Bringing Hope to Africa

Earlier this month, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a visit to Nairobi, Kenya where they met with agricultural officials and visited the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).

“We must help Africa produce enough food to feed its people and create economic opportunities for this continent,” Vilsack said during the appearance. “We can provide seed technologies, explain the appropriate use of fertilization, share techniques to manage land effectively, create a strong post-harvest infrastructure – so many things that could help farmers increase their income.”

USDA has partnered with KARI to prevent and control animal and pest diseases and improve food security, and develop and apply products and emerging technologies, “to cultivate hardier crops that can feed more people and thrive in harsher conditions, disease-resistant cassava plants, sweet potatoes enriched with Vitamin A to prevent blindness, maize that can flourish in times of drought.”

In her remarks, Secretary Clinton stressed the importance of agriculture to the world. “We are convinced that investing in agriculture is one of the most high-impact cost-effective strategies available for reducing poverty and saving and improving lives,” she said. “Oftentimes people think, well, if you’re modern, you don’t do agriculture anymore. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. If you don’t do agriculture, you don’t eat.”

Amen to that. Modern agricultural production is key to reducing global poverty. Our system of food production in the United States can and should be replicated. Instead of going backward, as some are advocating in this country, we can and should continue to move forward to wipe out hunger once and for all.