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I want to thank President Rodríguez Zapatero for hosting this High Level
Meeting on Food Security for All. This is a welcome occasion, and I pledge my
support with you to work to address global hunger.
I am sorry that I could not attend today, but I am sending a strong team
composed of senior officials from across the United States government who will
report back to me after the meeting.
President Obama has made clear that alleviating hunger worldwide is a top
priority of this Administration. As he said on the first day of his Presidency,
“to the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your
farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed
hungry minds.” The President and I intend to focus new attention on food
security so that developing nations can invest in food production,
affordability, accessibility, education and technology.
Food insecurity and high food prices pose a threat to the prosperity and
security in many developing countries. Millions of people are at risk of being
pushed back into poverty, jeopardizing the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goal to cut hunger and poverty in half by 2015. And governments and
nations, as you know so well, are more likely to be unstable when their
populations are hungry and unfed.
We are committed to building a new partnership among donor states, developing
nations, UN agencies, NGO’s, the private sector and others to better coordinate
policies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals agreed to in 2000.
Once again I want to commend Spain for taking the initiative to further
global efforts to find a long-term solution to the problem of hunger. This is
one of many issues that needs collaboration and coordination among nations,
especially in light of the complex global challenges we share in this new
century. I look forward to working closely with you and others to support the
results of this important conference.
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