Frontlines Online Edition
Feed The Future
May/June 2013

Podcast: Science to Feed the Future

USAID helps small-scale farmers and business people in Kenya acquire the skills, technology, loans, and market connections they USAID helps small-scale farmers and business people in Kenya acquire the skills, technology, loans, and market connections they need to succeed. Neil Thomas, USAID
In 2009, after world food prices spiked and millions of people faced crises, the United States pledged to renew its focus on agriculture. And the presidential initiative Feed the Future became the U.S. Government's main vehicle to improve people's access to safe and nutritious foods, chiefly by supporting the smallholder farmers who grow them. New investments in science -- everything from vitamin-packed crops, to drought-resistant cereals, are central to this effort.

Sweet potato packed with extra vitamin A; corn that tolerates drought; rice that grows better in African climates; smartphones that provide extension services.

FrontLines Podcast

Audio: MP3

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Agricultural technology is a major part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to improve people’s access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, something known as food security.

And the U.S. Government’s main vehicle to strengthen food security is called Feed the Future, an umbrella of programs that began in 2010, not long after global food prices spiked, sparking riots and causing real crises for hundreds of millions of people.

Feed the Future, and the $3.5 billion dollars President Obama pledged towards it, represent the common belief that any serious attempt to fight hunger and end poverty requires a renewed focus on agriculture.

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