Italy: Day #2 (US Mission to the United Nations)

January 5, 2018One of the most exciting aspects of this study abroad trip is that we get to visit with international thought-leaders representing the United States in areas of international food insecurity. I am still searching for the exact path that I want to pursue post-graduation - this trip is opening up new opportunities and places for employment that I am really excited to explore! On Friday, our first "full day" in Rome, we visited the United States Mission to the United Nations where USDA, USAID, and U.S. Department of State are housed to work with the Rome-based agencies of WFP (World Food Programme), FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) and IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development).Here's a bit of an overview of what each Rome-based agency does:

• FAO - knowledge and experience in agriculture and development
• WFP - humanitarian agency for food and nutrition
• IFAD - financing for smallholder farmers for economic prosperity + development

One of our guest speakers, JP Shuster, with the public affairs department at U.S. Mission to the UN in Rome, highlighted the struggle of finding journalists that are interested in writing stories about more than just the stereotypical "face of hunger". To combat this, the group sends media tours to various countries to cover the "real story" of what is going on in the field, on the ground. As a science and agricultural journalism major, I found this to be extremely interesting and work to do this through my efforts with my Miss Missouri platform, Hungry for Change: From Plate to Politics.Some of my key take-aways from the visit:

• Get control of conflict areas to get zero hunger by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal #2 - we'll talk about these in a later blog post!) There are 18 countries classified as Phase 3 or above for food insecurity and 10 are designated as conflict areas. The only commonalities among them are that they are areas close to famine and are facing some sort of conflict -- otherwise, each country and situation is entirely different.
• Food security tends to be a bipartisan issue. Congress tends to have aggressive and continued engagement with issues like food security, recently demonstrated when responding to the "4 famines". USDA mentioned that this a priority of Sonny Perdue, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and that food insecurity and agricultural efforts go hand in hand.
• "Science hasn't caught up to the hysteria yet." While some biotechnology innovations are bad, the good biotechnology has saved crops AND people. One key take-away was that my role and our role as citizens and agriculturalists is to add and expand the conversation to become PART of the equation.
• It is good for rural America to be on the global stage of agriculture.
• The concept of development is to work yourself out of a job. In this same fashion, I hope that I can work myself out of needing to discuss food insecurity...out of helping to run the campus food pantry, out of managing the transfer swipes program for Mizzou, out of bringing canned food items to the food pantry.

..........................................................................................................................................................................My class prompt for today is "Based upon what you learned, this morning: what role do you think the US best serves (or should do better) with being a world leader in mitigating food insecurity?"It's tricky to identify the ideal role that the US serves in being a world leader in mitigating food insecurity. I think it is incredibly important that as a country, we are leading by example and as important as it is to focus on international hunger, we must also initiate efforts to make gains toward domestic food security. Both are equally important in ending hunger by 2030 and we must be a leader on both fronts. A part of this includes looking at the tension between developed and underdeveloped countries and how to realign our perspectives to see it instead as an opportunity. A larger part of this involves shifting the national conversation from one that views international aid and food assistance as a "hand up" to one that sees it as a "handshake" and collaborative effort. Both of these are areas our country, as a whole, must do better to be a world leader in mitigating food insecurity and the societal stigmas that are attached to those receiving government assistance/food aid. Agricultural productivity is a key component to advancing global food security and the United States is a demonstrated leader in that space, allowing them to serve as a positive example, both in partnerships and best practices. By focusing on opportunities with underdeveloped countries, shifting the national conversation to a "handshake" approach, and emphasizing the areas we are successful in to work together, the United States will be better equipped to be a leader in this space globally.Today's speakers at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations emphasized the importance of groups, organizations, countries, etc. working together instead of just being there and that is how I envision the United States serving as a better world leader in mitigating food insecurity.