Opinion: America’s Opportunity to Lead the World - and Feed It
By Chris Stewart | December 10, 2024
Russia launched its largest drone attack to date into Ukraine in late November. The week before that, President Vladimir Putin welcomed 10,000 North Korean troops into Russia and launched his largest missile attack in months. It’s clear this conflict is escalating as we near 1,000 days of war, and Washington is particularly eager to reverse this trend.
If you asked each of my former colleagues in Congress how to achieve peace in this conflict, you’d be presented with 435 different options. This is undoubtedly a multi-layered issue that demands a considered and nuanced approach. But all my former colleagues can likely agree on one thing: Clear U.S. leadership will be necessary to achieve peace.
It’s crucial that we understand the importance of U.S. leadership and proactive collaboration with our allies and partners moving forward. Fortunately, the incoming Trump administration has made clear its commitment to proactivity, both in policy and diplomacy, for the sake of our national security and humanitarian efforts.
The global food crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is one failure from which we must learn. It’s not enough that the U.S. responds to every crisis. We need to be proactive in preventing and limiting these crises, and global food security is a key international security challenge that can no longer be overlooked.
Global food systems continue to be destabilized by war, conflict, demographic shifts, rising food prices, economic policies, and more. One consequence is the global democratic community losing hard-won gains in the fight against hunger and malnutrition in vulnerable regions. But another consequence is the possibility for hostile foreign nations to step into any void left by America, influence susceptible nations, and ultimately subvert the democratic world.
The daunting but necessary response to this growing national and international security threat is clear: Build more resilient food and health systems that can withstand the ongoing and emerging threats of today’s world. That doesn’t just mean more money or more aid, though. We need to improve how we deliver these all-important resources, which requires better coordination among partners, better policies for enabling innovation, and better practices for increasing production.
One glaring opportunity for improvement is in our fight against spiking child malnutrition. Every single year, 1 million children die of starvation. Last year, a record 345 million people faced acute food insecurity, more than a 100% increase from 2019. This problem is enormous and consequential, but the solution is clear and low-cost, and it could effectively end child deaths from hunger.
The Trump administration can strengthen the nation’s response to this growing threat by scaling up America’s two most powerful weapons in the fight against severe malnutrition and starvation: ready-to-use therapeutic food and small quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements. These two American-grown solutions, if properly utilized, could radically improve the efficiency of humanitarian aid, reduce key drivers of migration and conflict, promote America’s generosity and goodwill, and directly stimulate American agriculture and manufacturing. These are the types of bipartisan, far-reaching, achievable victories that President-elect Donald Trump’s team would be wise to pursue during its all-important first 100 days.
As a longtime congressional appropriator, I can tell you firsthand that our government spends significantly more money responding to disasters than investing in building more resilient communities. We need to reverse this bad habit if we want to ensure America’s national and food security, bring stability to the world’s more vulnerable regions, and build a more prosperous future.
Norman Borlaug, the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work to advance global food production and security, said, “You can’t build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery.” He’s exactly right: Feeding the world will contribute to peace and stability and, subsequently, to the interests of America and our allies. It’s also the right thing to do.
Former Congressman Chris Stewart was a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, House Committee on Appropriations, and House China Task Force. He is a world-record-setting Air Force pilot and New York Times best-selling author.