U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization 
                                       Release No. 0453.99 
  
  Remarks
            As Prepared for Delivery
                             by
           Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman
           U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
                      30th Conference
              Rome, Italy   November 13, 1999
  
  
  Thank you Mr. Chair.  
  
  Director-General, ladies and gentlemen.
  
       "I want to acknowledge our Ambassador to the UN Agencies on Food
  and Agriculture -- Senator George McGovern.  His vision in 1961 made the
  World Food Program a reality.  I thank him for the pivotal role he
  continues to play in alleviating world hunger.
  
       "We are pleased that under Dr. Diouf the first strategic framework
  that will guide FAO for the next 15 years has been developed.  As FAO
  begins to implement the strategic framework, I propose that we take an
  in-depth look at how we allocate scarce dollars to our most important
  priorities before we meet at our next Conference in 2001.  This is
  particularly important under the zero nominal growth policy that the
  United States has for all international organizations, including FAO.
  
       "I now want to briefly address three of the most pressing
  challenges I see facing agriculture in the new century   feeding a
  hungry world, expanding free and fair trade, and using new technologies
  to benefit both developing and developed countries.
  
  Hunger
       "When I led the U.S. delegation to the World Food Summit in 1996,
  we joined with other nations in setting a goal to reduce by half the
  number of undernourished people in the world by the year 2015.  To help
  meet that goal, last March, I announced the U.S. Action Plan on Food
  Security, designed to help get at the root causes of hunger   poverty,
  income inequality, political instability, poorly managed natural
  resources, lack of infrastructure, and more.
                              
       "In 1998 and 1999, there were an unprecedented number of disasters
  that resulted in a sharp increase in hunger around the world   floods in
  Bangladesh, drought and flooding in North Korea, Hurricane Mitch in
  Central America, and other natural disasters.  The U.S. helped meet this
  increased need, providing 10 million metric tons of food aid over the
  last year to help starving people affected by those crises.  
  
       "This is the most food aid we have provided in any of the last 25
  years.  The United States stands ready to assist citizens of other
  countries who face immediate threats of hunger.
  
       "In the United States, we are enjoying our strongest economy in 30
  years and a very abundant food supply.  Yet billions of pounds of
  perfectly good, nutritious food are thrown away each year.  We've
  embarked on a gleaning and food recovery campaign to rescue some of that
  food and get it to people who need it.  Governments cannot do this
  alone.  We've helped set up partnerships with community-based
  organizations and private businesses.  Restaurants are now redirecting
  good wholesome food from garbage dumpsters to soup kitchens.  Farmers
  are now gleaning perfectly edible produce that normally would have been
  ploughed under.  Abandoned inner city lots are being transformed into
  urban gardens across the country.  
  
       "Recently, I participated in a global conference on poverty, co-
  chaired by Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela, at the Carter Center in
  Atlanta, Georgia.  Their leadership exemplifies how private and non-
  governmental organizations have joined the crusade to help fight poverty
  and hunger    from local community solutions to international assistance
  efforts.  We need to reach across traditional boundaries and across
  country lines to create new partnerships from the ground up, as opposed
  to dictating solutions from the top down.
  
  Trade
       "We can only meet the challenge of feeding the world by embracing
  sustainable agriculture and a truly free and fair world trading system.
  
       "During my 4  years as U.S. Agriculture Secretary, I've witnessed
  the extraordinary impact  trade has had on agriculture's bottom line for
  all of our countries.  It's abundantly clear that if our economies are
  to continue to prosper,  we all must look for new markets   and that
  means we need an open trading system.  Since 1960, tariffs worldwide
  have fallen by 90 percent, while global trade has grown 1500 percent.
       
            
       "In two weeks, the next round of the World Trade Organization
  talks will begin in Seattle.  The United States has some very clear
  positions going into these talks   positions that we believe are rooted
  in fairness to all: Reducing tariffs, eliminating export subsidies,
  assuring adherence to proven science-based principles, and building on
  the achievements of the Uruguay Round.  
  
       "In the 20th century, we have made monumental gains in breaking
  down trade barriers.  But, especially in agriculture, we have a very
  long way to go.  We must be firm in our resolve not to allow anything to
  deter us from achieving universal free and fair trade.  
  
   
   Biotechnology
        "This brings me to biotechnology.  On this issue, more than any
   other that I've dealt with in my nearly three decades of public
   service, I wish I could wave a magic wand and get rid of all the excess
   rhetoric   all the hyperbolic self-promotion on one side and all the
   inflammatory fear-mongering on the other.
   
        "The use of biotechnology involves two moral imperatives.  First,
   because of its tremendous potential to reduce human suffering, we must
   allow this technology to blossom.  It has the potential to help us feed
   more people using less water and land;  protect the environment through
   decreased pesticide use; and develop better methods for waste
   treatment. 
   
        "On the other hand, it is morally incumbent upon all governments
   to ensure that the public safety and the environment are always
   protected by all emerging technologies.  We've all seen what happens
   when the frenzied rush to embrace new technology blinds us to its
   potential risks   as in the early days of nuclear energy when we did
   not fully understand the need for adequate safeguards and regulatory
   oversight. These are not arguments in favor of halting progress. 
   Rather, they make the case for wise technological and science-based
   stewardship.  In the long run, sound scientific progress cannot be
   stopped.  
   
        "The United States looks to FAO to take a leadership role in
   biotechnology and to be an objective and analytical clearinghouse in
   the current debate.  Uniform and scientifically sound global standards
   under the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the International Plant
   Protection Convention must be developed. Only through a system rooted
   in science and untainted by ideology or profit-seeking can the best of
   biotechnology's potential be realized and its risks averted.
   
        "Biotechnology is just one significant technological advance that
   will change the world in the new millennium.  Within the next decade,
   revolutionary, wireless, hand-held communication devices will link
   billions of people as never before, dramatically changing the face of
   rural communities and global agriculture. 
   
   Conclusion
        "Hunger, trade and new technologies.  By embracing these issues
   head-on, I believe we will go a long way toward facilitating the freer
   flow of food and feeding the whole world in a sustained manner in the
   years to come.  
   
        "I want to close with a story about a boy -- a very curious and
   inquisitive young boy -- who had the opportunity to visit a submarine
   and was fascinated at its ability to stay underwater for so long.  So
   he asked the captain: "What happens when submarines run out of fuel?" 
   And the captain explained that they run on nuclear energy and can
   remain underwater for a decade or so.  "Well," the boy asked, "what
   happens when they run out of drinking water?"  And the captain
   explained all the different distillation methods for making sea water
   drinkable.  The boy persisted: "Well, what happens when they run out of
   air?"  And the captain told him about their oxygen tanks.  
   
   
   Finally, the boy asked: "So when do submarines come up?"  "That's
   easy," the captain said, "when we run out of food."  
   
   
   In conclusion, the production of food remains the most important work
   of humankind.  How we meet our obligation to feed the world will be the
   true measure of our generation.  And I believe FAO's leadership will
   play a pivotal role in helping us meeting that goal.  
   
   Thank you.
   
                            # # #