Hillary vows to halve hunger

Posted By Megan Carpentier Monday, January 26, 2009 - 10:31 PM Share

Hillary Clinton gave a televised speech today to a meeting in Madrid of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, in which she explicitly linked reducing hunger and improving national security.
In a video address to the Madrid meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington was "committed" to working with other nations to meet the goal of halving the number of people worldwide living in poverty and hunger by 2015. "Governments and nations are more likely to become unstable when their populations are hungry and underfed," she said. "We are committed to building a new partnership among donor states, developing nations, UN agencies, NGOs, the private sector and others to better coordinate policies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals," she added.
Are you starting to sense a theme (and a growing distance with Bush administration policies)? The Obama administration is convinced that trying to make the world a better place will make it also a safer place, whereas the Bush administration was concerned with making us (and sometimes us alone) safer and thus better off. It should be interesting to see who is more right -- though I have some ideas.
EXPLORE:DEVELOPMENT, HILLARY, HUMAN RIGHTS, STATE DEPARTMENT, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
 

FOLTZJOE

12:24 AM ET

January 27, 2009

A nice start

This is a formidable challenge which has been made proportionally more difficult as a result of the global financial crisis, and in many cases areas which produce a surplus of food are adjacent to food deficit areas. Therefore, in the present environment, when trade barriers and transportation costs rise the ability of producers to obtain trade financing is severely affected.

We will begin to see more trade barriers a la India and Thailand restricting rice exports to shore up their own inventory.

I look forward to some clarification of the current administration's bio-fuel policies too...

 

STILL4HILL

3:31 PM ET

January 27, 2009

I am sure this was wholly

I am sure this was wholly Hillary's idea. She's a mom and an aunt and knows when kids are hungry and has seen in refugees camps the severe damage hunger can cause. I don't think Obama knows when he is hungry himself.

 

ANNETOO

4:32 PM ET

January 27, 2009

Co- POTUS

Hillary is the co-POTUS and that's a GOOD thing.

 

Madam Secretary is an obsessive blog about all things Hillary Clinton. From her policies to her pantsuits, Madam Secretary delivers up-to-the-minute news, analysis, and gossip about America's top diplomat.