Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election for a simple reason: Americans thought their country was headed in the wrong direction, and he provided a vision of change that voters found more compelling than John McCain’s.
Mandatory country of origin labeling for meat became effective in the U.S. on October 1 of this year. Nothing unexpected happened. U.S. meat processors said they would figure out how to live with it...
The need for an 'African Green Revolution' makes the news!
Posted by Truth About Trade & Technology
Thursday, 25 September 2008
There’s been very little comment from Senators McCain and Obama on the topic of agricultural development as it relates to the global food crisis during the current US presidential campaign. Today (9/25/2008) that changed when Senator McCain said “America should be at the forefront of an ‘African Green Revolution’” while addressing the Clinton Global Initiative.
Recently, Dean Kleckner challenged the candidates to state their positions on the topic through a TATT column (9.12.2008 – Where do they stand on feeding the world?). With the world’s spotlight focused on the serious economic issues in the US, neither candidate had addressed the global food crisis: what America’s role should be and what tools should be available to deal with it. The message included in McCain’s speech today gives us hope.
The excerpt below is from the end of the speech and is from coverage on Boston.com. The full speech may be posted on the official McCain campaign website at some point for those interested in reading the full version:
“…We should work to dramatically raise agricultural productivity in Africa: America helped to spark the Green Revolution in Asia, and they should be at the forefront of an African Green Revolution. We should reform our aid programs, to make sure they are serving the interests of people in need, and not just serving special interests in Washington.
Aid is not the whole answer. We need to promote economic growth and opportunities, especially for women, where they do not currently exist. Too often, trade restrictions -- combined with costly agricultural subsidies for the special interests -- choke off the opportunities for poor farmers and workers abroad to help themselves. That has to change. And by promoting free trade, and ending unfair subsides, I intend to be the agent of change. You know something about great change at the Clinton Global Initiative, because you are striving every day to bring it about. I thank each one of you for the good work you have done to relieve suffering across the earth, and to spread hope. I thank you for the even greater works that you seek to accomplish in the years to come, under the leadership of the man from Hope. And I thank you all for your kind attention here today.”
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Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election for a simple reason: Americans thought their country was headed in the wrong direction, and he provided a vision of change that voters found more compelling than John McCain’s.
Mandatory country of origin labeling for meat became effective in the U.S. on October 1 of this year. Nothing unexpected happened. U.S. meat processors said they would figure out how to live with it...
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