Press Release of Senator Lugar Obama Announces Commitment Initiated by Lugar's Global Hunger Bill Thursday, April 2, 2009 President Barack Obama announced today a doubling of assistance for global agricultural productivity and rural development. He also called for a comprehensive food security strategy to alleviate chronic hunger that affects nearly one billion people worldwide.   The announcement tracks provisions of the Global Food Security Act of 2009, authored by U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar and approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 31.    “Global food shortages are a threat to our security and that of people around the world. The combination of negative trends in agricultural productivity, population growth, high energy prices, increasing water scarcity, and climate change threaten to create chronic and destabilizing food crises,” Lugar said. “Without action, we may experience frequent food riots and perhaps warfare over food resources.  We almost certainly will have to contend with mass migration and intensifying health issues stemming from malnutrition.  Our diplomatic efforts to maintain peace will be far more difficult wherever food insecurity contributes to extremism and conflict.”   “The President’s commitment will restore U.S. leadership and reorient assistance toward addressing a major factor in global instability.  Hungry people are desperate people, and their desperation can have destabilizing effects on the global economy and national governments,” Lugar continued. “Passage of the Global Food Security Act will provide continuity and support for the President’s effort.”   The legislation, S. 384, sponsored by Lugar (R-IN) and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) authorizes additional funding for agricultural assistance that reaches $2.5 billion in FY2014.  It also establishes a Special Coordinator for Food Security charged with devising a whole of government strategy for food security.   “Alleviating hunger and poverty is a foreign policy imperative.  Food price spikes experienced in 2007 and 2008 significantly increased the number of people who suffer from hunger and provoked demonstrations in some 30 countries.  Both U.S. and global foreign assistance programs have shifted away from agricultural development toward urban priorities over the last two decades, even as hunger has spread and global farm productivity gains have slowed alarmingly,” Lugar said.   “We live in a world where nearly one billion people suffer from chronic food insecurity. An estimated 25,000 people die each day from malnutrition-related causes. Health experts advise us that chronic hunger has major health consequences, including decreased child survival, impaired cognitive and physical development of children, and weaker immune system function, including resistance to HIV/AIDS.” For more information, visit http://lugar.senate.gov/food/legislation/. # # #