This piece originally appeared on Agri-Pulse.
By Senator Pat Roberts
Editor's Note: Agri-Pulse and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs are teaming up to host a monthly column to explore how the U.S. agriculture and food sector can maintain its competitive edge and advance food security in an increasingly integrated and dynamic world.
Show me a nation that cannot feed itself, and I'll show you a nation in chaos. I've said it before and I'll surely say it again.
A nation's ability to feed itself depends on farmers. Farmers depend on agricultural research.
As the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and former Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I can confidently say that there is no issue in global security more timely or relevant than food security.
Tonight, one in nine people - that's almost 800 million worldwide, will go to bed hungry. That's more than double the population of the United States.
Around the world impoverished regions are facing increasing challenges in feeding their people - from political unrest and social conflict like what we face in places like Syria, to weather driven crises like what we currently see in East Africa.
Yet American farmers and ranchers are so efficient at producing food that we can aid less fortunate nations. In fact, in 1953 a farmer in Kansas by the name of Peter O'Brien had the idea that American farmers could give aid to other countries in the form of food. Eventually this idea led to what is now called Food for Peace, a program that provides aid to nearly every country in the world.