Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State University officially established ties with the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization Friday to work together on initiatives to address world hunger and poverty.
MSU President Dr. Mark Keenum and Daniel Gustafson, the FAO liaison for North America, signed a memorandum of understanding that lays the foundation for collaborations focusing most immediately on food safety and nutrition. Other areas addressed in the agreement are agriculture, poverty issues relating to children, and environmental sustainability.
A former undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Keenum's signature on the document comes after months of dialogue between MSU and the FAO, which began when he visited with agency representatives in Rome this past summer. He also was tapped to lead food aid and capacity discussions at the International Food Aid and Development Conference held in August.
The partnership was enhanced further when MSU Vice President for Research David Shaw and Vice President for Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine Greg Bohach met recently with FAO officials in Washington, DC. As a result, Gustafson's visit to the campus this week also included a series of presentations on MSU capabilities.
"As a land-grant institution, Mississippi State has a long history of research and education to advance capacity development," Keenum said. "We are well positioned to be in the forefront of developments that can reduce hunger and help other nations improve the response to needs within their own borders. This formal agreement with FAO is another step forward in that process," he said.
The UN established the FAO in 1945 to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living for all people in FAO member countries; to secure improvements in the efficiency of production and distribution of food and agricultural products; and to contribute towards expanding the world economy and ensuring humanity's freedom from hunger.
Keenum said the memorandum would create a partnership to assist FAO in its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; reduce child mortality; ensure environmental sustainability; and enhance development activities.
This agreement will complement ongoing work the university is doing with FAO's sister UN organization, the World Food Program. That collaboration includes MSU research to develop a nutritional food source based on cashews. "Our food science, nutrition, and health promotion department will be leading the effort on this project," Keenum said.
He added, "One challenge in addressing world hunger is to find nutritious, inexpensive food products that don't require water and can serve a range of ages, from children to adults. Mississippi State has much expertise it could bring to bear that would benefit not only the efforts in other countries, but in our own."