Food security expert to speak at UF on Thursday

April 17, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A speaker from the U.S. Agency for International Development will talk about global food security at 6:45 p.m.Thursday in Carleton Auditorium.

Gregory C. Gottlieb is the senior deputy assistant administrator in the Bureau for Food Security, and his presentation will highlight President Obama’s Feed the Future global hunger and food security initiative.

The event is free and open to the public, and is especially suitable for students, faculty, staff and others interested in agriculture, food security, international development and global health and nutrition.

“Almost 1 billion people in the world currently face chronic food insecurity,” said Rose Koenig, faculty coordinator for the event. “Greg Gottlieb is one of the U.S. government’s leaders in the effort to confront this problem, and I hope that anyone interested or involved in international agriculture, development or global conflict reduction will attend the lecture.”

USAID is the United States’ principal international development agency, devoted to easing suffering, spreading prosperity and increasing security in the developing world. Gottlieb is responsible for overseeing development activities related to agricultural development efforts that improve global food security and reduce poverty and under-nutrition under the Feed the Future initiative.

“Under President Obama’s Feed the Future initiative, we are more focused than ever on doing development differently and ensuring that our agricultural development efforts have a real impact for those who need it most,” said Gottlieb.

The Facets of Food Speaker Series addresses contemporary issues of food and agriculture to expose students to a diversity of speakers working in many different capacities within the food system. The course is designed to engage students in critical thinking about their food system and introduce them to the diversity of career opportunities available in the private and public sectors. For more information, contact Koenig at 352-273-3422.

For more information about USAID, visit www.usaid.gov. For more information about Feed the Future, visit www.feedthefuture.gov.