This post originally appeared on the Lincoln Journal Star.

By Doug Bereuter, Cochair, The Chicago Council's Global Agricultural Development Initiative; President Emeritus, The Asia Foundation

During my service in the US Congress I had the opportunity to serve on the House Select Committee on Hunger for its entire life until it was eliminated in 1995.

Although it also was active on domestic hunger and nutrition issues, as I was, my simultaneous membership on the House Foreign Affairs Committee shaped my interest in global agricultural and food security issues. My interest in those subjects was further enhanced during my subsequent leadership of the Asia Foundation, where I saw firsthand the severe undernourishment and related disease problems in large, impoverished parts of Southeast and South Asia.

These experiences, and a greater knowledge of the global food security issues, have motivated me to serve on an advisory panel for The Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Global Agricultural Development Initiative since early 2008. The bipartisan white paper we timely prepared that year was delivered to both the McCain and Obama campaigns. Its primary recommendations began to be put in place early the next year by President Obama, with congressional support, in the form of USAID's Feed the Future program. It was then leveraged internationally through the administration's initiatives at the subsequent G-20 and G-8 summits.

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