I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2795 
To address global hunger and improve food security through the development 
and implementation of a comprehensive governmentwide global hunger 
reduction strategy, the establishment of the White House Office on 
Global Hunger and Food Security, and the creation of the Permanent 
Joint Select Committee on Hunger, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 10, 2009 
Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mrs. EMERSON, and Mr. MOORE of Kansas) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on For-
eign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture and Rules, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned 
A BILL 
To address global hunger and improve food security through 
the development and implementation of a comprehensive 
governmentwide global hunger reduction strategy, the es-
tablishment of the White House Office on Global Hunger 
and Food Security, and the creation of the Permanent 
Joint Select Committee on Hunger, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Roadmap to End Glob-
al Hunger and Promote Food Security Act of 2009’’ or 
the ‘‘Roadmap Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The international community has made 
progress decreasing global hunger over the past four 
decades, reducing the percentage of the world’s pop-
ulation that is hungry from 37 percent to 17 per-
cent. The United States provided critical global lead-
ership in achieving this success and is the world’s 
largest donor of emergency food assistance to vul-
nerable populations affected by war, conflict, and 
natural and weather-related disasters. 
(2) Although the percentage of individuals expe-
riencing hunger has fallen steadily over several dec-
ades, the total number of such individuals has 
grown. The United Nations Food and Agricultural 
Organization estimated in December 2008 that the 
number of individuals suffering from hunger is 
963,000,000, an increase of 115,000,000 over the 
last 2 years. 
(3) Poverty in developing countries remains 
largely a rural issue, with 75 percent of individuals 
in extreme poverty living in rural areas. Strategies 
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to address hunger, food security, and agricultural 
development must respond to the needs and reality 
of small-scale producers, especially women, who rep-
resent between 60 to 80 percent of agricultural pro-
ducers in the developing world, in remote and rural 
areas. 
(4) According to the United Nations World 
Food Program (WFP), more than 400,000,000 chil-
dren suffer from chronic hunger, and an estimated 
75,000,000 of these children, two-thirds of whom 
are female, do not attend school. The United Na-
tions Children’s Fund estimates that 9,200,000 chil-
dren under the age of 5 die every year, mostly from 
preventable and treatable causes, and that child and 
maternal malnutrition contributes to approximately 
6,000,000 deaths of children under the age of 5 an-
nually. 
(5) Children who are malnourished in the first 
two years of life suffer irreparable harm, have lower 
productivity and lower wages as adults, and are 
more likely to have children who are malnourished. 
(6) Over the last 25 years, United States assist-
ance for agricultural development has declined by 85 
percent, and with few exceptions, much of the inter-
national community has also neglected agricultural 
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development in the world’s poorest areas. At the end 
of 2008, the United States Agency for International 
Development (USAID) had only 16 agricultural spe-
cialists and 6 technical agricultural experts on staff, 
representing a substantial lack of expertise and spe-
cialists at USAID headquarters in Washington, DC, 
and at United States field missions across the globe. 
Further, there has been a decline in United States 
and international donor support for agricultural edu-
cation, research and development, and extension 
services at all levels in developing countries and 
among donor nations. 
(7) During the period from 2002 to 2008, the 
world experienced rising food prices, including rapid 
acceleration occurring from 2007 to 2008, with a 
devastating effect on the food security and welfare 
of the 1,000,000,000 individuals worldwide who live 
on less than one dollar a day and who spend 50 per-
cent to 80 percent of their income on food. Sharply 
increased prices for food and petroleum-based prod-
ucts, including fuel and fertilizers, were particularly 
devastating for poor, small, and rural agricultural 
producers. 
(8) The Economic Research Service of the De-
partment of Agriculture reported in May 2009 that 
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