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NEW YORK — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined steps to deal with world hunger in the closing address Friday at the annual global issues conference started by her husband.
Clinton spoke about a new approach from the Obama administration in dealing with hunger issues — a food security initiative that attempts to help people around the world grow, buy and sell the food they need instead of focusing primarily on emergency food aid in times of crisis.
"Food security is not just about food, but it is all about security, economic security, environmental security, even national security," she told attendees of the Clinton Global Initiative. "Massive hunger poses a threat to the stability of governments, societies and borders."
Since 2007, there have been food riots in more than 60 countries, she said.
Clinton said the new approach would include working with countries to implement plans that would help them improve their agriculture as well as plans that would invest in infrastructure and technology that would make farming more productive and selling agricultural produce easier.
She said the efforts also would focus on women, who comprise the majority of the world's farmers.
After she spoke, Bill Clinton lauded the program, saying he and other presidents had erred in focusing on emergency food aid and moving away from agricultural development to deal with global hunger.
"One of the mistakes that I and all my predecessors made when we stopped helping people feed themselves from 1981 forward, is we forgot the dignity element of being able to feed yourself," he said.
"This is a big deal, and it can change America's relations with people all over the world."
Tony Hall, director of the Alliance to End Hunger, said the idea of helping people improve their agriculture is a good one. He was not at the conference, but said he was excited to hear of the approach.
"This is going to make a positive impact, and it's something they've needed for 30 years," he said.
Bill Clinton started the Clinton Global Initiative to bring together the public and private sector to discuss solutions to problems in four areas — climate change, poverty, global health and education.
Conference attendees are expected to commit to steps they will take to work on global problems. Those who don't follow through on their commitments are not allowed to return to subsequent events. Billions of dollars have been committed in the five years the conference has taken place.
Friday's conference closing was a family affair, with the entire former first family present.
Hillary and Bill Clinton came into the session together, followed by daughter Chelsea Clinton. In introducing his wife, Clinton described her as "the best public servant our family has produced."
Hillary Clinton returned the praise, expressing her pride in her husband for what he has accomplished through the conference.
