Graziano da Silva attends U.S.-sponsored women in agriculture event in Rome
June 28, 2011 | 02:53 PM
By JERRY HAGSTROM
ROME — José Graziano da Silva, director general-elect of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, spoke at a U.S. embassy-sponsored event on women in agriculture Monday, even though it’s unclear whether the United States supported his candidacy.
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Ertharin Cousin, U.S. Ambassador to the FAO and other U.N. agencies in Rome, said they were pleased by both Graziano da Silva’s presence and his remarks only one day after his election.
Graziano da Silva’s decision to attend the event was considered remarkable because FAO elections are secret ballots, and U.S. officials have declined to say whether they supported him. Each country has one vote, and Graziano da Silva won the race by only four votes, 92 to 88 against a Spanish candidate after four others dropped out.
Graziano da Silva has acknowledged that most of his support came from developing countries rather than donor countries, which have been criticial of FAO’s management and have insisted on reforms to reduce top-level management and decentralize decision making. Graziano da Silva was the architect of the Brazilian government’s anti-hunger campaign known as _Fome Zero,_ but he has most recently been FAO regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile.
An American who works at FAO said that even if the United States had not supported Graziano da Silva, the U.S. government could not be too concerned about him as director general because he comes from a large agriculture exporting country and has publicly stated he believes in genetic modification and some biofuels. Graziano da Silva has said, however, that he does not believe single companies should hold monopolies on biotech seed.
The United States contributes about 22 percent of the FAO's $1 billion budget.
Merrigan said she was “encouraged” by Graziano da Silva’s presence. She said he “was quite explicit” that Brazil had learned the importance of putting resources in the hands of women, and noted that the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, is a woman.
“Everyone was very heartened by the fact that the director general-elect showed up on the very first day,” said Cousin, a Chicagoan with close ties to the White House. Merrigan and Cousin said they expect the new director general will complete an ongoing FAO reform process as well as increase the attention given to helping rural women in developing countries and to appointing women to FAO positions.
Graziano da Silva said that FAO needs to slim down its number of priorities, Cousin noted, but said that gender equality would still be one of them.
Cousin said the United States “had been very clear” that the candidate’s position on making FAO more effective and less bureaucratic was the most important issue in deciding who to support, but that the U.S. government had also done a complete analysis of FAO and decided that the international agency was very important to its interests. “If FAO didn’t exist, we would have to invent it,” Cousin said.
“USDA depends quite a bit on FAO,” Merrigan said, particularly for its statistics and for assistance at the Codex Alimentarius Commission on the setting of international food safety standards. FAO advises many developing countries on technical issues for which their governments do not have much expertise.
The U.S. embassy joined with the Kenyan embassy to sponsor an event to highlight a section of FAO’s 2010-2011 State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) Report called “Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gender Gap for Development.”
The report said that if women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million.
“Women farmers typically achieve lower yields than men, not because they are less skilled, but because they operate smaller farms and use fewer inputs like fertilizers, improved seeds and tools,” said Terri Raney, editor of the SOFA report.
Melanne Verveer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, spoke at the event and praised the report in an interview, saying it highlighted how much agricultural productivity could be enhanced if women “had programs tailored to them.”
Farm women need help with financial services, technology, land tenure, property rights and extension services, Verveer said. “There is a lot FAO can do,” she said, but noted that the outcomes depend on the reaction of leadership in member countries.
In a speech to the FAO conference today, Merrigan noted that the report dovetails with the U.S. government’s “Feed the Future” program, which helps farmers in developing countries and also measures the impact of programs in correcting gender inequities.
Merrigan also told the delegates that “it may interest you to know that young women represent one of the fastest growing demographics in U.S. agriculture.”
ROME — José Graziano da Silva, director general-elect of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, spoke at a U.S. embassy-sponsored event on women in agriculture Monday, even though it’s unclear whether the United States supported his candidacy.
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Ertharin Cousin, U.S. Ambassador to the FAO and other U.N. agencies in Rome, said they were pleased by both Graziano da Silva’s presence and his remarks only one day after his election.
Graziano da Silva’s decision to attend the event was considered remarkable because FAO elections are secret ballots, and U.S. officials have declined to say whether they supported him. Each country has one vote, and Graziano da Silva won the race by only four votes, 92 to 88 against a Spanish candidate after four others dropped out.
Graziano da Silva has acknowledged that most of his support came from developing countries rather than donor countries, which have been criticial of FAO’s management and have insisted on reforms to reduce top-level management and decentralize decision making. Graziano da Silva was the architect of the Brazilian government’s anti-hunger campaign known as _Fome Zero,_ but he has most recently been FAO regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile.
An American who works at FAO said that even if the United States had not supported Graziano da Silva, the U.S. government could not be too concerned about him as director general because he comes from a large agriculture exporting country and has publicly stated he believes in genetic modification and some biofuels. Graziano da Silva has said, however, that he does not believe single companies should hold monopolies on biotech seed.
The United States contributes about 22 percent of the FAO's $1 billion budget.
Merrigan said she was “encouraged” by Graziano da Silva’s presence. She said he “was quite explicit” that Brazil had learned the importance of putting resources in the hands of women, and noted that the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, is a woman.
“Everyone was very heartened by the fact that the director general-elect showed up on the very first day,” said Cousin, a Chicagoan with close ties to the White House. Merrigan and Cousin said they expect the new director general will complete an ongoing FAO reform process as well as increase the attention given to helping rural women in developing countries and to appointing women to FAO positions.
Graziano da Silva said that FAO needs to slim down its number of priorities, Cousin noted, but said that gender equality would still be one of them.
Cousin said the United States “had been very clear” that the candidate’s position on making FAO more effective and less bureaucratic was the most important issue in deciding who to support, but that the U.S. government had also done a complete analysis of FAO and decided that the international agency was very important to its interests. “If FAO didn’t exist, we would have to invent it,” Cousin said.
“USDA depends quite a bit on FAO,” Merrigan said, particularly for its statistics and for assistance at the Codex Alimentarius Commission on the setting of international food safety standards. FAO advises many developing countries on technical issues for which their governments do not have much expertise.
The U.S. embassy joined with the Kenyan embassy to sponsor an event to highlight a section of FAO’s 2010-2011 State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) Report called “Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gender Gap for Development.”
The report said that if women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million.
“Women farmers typically achieve lower yields than men, not because they are less skilled, but because they operate smaller farms and use fewer inputs like fertilizers, improved seeds and tools,” said Terri Raney, editor of the SOFA report.
Melanne Verveer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, spoke at the event and praised the report in an interview, saying it highlighted how much agricultural productivity could be enhanced if women “had programs tailored to them.”
Farm women need help with financial services, technology, land tenure, property rights and extension services, Verveer said. “There is a lot FAO can do,” she said, but noted that the outcomes depend on the reaction of leadership in member countries.
In a speech to the FAO conference today, Merrigan noted that the report dovetails with the U.S. government’s “Feed the Future” program, which helps farmers in developing countries and also measures the impact of programs in correcting gender inequities.
Merrigan also told the delegates that “it may interest you to know that young women represent one of the fastest growing demographics in U.S. agriculture.”
