The new Food Security Leadership Council (FSLC) led by 2024 World Food Prize Laureate Cary Fowler aims to align American policy, science, and action to solve global hunger.
The council will spotlight the impact of U.S. policies on global food systems and craft a forward-looking blueprint for U.S. engagement on food and nutrition security. Their work will focus on six interconnected themes: food and agricultural innovation, multilateral policy, public data and early warning, trade, international agricultural development, and humanitarian response.
More than 700 million people face hunger in the world, according to the United Nations, with numbers expected to rise in the coming decades as the climate crisis, soil degradation, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss worsen.
“What really keeps me up late at night is the combination of factors. It’s not just the effect of climate change on food production. It’s the effect of climate change plus soil degradation plus problems with aquifers that are supplying irrigation water,” says Fowler. “We’re going to be seeing the effects of all of these factors combined.”
U.S. policy decisions are exacerbating these challenges. The closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Fowler writes, has “changed the world.” The effects of the sudden termination of agricultural research and humanitarian aid programs are only beginning to reveal themselves, but as experts shape a response to these changes, Fowler warns that “restoration of what came before is unrealistic, unwise and unnecessary. We seek transformation, not a return to the status quo ante.”
FSLC is drawing on the expertise of two advisory groups that will guide and support the organization’s work as they try to chart a new path forward. A team of Distinguished Fellows include Food Tank Board Member Bill Burke, former USAID Deputy Director Jerry Glover, Rosamond Naylor of Stanford University, Roy Steiner of The Rockefeller Foundation, and Arun Baral of HarvestPlus. A second group, referred to as Members, include Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, Chef Dan Barber, 2022 World Food Prize Laureate Cynthia Rosenzweig, and former U.S. Senator Jon Tester.
“We have an unprecedented opportunity to reset and rebuild our policies, investments, and institutions to meet this challenge,” says Fowler. “The FSLC intends to develop a blueprint to do just that.”
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Photo courtesy of Elisa Kerschbaumer
