they need a lot of small scale
solutions like local storage and things
that they don’t waste the food that they
have but they also need better safety
nets and other things that help them to
be more resilient and to plan and to be
able to do more in in lean times whether
that be crop insurance which is the
thing that most American farmers take
for granted or just even access to
savings account and finance to buy food
when when there is a lean season
Danielle did you Karen I would echo a
lot of what Dan and Jada said but I
think we also need to start investing in
the things that we already know work you
know we’ve had this practice of
agricultural abandonment for 30 or 40
years now where we completely ignored
small-scale farmers we ignored
agriculture and then you know
food crisis of 2007 and 2008 hit you
know that really hasn’t gone away and
we’re interested in agriculture again
because we’re scared we see food riots
we see people really suffering and who
have long been ignored so investing in
things like nutrient-dense crops and not
the starchy staple crops that have
gotten so much investment over the last
three or four decades investing in the
things that actually nourish people will
go a long way in solving some of these
problems
things that you know Jada mentioned you
know investing in women women make up 43
percent of the agricultural labor force
and yet get very little in terms of
services they don’t have access to
education or extension services they
don’t have access to financial services
or credit and and they they don’t get
access to inputs and some of the
services that male farmers do and if if
we can give them those services and find
ways to create that access IFA predicts
that we could lift 100 to 150 million
people out of hunger and poverty so
those are some steps that need to be
taken and Jack yeah first of all thanks
to National Geographic for what they’re
doing it I really think it’s terrific
they’ve always National Geographic to me
when I was a little boy was always a
window in the world and I think putting
a window in the world of this issue is a
really important one so I really
appreciate the fact that we’ve all be
pulled together here when it comes to
how we think about the challenge of
sourcing the amount of food that Walmart
we sell more food than anybody else our
big challenges how do we source more of
that food and we think the challenge
that we face are trying to buy a lot
more food kind of mirrors the challenge
of how do we create more food for the
world and it really is I thought some of
the the discussion that we had just a
moment ago some of the things that
you’ve all talked about how do we create
more food more efficiently as we look at
the challenge of buying a billion pounds
more bananas between now and 2018 how
are we going to use water more
effectively how are we going to use the
the resources of the planet more
effectively to produce that we
fundamentally believe technology plays a
huge role in that the role of technology
at trying to make
food more efficient and more efficiently
produced we think fundamentally those
opportunities to use areas of the world
where there is fertile land available to
produce we think in the United States
about the Mississippi River Delta the
opportunity to produce more food in that
environment and those opportunities
within the local farming to within the
local farming movement which are very
supportive of how to create more crops
closer to where we sell the food that we
want to produce and the other point I
think is really important is the food
waste point food waste is such a kind of
it’s all morally bankrupt the amount of
food waste that happens in the in the
world and part of the issues are small
issues of what happens in consumers
homes there’s some packaging
opportunities in that as ways of of we
as a consumer company making some
improvement there those challenges in
terms of the supply chain
how do products travel such a long way
in the waste that’s involved in that
traveling those ways of doing that more
efficiently going forward and we’re
thinking about that and then there’s
some pretty big things I they had the
opportunity to be in Peru last last week
which is a fascinating country a real
natural greenhouse where the cooling
airs of the Antarctic me they’re a very
warm country appropriate for a lot of
agriculture growth but irrigation
schemes that allow the deserts to turn
into blueberry fields and asparagus
fields astonishing to watch but you need
roads
you need airports you need ports to
enable some of that product to get to
the cut to get to the consumer so we’re
getting last waste if you look to the
chart there India’s an amazingly fertile
country it’s astonishing the amount of
food that’s produced in India and then
wasted because it just can’t get to
market because the infrastructure aren’t
there which downlinks a lot to the
politics of how do we create the
politics to create the infrastructure
and I think USAID and some of the what
you guys are doing to try and make that
come alive it’s going to be important
going forward good good
right now you’re very ambitious let’s
maybe we stick with how do you source
more food and I’d like to get your
comments on this this growing phenomenon
that we’re seeing of rich countries
buying or it’s been called renting food
poor ones to increase their own food
supply and how big an issue is that or
problem and if it is what do we do about
it and I think I’ll start with Jada it’s
done correctly it’s an opportunity if it
provides a market for for food from
these countries and allows more income
for the people that are benefiting from
that trade to then be able to buy other
food locally that that’s appropriate
where it’s irresponsible is where people
think of the plan grabs and that and
that is something that there’s a lot
more transparency needed in terms of
what’s happening where land is going
more responsible land tenure systems and
there are other safeguards that we need
to put in place to prevent that from you
know if you were if you’re from China
and you’re looking down the road you
have 1.3 billion people and you want to
keep those people happy and not marching
in Beijing the Great Hall the people
then you’re going to kind of figure out
how you’re going to feed these people in
the future well you’re going to buy a
lot from like the United States and
elsewhere which they do but you’re also
going to try to source that as much as
you possibly can and so they’re out
Latin America and East Africa and other
places buying a lot of land and it’s a
problem I have to tell you it because
often with those purchases do not go
good farming practices good
sustainability practices and democracy
building activities so it’s got to
really be watched carefully and folks
like the UN University people we need to
make sure we have the data on this so
people see it happening but on the other
hand the fact that matter is we’re
telling people to eat more fruits and
vegetables you know I wish we could grow
them all in the United States but then
let until global warming really hits us
we’re not going to be able to grow as as
much blueberries and tangerines and
citrus and avocados and other things in
the United States so we’re going to have
to buy those elsewhere and there’s a
great opportunity I think as long as
we’re fair in our trade practices and as
long as we try to build up working
conditions in places where we buy
because we buy coffee almost everywhere
in the world and a lot of the companies
are in fact doing a better job of making
sure that people are treated well there
is we’ve got to make sure as we buy
these that we
encourage sustainable practices in the
process and if we do that then we can
build up those countries and not tear
them down this is an opportunity for
groups like the rainforest alliance who
works very closely with smallholder
farmers all over the world to put those
practices in place so that both the
farmers are getting a fair price for
what they’re growing and we as eaters
can feel good about it so that we don’t
because there’s not this transparency in
the food system that we would all like
you know these these sorts of Fairtrade
standard and certification programs are
very important and the rainforest
alliance really does this better than
anyone so I certainly think transparency
is gonna help all of us I think there
that the inevitability is we are we have
to source food from all over the world
you go no matter how good your local
program is we have to buy bananas from
Costa Rica it is just the way it is and
that’s because and people want to buy
that we’ll always be standing for giving
people choice to buy or anything that
they want to buy and finding a way of
creating availability for customers
within that context we have to try and
do it as efficiently as we can an
efficiency often comes from sharing best
practice it’s really interesting when
you look at things like the use of
fertilizer if we could use less
fertilizer I think the world will be in
a better place for carbon emissions and
the impact on on climate but it’s quite
interesting in certain parts of the
world it’s being used very efficiently
another part of the world not being used
efficiently how can I think there’s
opportunities for us to learn in terms
of what’s happening in one place and
applying in other places which actually
well I think strengthen food security
going forward
and actually hopefully bring price of
food down one of the challenges that we
we always think about is as we try and
get to food security what is the impact
on the price for the customer because
the biggest threat to food security is
if the price of commodity price of foods
go up and people literally get dragged
into hunger so the thought that the
forces that try and bring the price of
food down to drive efficiency is a very
important force to ensure that we get
the
security of the food that we need can I
just mention one u.s. farm policy let’s
bring a little bit down to earth for
years and years if you were a US farmer
and you wanted a subsidy from the
government and you planted one of the
major crops wheat corn cotton rice and
soybeans
you were given a crop base you could
grow on that but you couldn’t grow
anything else on that so if you wanted
to grow peaches or pears or tomatoes on
your weak base now this is modern
America this isn’t 19th century or 20th
century Russia this is America you
couldn’t plant those crops or else you’d
lose all your payments on your base of
wheat corn cotton rice and soybeans so
what did that mean that meant that vast
areas of the country that could be
planted to alternative crops in addition
to the base crops couldn’t because a
farmer couldn’t do it this farm bill
changed that a little bit it also
allowed for the first time to buy risk
management and crop insurance on new
crops so I mean it’s just kind of a
simple thing that you know you tried it
want to bring as much flexibility into
the American folk I’m just I’m an
American farm world the European farm
world is even far more complicated and
rigid in the American farm world but
just a thing that maybe that will help
us realize we can grow a lot of things
in this country that we haven’t been
growing and I think that I as the price
of energy continues to rise there’s more
opportunities to have more local
production it’s really interesting in in
Arkansas which used to be I’m from
Arkansas you can tell from my Arkansas
used to grow a lot of the nation’s
apples and because the soil in
Washington is better and it’s easier to
grow up there won’t arraign it but
apples started to produced a huge volume
and a lot of second third generation are
Kansans our own Washington grown apples
as the price of energy changes that
bringing it across the country it’s not
changes not drives I think that’s going
to be one of the economic drivers to get
more local production of crops are
perfectly perfectly high-quality and can
be done the right way
closer to home yeah I’m at you know I
think the the drought that hit the
Midwest in the 2012 in 2012 and the
drought that’s occurring in California
right now is making farmers and eaters
sort of rethink
production you know because the crops
that they could grow you know 10 or 15
years ago aren’t going there they might
not be able to grow them 10 or 15 years
from now and this is a real opportunity
for us to learn what you know from small
farmers in the developing world have
been adapting to variations in weather
and climate change for a while now
they’ve they’ve been able to change
their practices and we have a lot to
learn from them it’s it’s not always the
other way around where we have you know
we can teach them something that we can
also learn from them okay so Jonathan
mentioned in his opening remarks that we
also have to change behavior you know
how and and what we eat and at the
beginning of this panel we talked about
the fact that we have a growing
population two billion more people are
going to be added but we’re also seeing
this other phenomenon of massive
urbanization around the world where in
many cases you’re going to have a richer
population demanding more food how is
that going to impact this this dialogue
that we’re having now this issue we’re
looking at the opportunities that that
creates so for one of the things that
we’re trying to do is keep rural
environments healthy and strong and to
provide good livelihoods for rural
producers in the developing world so
those urban markets become a source of
that those are markets for those farmers
so we’re looking for transport solutions
and storage solutions to get to them I
mean the other piece of that behavior
changes as we know and as Jonathan
talked about as consumers get more
income their diets change or they begin
to think things that they might have had
back in the village and a field like the
indigenous vegetables that were grown
there all of a sudden aren’t good enough
well they’re great enough they’re much
healthier than some of the other things
that they might replace those things
with so I think there is this there’s
this continuing education and behavior
change dynamic especially for the urban
populations occur further away but also
as the rural economies grow convincing
those rule that the some of the foods
that you were eating before like sorghum
are these leafy green indigenous
vegetables they’re still great foods
that you should continue to eat and
that we should continue to be marketing
an urban environment you know you know
I’ve got this everybody I’m sure
everybody in this room has one of these
things I just came back from Guatemala
and Honduras on a care sponsored trip
I saw more cell towers in Guatemala than
I’ve seen in the United States they’re
everywhere the the ability to access the
internet it was better outside of
Guatemala City than any place in
Washington DC that I was at ok and so
what does that mean I mean that has a
powerful factor in terms of information
ability to communicate understanding
what’s happening and giving consumers
more power everywhere even poor
consumers so so the democratization of
the food movement is I think very
consistent with new technologies and it
will allow a lot more ability for the
consumers to demand things that they
want and I think that’s a big factor in
this whole area that it’s somebody said
I think John said it’s not all bleak
well part of its not bleak because
people have the ability to access
information everywhere but it does
present a problem because if the world
is rapidly urbanizing and if 70% of the
water is going to feed crops how do you
think the people in urban areas are
going to react when they can’t get water
what do you think that Chinese
government is going to do to try to
quell let’s say disturbances on the
ground when people can’t get water and
so I do think that as we talk about this
issue of urbanization and we are going
to see more farmers markets more growing
of crops locally somebody said they were
going to be growing more crops on
building roofs and all that things it’s
possible I hope so
but it does present a enormous potential
conflict of water rights and the ability
of consumers in cities to have water and
the ability of farmers to go crops and
raise animals to have water that is an
enormous challenge with regard to
urbanization I think one of the things
that’s quite access to food is not that
good in the urban markets of the United
States not that far not far from where
we’re sitting here to know here just
know does not greet access to
high-quality fresh foods if you go to
Chicago and Los Angeles New York it’s
not easy to access
well priced affordable fresh fruits and
that’s certainly when certainly that’s
an important part of some of the things
we’re trying to do at Walmart and
building some stores and in urban areas
we’ve got to pretty close to here
they’ve opened in the last year and part
of that is how do we bring access we’ve
been very encouraged by the the Let’s
Move program that Michelle Obama worked
on we’ve been trying to support that you
know in a very proactive way some of the
things about changing people’s diets you
can only do so much people have to
choose but the one thing we can do is
make sure price is not a determining
factor in people choosing unhealthy
diets / healthy diets so simple things
like high sodium soups against low
sodium soups why can we not at least
have them at the same price it tends to
be that the low sodium versions or the
the lower sugar versions are the lower
fat versions tend to be more expensive
than they stand and we’re doing a lot of
work to try and equalize so the choice
that people make is based on the choice
that they want to make from the diets
point of view not based on price and too
often there’s not enough access to
healthy foods fresh foods at the right
prices and that’s something that I think
we can make a difference on and just to
go back to both Dan and Jada’s point
about different kinds of foods and and
water again for me it really gets back
to this investment that needs to happen
in in in different kinds of crops and
nutrient dense crops and perhaps that
can preserve water resources that it can
enhance soils and you know it takes some
education and awareness about these
indigenous foods that people have looked
down upon because they consider them
poor people’s foods or weeds and you
know it’s very interesting when you walk
into you know a market or a small
grocery store in Dakar Abita John you’ll
you’ll see very few products actually
produced you know from Senegal or Cote
d’Ivoire in in those markets in those
grocery stores so really sort of having
a program to really help people value
the food that they grow up on the foods
that are regional and local that are
culturally
over it and again nutrient-dense and
diverse that can really help I think a
lot in urban areas so let’s move to a
non-controversial topic what and I’d
like to hear from each of you what’s the
role of genetically modified plants and
and should we be seeking to improve
genetic features and characteristics of
crops let’s watch the star question
coming George saw yeah yeah um
technology’s got a key role to play in
terms of driving efficiency and driving
the economics of producing food more
effectively and more to enable us to
produce more food with less resources
when I had a really interesting
conversation with a farmer from Illinois
this week it was Dana we convened a
group of people together at in
Bentonville and Gilad CEOs from Monsanto
and PepsiCo and made some commitments
very specific commitments in their in
the agriculture space and how we can
reduce greenhouse gases and a number of
things and the conversation we had with
the with a farmer a second thought
generation farmer from Illinois family
farm showed his picture of all his of
all his children and his grandchildren
and what he talked about was and he very
specifically made the plea please talk
please don’t tell me I can’t use
genetically modified crops Walmart a
genetic genetic Lee modified materials
Walmart because my son and my grandsons
are able to produce food without
spraying insecticides which I had to do
and I want to be able to spray I want
them to be able to not have to use
insecticides so the benefits of GM there
are real benefits of GM it’s not the
panacea to any of the challenges of
producing food in the world and I think
some of the initiatives in smallholders
and making sure we go back to some of
the principles that worked really
effectively in agriculture over many
centuries are really important as well
and it can’t be a very simple solution
that says GM’s are all the answer and GM
not the answer it’s incredibly
polarizing issue but I think that a
middle ground that makes sense
of maximising the production of food
that we can get from scarce resources
making the environment a better place
going forward while using them
effectively while not abandoning all the
other sensible and creative ways that we
can make food more efficient so before I
leave you could could you just come in
on how Walmart is addressing this in
terms of educating the public for or
against on the on this issue well it’s
it’s we don’t see it as a rule to
educate the public we work we will stand
for choice we’ll put products in front
of people and give them the choice and
we’re expanding our organic we think the
best way for customers to access non-gmo
products which the which a lot of them
want to do is for us to provide a much
broader organic assortment we’ve made an
announcement the last two or three weeks
where we’re going to launch a brand
called wild oats where the pricing of
organic is going to be the same pricing
is conventional so people can access
organic food and that’s I think the best
way for a customer that’s got a very
clear view that they don’t want GM in
the food to enable them to access that
comfortably without having to pay a
premium for it anybody else on sure uh
you know there’s no question that that
agricultural biotechnology is very
interesting and sexy and it creates
obviously a lot of controversy for me
who’s someone who has had this
incredible opportunity to talk to
hundreds of farmers and farmers groups
all over the world for me to what it
comes down to is is biotechnology and
agriculture living up to its promises
and in some cases I think it’s not
conventional yields versus organic
yields versus biotech yields are pretty
much the same and often organic comes
out ahead and and you know again because
of my experience you know my question is
always is this helping improve the lives
of small farmers are they getting
greater income are they eating more
diverse foods are they able to you know
really just improve their overall
livelihoods and and for me I haven’t
seen that I think there may be potential
there but again it really comes down to
investing and what we already know works
the things that are sort of below hang
fruit in the food system the the things
that John Foley talked about a little
while ago food waste is the low-hanging
fruit where we’re wasting or losing you
know it at least thirty percent of all
the food that is produced but there are
very simple measures that farmers can
take to prevent food loss from from
field you know to market to fork very
low cost inexpensive things that can be
done from better drying techniques to
better cooling and storage systems to
very simple things like roads and so if
we’re going to invest in something I
think it should be those things and
instead of just you know looking at and
again I think it’s a very interesting
and it could be a potential solution but
we have to make these changes now we
have to feed people now and we have to
really find ways to do that better
the US has is is home to some of the
largest areas of organic production in
the world as well as some of the largest
areas of GMO and conventional production
in the world and what that’s and that’s
because of choice farmer small holder
farmers have to be able to make the
choice of what’s good for their climate
for their soils what kind of farming is
best for them and consumers are making
choices about what kind of food they
want to eat genetically genetic
engineering has a lot of 10 provides is
an important tool and can do things to
enhance the nutrient of crops it can
also enhance the production of crops and
so it’s an important tool in the tool
kit it’s not a magic bullet but it’s
certainly one that people deserve to
have access to the choice and and to
have a full array of tools in front of
them to decide what’s the best solution
for their farming system if their
farmers if their consumers what’s the
best solution for what I want to eat
well I’m a little bit like Jack I’m kind
of in the middle of the road on this I
recall there was an Ag Commissioner in
Texas named Jim hi ter and he said the
only thing in the middle of the road is
a yellow stripe and a dead armadillo
okay
so and probably Jack and I you know I
have complained to some of the seed
companies that the traits that they’ve
produced don’t seem to benefit consumers
I’ve said if you maybe make some traits
that would grow hair in addition to
resisting end
maybe Jack and I would but here’s the
deal okay so I was down and I Guatemala
Honduras visiting smallholder farmers I
mean what they need is some fertilizer
they need better seeds they don’t
necessarily need GMO crops right now
they can double and triple their yields
by just using more modern farming
techniques which AI D is helping them on
which extent they’re building extension
systems and so to large parts of the
world these are not necessarily issues
that relate to them as Danielle said on
the other hand we you know there’s an
ideologue there’s an ideology out there
about this it’s like you’re either for
or against GMOs kind of on your on the
left or you on the right the fact the
matter is is that it’s why we need a
supple research budget to look at all
these things to examine the options now
if we’re facing climate change in global
warming which I think we are we’re going
to see a lot more plant disease we’re
going to see a lot less water and we’ve
got to can’t just reject the options
that are out there to grow more food
with less water and have plants that are
more less susceptible to stress and
disease we’ve got because of lack of a
lot of genetic diversity we’ve got some
crops out there like wheat that are very
susceptible to a worldwide plant
epidemic of disease so you’re going to
need some technologies new technologies
and just to say no GMOs is just to close
the door on science which is a terrible
thing for us to do for the population
this world it’s going to need to eat
reliably in a vastly changing world with
vastly changing climate yeah let’s maybe
we can stay with climate because you
you’ve mentioned one thing that we could
do perhaps in response to a change in
climate the the most recent report
that’s come out of the IPCC is not the
most encouraging it indicates that
greenhouse gases are increasing faster
than we thought and that it is possible
that we could exceed that 2 degrees
centigrade ceiling that we hoped we
would never
passthrough what else can we do as we
begin to approach this this uncertain
you better change the politics of this
in fact I’m involved with Chicago
Council on global affairs we’re going to
have a symposium on this in Washington
two weeks to talk about climate change
and weather variability but in this
country the politics divide the country
almost in half whether you believe
climate change is real or whether you
believe it’s not real and then the
process we’re gridlocked on these issues
on issues of for example how we deal
with carbon emissions and and I think
most farmers out in the countryside know
that something’s happening weather is
changing it’s getting warmer and drier
and the weather is more volatile than it
used to be now whether this is because
of the natural evolution of of weather
in climate whether it’s because of more
carbon emission in the atmosphere
whether it’s man-made caused or whether
it’s natural it’s happening so we have
to deal with it and what’s happening is
is that the United States I think has
been stuck on these issues because of
the politics and the ideology of climate
change and therefore we haven’t been as
participatory in the rest of the world
it it is it’s been looking at these
things at the same time I think there
are a lot of folks in the u.s. feel that
maybe some other folks look at this from
an ideological perspective and not from
good science perspective but and I you
know I understand that but I would hope
that maybe one of the things that come
come out of this conference and out of
the series that National Geographic is
going to do is is a kind of description
of the problems of weather and climate
in a way where the American people can
understand it better becomes less
political less ideological and a little
more objective in terms of discussion
back to you again Dan the the role of
research I actually had a question on
that you raised it you’ve raised it
several times now what do we do about
that how do we find the resources that
are necessary to have a robust research
and scientific paper thought that if we
put all agriculture research within the
Department of Defense
we would get funny money you know but uh
you know or the National Institutes of
Health you know you know ultimately you
got to get political support for this we
have you know good research institutions
but the level of research in agriculture
and food and real dollars has been going
down the company’s a lot of the big
companies do a lot of their own research
but that does Jack and I were talking
about before that doesn’t deal with some
of the basic issues plant genetics
understanding growth patterns that we
need to do so it just needs to be a
higher priority within the agriculture
world and the food world and one final
thing in the last farm bill when we had
it took three years to get this farm
bill passed there was virtually no
discussion of research none the
discussion was almost always on what was
going to be the payments to farmers
under the existing programs and so as we
talk about these issues today in the
United States we need to kind of and
I’ve been a big advocate of farm
programs over the years and I’m from
Kansas and we have been a beneficiary of
a lot of this program but then
agriculture itself we have to look these
issues much broader and much more
holistically than just how much each
farmer is going to get in payments from
Uncle Sam yeah under Feed the Future we
have the United States government has
increased its investment in research an
agricultural research for the countries
in which we serve dramatically and a lot
of that a lot of how we’re trying to get
more out of our investment dollars is
through collaboration so we work very
intensively with the US University
community we have a series of it we have
23 innovation labs that seek to leverage
US innovation and expertise also in
partnerships with private companies so
DuPont or Monsanto may be developing
drought tolerant varieties for rich
farmers we as government’s can work with
them to also adapt those technologies
for poorer farmers we also are investing
a tremendous amount in working with
local countries to invest their own
local agricultural research institutes
because we need in developing countries
we need those research institutes to be
doing cutting-edge science on the crops
and the pests and the different things
that affect their agriculture so it is
really an integral part of
a program and something we’re really
connecting scientists as well as
increasing the investment we think will
have huge dividends uh yeah it’s not
only connecting scientists which is so
important but connecting scientists to
farmers on the ground who are actually
doing the work and that’s why
participatory research is so important
you know and engaging those farmers and
you know helping us understand what they
need rather than telling them what they
want in so many cases I also think it’s
important on the research side to
recognize you know some some groups that
may not be traditional scientific
research institutes or universities you
know the rodeo Institute who I think is
here somewhere in the audience today has
been doing these 30 year studies of how
to really not just you know adapt to
climate change and mitigate climate
change but also you know really turn
back climate change through some of
their work on soils so I think that’s
important to understand and I’m sure
Jerry Glover who’s on the next panel
will talk about the important work that
the land institute has been doing for
many years so it’s it’s important to
really you know for lack of a better
phrase to think outside the box when
we’re talking about research it’s not
you know just always scientists and labs
it’s it’s a lot of the work that needs
to be done in fields and kitchens all
over all over the world so from from our
point of view we’ve got a program called
the future of food which is a we didn’t
copy National Geographic but we look at
where we’re gonna be five years from now
in terms of what we need to source
globally and it always comes back to how
are we going to use our resources more
effectively so if you go to a country
like Israel and see how they are
developing their technologies to utilize
water more effectively it’s it’s
astonishing to see the kind of drip
irrigation and innovation that’s coming
in terms of a rootless one centimeter
from the other gets more water than the
other depending on what it needs from
its nutrients and providing capital
solutions with that kind of research so
in order to fulfill our needs going
forward we’re signing a number of
research agreements we’ve done it with
two institutes and ezreal we’re doing
some working in holland how do you
create the technology to make it more
efficient for us to produce more
but cheaper I don’t pretend to
understand how the politics of this’ll
all play out but ultimately we we think
that research please the fundamental
rule and the research I’m talking about
one step removed from the research that
I think needs to go on to really truly
get us agriculture where it needs to be
going forward because it’s always been
if you think about something at Norland
norman borlaug one of the great
americans who transformed agriculture
from what he did we need that kind of
fieldwork that went on behind that and
the combination of the science and
technology that goes to make that work
more effectively and anything we can do
to encourage on anything all of you can
do can encourage that I think will make
a significant difference to the US and
to the capacity for the planet to feed
its population great ok now for the hard
part of the day we’re going to take
questions from the audience we’ve been
trying to warm them up and give them
time to think about what they want to
ask we have time for a few questions and
somebody has a microphone that they’ll
be bringing around I see someone right
down here
thank you David Lambert great panel I
get the sense from what I’ve read
recently and what I’ve heard today that
the political alliance is on climate
change you’re about to change really
dramatically when Walmart has trouble
sourcing food and Nike can’t source
cotton and coca-cola can’t source water
and citrus is industry our company is
beginning to think we may be on the
wrong side of this fight and will that
help raise awareness in Congress about
climate change
well my judgment is if you ask me what
most who is the most important force in
the world today on agriculture I point
to Walmart not the United States
government not the United Nations and
Walmart and others not just you know
pressure
because their ability to listen to their
consumers and then to source product
based upon what they think is in their
interest which is becoming more
sustainability better working conditions
better water better treatment of growers
and climate they can have this powerful
impact they and others like them and I
think it’s happening now and the US
government and others may be following
behind not leading in this regard I
think it’s important that the
corporation’s I think the thing I said
surely we convene well must get the
power of convening we don’t do anything
else but buy things and sell things but
we’ve got a power of convening and the
opportunity that we had this week in
bentonville with coca-cola and Monsanto
and Cargill and the dairy farmers of
america and a number of other people to
say what are the key issues and
agricultural inputs are one of the key
issues facing all of us the scarcity of
that and the impact that using it in a
button with over-indulgence the impact
that’s having on climate change and then
the impact that’s having the opportunity
made a number all made a number of
commitments behind that I think they all
play a key role within it but I do think
the government’s got a big role to play
in terms of how you can support the
whole industry and add that back to this
research and the science and supporting
science I don’t again I don’t pretend to
understand the politics of it and I
think it is too polarizing but it seems
to me that primary research has got a
really key role to help organizations
like coca-cola and PepsiCo and Walmart
be more effective of what we do as well
so do we have time for another couple of
questions yeah yeah okay anyone else oh
there’s somebody with a hand up right
there hi thank you for this wonderful
forum my name is helen damballa
I am with the National Farm to School
Network and we’re talking a lot about
the future of food and part of the
future is our children so farm to school
is not just about getting local
farm-fresh products into schools which
you know reduces food miles gives
farmers a bigger share of the dollar
supports Community Economic Development
but it’s also about school gardens
and educational curriculum so it’s not
trying to teach every kid to want to be
a farmer granted we do have an aging
population of farmers in this country
almost 58 years old so we do need some
kids to want to be farmers but it’s
knowing that the future generation are
our future eaters our future researchers
so I’m curious if any of you are looking
at that that younger generation and
considering the importance of educating
children in the work that all of you do
or it perhaps if that’s part of what
National Geographic is looking at thank
you
anybody care done absolutely it’s a
really important part of three tanks
work we want to cultivate the next
generation of agricultural leaders and
as you said that’s not just farmers
it’s well-informed eaters it’s food
scientists and researchers which you
know especially women and girls we want
to encourage them to partake more in
that that sort of work we want to help
entrepreneurs in the food system really
get the the resources and the tools they
need to be good at for businesses small
and large and so I think without that as
you said you know the the average age of
farmers according to the latest AG
census is fifty eight point three years
old in the United States it’s gone up
since the last one in sub-saharan Africa
it’s roughly 57 years old so we have
this aging population of people who are
providing food for all of us and so how
do we you know how do we capitalize on
programs like yours where you’re
teaching kids to appreciate food you’re
teaching them how to grow it you’re
probably teaching them how to cook it
you’re teaching them how to share it
these are all important things for
really the future food for us all and
I’d say 4-h does an amazing job and now
more and more in urban areas get your
local school districts all over the
country to really get involved in this I
think the transparency of food and
making making us all passionate about
how foods grown and how foods produced
and inspiring children can inspire all
of us in terms of the real passion for
that when they get involved in it and I
think there’s a lot more we can all do
and I think the food industry needs to
become much more transparent about how
it
things and what it does things and be
very comfortable with letting people in
our farms and letting people on our farm
you know see how things are grow and see
how animals are raised and and there’s
some there’s some real opportunities I
think for all of us to get banged that
this is a question from Twitter user
modern farmer he asks how do we make
sure that relevant technologies reach
rural farmers for increased in quality
production if I understand the question
correctly that’s historically been a big
in the u.s. it’s been a big role of
extension through the land-grant college
movement to get education on modern
techniques and agriculture food
production nutrition to farmers and to
local folks more urban and rural and I
know that AI D is very actively involved
in this whole concept of extension and
using this model this amazing model that
was developed during the administration
of Abraham Lincoln that changed America
profoundly and some of those same
techniques are just applicable all over
the world yeah exactly so and we’re
looking at a variety of extension so
there’s there’s a lot of private company
extension there’s still government
extension agencies that we need to beef
up as well as like using your people’s
cell phones as extension tools radio is
extension to lots of ways to promote and
disseminate technologies more a
corollary to that that’s actually also
very important is making sure there’s
equitable access to those technologies
so those technologies are available to
women in those rural committee
communities that the women’s use of
those technologies is thought of when
those technologies are designed so we
promote them and we think about ways to
disseminate them but also making sure
that they are available to women and
that accessible to women is a big part
of adoption and really getting it out
there yeah okay I’m afraid that’s gonna
be the last word I want to thank this
panel you guys did a great job
give them a hand
you
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