I
t is an honor and a privilege to be with you this morning. One of the things I delight in is the opportunity to address young audiences. Through the course of my work in the last five years I have had the honor of traveling the world to over seventy countries. As I look at the audience and look at the signs of the countries that are named, I have recited in my mind the countries that I have had the privilege of visiting. You are all fortunate to be representives of these very special places.
While I was born in Texas, I was raised in California and have spent most of my life in my current home of Orange County, California – more familiarly known to as the “OC.” I understand that the “OC” is a very popular television show here in Italy, particularly among your age group and so I can tell you that the “OC” is beautiful. It is exciting, but television is television. And I will leave that there...
The student team representing U.S. interests at the 2007 Model UN from Civico Liceo
Manzoni during a pre-event briefing at the U.S. Consulate in Milan.
When I have an opportunity to comment and address a group of leaders like you, I not only have the opportunity to share some thoughts and some perspectives, but also to reflect on my own life. When I was your age, I participated in model government programs in the United States and I remember grown-ups, who seemed much older than me at the time, would come and speak to us and they would say, “You are leaders of tomorrow, you are the future of the United States.” Of course, in high school and in college you have a lot of other things on your mind. And when some grown-up says you are going to be the leaders of tomorrow, you are going to lead our nation, you are going to lead the world, you sit in your chair and think, “Oh, sure, yeah – right; like someday I am going to be an ambassador of the United States.” Yet here we are in Milan. Here I am serving as the United States Ambassador. And with this I want to say to you that, first, you should never underestimate your capacity, your ability to dream big dreams and to realize your potential.
Secondly, I say to you, seize the moment. At every opportunity I had in my life, I seized the moment because I came from a very poor family. My grandparents came to the United States from Mexico. They were poor. They were migrant farm workers. For those of you not familiar with what migrant farm workers are in the United States, migrant farm workers are the people who are paid some of the lowest wages in American society to harvest the crops, to work on the ranch and on the farm. They earn some of the lowest incomes to harvest those crops, to provide the agricultural support and bring produce to market for the American society. My grandparents came to the United States as migrant farm workers. My parents were migrant farm workers. Neither of my parents graduated from high school, but my mother, who is a visionary woman, believed that we could make a better life for ourselves. She insisted that one of the key ways to do so would be to get an education, to go to college, to get a university degree. Later, I would become the first person in my family to earn a college degree. And that was a very special moment for her. It changed the course of our lives. So, two generations after my grandparents came from Mexico to the United States, their grandson was nominated by the President of the United States to be the Director of the United States Peace Corps, and then eventually became a United States Ambassador. I have been truly blessed and truly fortunate, but I will tell you that it is in great part due to opportunities that I have had, like you have today, to participate in discussions, debates, in the exchange of ideas that are so important in our time.
Consul for Public Affairs David Bustamante briefs students from Civico
Liceo Manzoni about U.S. policy on topics ranging from global climate change
to the global war on terrorism.
When I left the Peace Corps someone asked me, “What did you learn during the time you were Director of the Peace Corps?” I traveled to 67 countries in four and a half years. I learned that the world is a very, very small place and that all of us need to be concerned, need to be involved, and need to participate in discussion of the issues that are important for the future. Each and every one of us should be concerned and interested in the future because we are all going to live in the future. I really applaud and salute you today for your participation and your involvement, and I hope for your continued involvement beyond this Model UN program today.
I also want to make an observation which I am sure you have made yourselves. And I made it the last time I was here in Milan speaking at Liceo Manzoni. As I look at the audience, I see that women are in the majority here today. I salute the progress that is being made with regard to women in positions of leadership. The United States is experiencing a similar change or evolution. In the Peace Corps, for example, 60% of all volunteers serving in 75 countries are women, and 40% are men. A growing percentage of college students in the United States are women and the men have to work hard to keep up. So I urge you to continue your engagement in these important positions of leadership.
There is no doubt that the world we live in today faces many challenges. I want to focus on the topic of my concern and the issues that are areas I am involved in. In the time that I will speak to you today, which is about 20 minutes, hundreds of people will die of hunger. A person dies of hunger every five seconds. Every five seconds a child, a man, a woman dies of hunger. That does not include the deaths that are as a result of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases afflicting developing countries. Countries where the lifespan of man will be 42 years of age, a woman perhaps just a couple more years. The reality is that half of the world’s population today lives on two dollars a day or less, trying to survive, trying to make ends meet. I consider it a privilege and an honor to be the United States Representative to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations and to the World Food Program. Two preeminent agencies that are dedicated to eradicating world hunger.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN FAO Gaddi Vasquez meets with the organizing team
of the 2007 Model United Nations in Milan.
It is world hunger that prevents men, women, and children from realizing their dreams, their hopes and their aspirations. It is also that which prevents countries from being able to grow economically, to expand, to build an economic base of jobs and opportunities. Each and every one of us has hopes and dreams, but when you face some of the challenges, some of the odds that I have seen as I have traveled the world it can be daunting. It is sad. It is tragic. Every time that I travel the world to a country and I see hunger, and I see people who are struggling to live day-to-day, I am grateful for the blessings I have in my life, to be able to eat, to be able to sustain myself. Someone once said, “To whom much is given, much is required.” That is why the United States has been a leader in the war on hunger, the war on malnutrition and poverty in the world. The United States today accounts for 44% of all of the contributions to the World Food Program, the largest donor to the World Food Program in the entire world. Or to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United States gives the equivalent of almost one quarter of the budget. Yes, the numbers are significant, but more important is the significance of the philosophy. The significance of the commitment to eradicate world hunger and poverty in the world today.
We seek, as was mentioned by one of the speakers earlier this morning, collaboration.
Collaboration is very important and so the United States with other nations, many of those that you represent here today, by virtue of your role here at the Model UN, are collaborating to end world hunger, by using different technology, including biotechnology.
The total global area planted in biotech crops has increased at double-digit rates for ten consecutive years. In 2006 we passed two milestones: more than 10 million farmers are now growing biotech crops and more than 100 million hectares are now under cultivation. Biotechnology is the most rapidly adopted agricultural technology in recent history. More than half of the world’s population lives in the 22 countries where biotech crops are grown. The rapid adoption of biotech crops by farmers in developing countries is clear evidence of the technology’s tremendous potential to help us achieve the World Food Summit goal of cutting hunger in half by 2015. A recent survey estimates that the global accumulated economic benefits to biotech crop farmers in developing countries from the decade 1996 to 2005 was $13 billion (compared to $4 billion for farmers in developed countries).
Giuseppe Polistena (left), Headmaster of Civico Liceo Manzoni in Milan, speaks with
US Ambassador to the UN FAO, Gaddi Vasquez, during the 2007 Model United Nations
at Università Bocconi in Milan.
The increase in cultivation of biotech crops is also contributing to a reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. These reductions are achieved because of the decreased use of pesticides, which are made from fossil fuels, and because of the increased use of conservation tillage that goes along with the cultivation of herbicide-tolerant crops. The combined CO2 reductions in 2005 were the equivalent of removing four million cars from the road.
While biotechnology clearly has the potential to help eliminate food insecurity in developing countries, much needs to be done to ensure the potential is realized. Building capacity, building sustainability, local solutions to local problems. Developing countries need more plant breeders and biotechnologists to put biotechnology to work in their own countries. We also must have a regulatory system, a process. Many actors – international organizations such as FAO, individual donors such as the United States, and even NGOs – are working with developing countries to put regulatory systems in place and to train the people who will be responsible to ensure the safe use of biotechnology. The reality is that the daunting numbers of people suffering from malnutrition and hunger in the world require us, you and me, to be concerned about this issue. As I have said to my friends and colleagues in Rome who represent other countries,
there is a sense of urgency to develop technology that will increase agricultural production and expand innovative techniques.
Ambassador Vasquez encouraging students attending the Model UN to participate
as leaders in facing the future issues affecting our world.
I will give you a couple of examples. One example I saw was in the country of Zambia where poachers were going into a game reserve and were slaughtering some of the native species and selling them for food. One innovative and thoughtful individual developed a program to provide food to these poachers, and they committed to stop hunting the animals in that game park. The poachers turned in their weapons and turned in their nets, and turned in the other devices they used to capture animals in that park. In turn, they received food. They were able to curtail the slaughter of those species. Beyond that, the poachers are being taught techniques in agricultural production, which then means that they learn to sustain themselves without poaching and destroying the nature and the beauty of the game park and other game parks throughout the country.
In other places dams, reservoirs, and irrigation systems are being built through a work for food program where men and women work in exchange for receiving food. They build the kind of facilities that will give them the sustainability they need to live and most importantly to survive.
So I want to say to you that I believe, and the U.S. believes, that multilateralism and working together with other countries and partners, with NGOs and organizations that provide innovative thoughts and ideas on how to eradicate world hunger, are stepping forward in very unique, dynamic, and unprecedented ways. The U.S. is often misrepresented as a unilateralist, yet it has been the largest contributor to the United Nations since its creation in 1945.
Ambassador Vasquez gives an interview to TV station RAI3 Lombardia
at the 2007 Model UN.
I also want to take a moment to salute the people of Italy, the Government of Italy which plays host to the FAO and the World Food Program and to other UN agencies in Rome.
It is that partnership and collaboration that is helping fight the war on hunger and malnutrition. Italy is a great partner and we are delighted to be able to collaborate on and work on many projects.
You as students, as I said in the beginning, are the future. And so, as you go through your discussion, as you go through your deliberations here, I encourage you, as I said earlier, to seize the moment, to see the opportunity, to be a strong voice, to be an advocate because those of us who are fortunate enough to be placed in positions of leadership bear a greater responsibility. After hearing at least two of your fellow student speakers here today, I suspect we will be hearing from you in years to come. I urge you be the strong voice, that you be an advocate, and that we learn from each other.
In the last two weeks, U.S. News and World Report, a magazine in the United States that maybe you have read or seen, had a feature story on some of the customs and traditions that the United States might look at as something to adopt or to think about in terms of what makes other cultures and societies strong. Singapore was mentioned for its cleanliness, its discipline, and public maintenance of its communities. Italy was prominently featured as not only having great food but of placing importance on opportunities to be with family, to sit together, to know each other, to understand each other, to take time out from a busy life to share with each other. For me it is an honor, it is privilege, to be able to represent the United States at the United Nations Agencies in Rome. But it is also a very special privilege to be in this great country that is so rich in tradition, so rich in many customs that I am still learning and coming to understand. My Italian is a “work in progress”
but my dilemma is that I speak Spanish fluently and as I tell people, I am cutting and pasting Spanish and Italian. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not work, and sometimes my staff gives me odd looks… What kind of language is he speaking? It is a hybrid language. But what is not hybrid today is the understanding that the world is a very small place. If each and every one of us makes a personal commitment to make the world a better place, we can make a difference. We can make an impact. If we are willing to speak our minds, to share our thoughts with others, to share our good ideas, we will be able to collaborate in promoting peace, friendship, and understanding and help those who are less fortunate than us.
Thank you very much.
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