One of the major challenges that the world will face over the next 30 years is producing enough food to feed the rapidly growing population. That’s why one former U.S. ambassador, who is also an Indiana farmer, says changes need to happen now to help reach that goal down the road.
“At the end of the day, we need to get involved to make sure we protect our ability to do what we do to grow the U.S. economy and to feed a world,” says Ambassador Kip Tom, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture during the Trump administration. He’s also the CEO of Tom Farms, which is based in Kosciusko County in northern Indiana.
Tom recently received the Certificate of Distinction from the Purdue Ag Alumni Association during their annual Fish Fry event last weekend.
As the world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion people by 2050, Tom says several things need to change quickly to be able to step up food production to be able to get more food to the people who will need it.
“First of all, it is in our own nation—it’s policy,” says Tom. “We need to make sure we have effective policy in Washington, D.C. and across every one of our statehouses across the country that allows us to bring innovations and the technologies we need to American farms. We also need to make sure we have a strong economy and that we are the backbone of global agriculture.”
Tom says the second obstacle is the trade influence from the European Union on their farm-to-fork initiative.
“I dealt with that every day when working in Rome. They tried to influence people around the world on their own beliefs that are ideological that will do nothing to feed people,” according to Tom. “At the end of the day, the United States needs to stay strong and make sure policy and Washington D.C. stands up for the American farmer and creates a strong economy for us.”
As far the current efforts to overcome hunger issues around the world, Tom says that better global food security will also lead to better national security here at home.
We know that people are migrating—they get caught up in human trafficking, illicit drugs and arms movement, and worst case, they get involved in terrorist activities, and that’s a threat to the United States and our allies around the world,” says Tom.
“We need to make sure that these people are fed, but again, we need to show them how to feed themselves. We can’t keep this trajectory of spending like it is to just do the humanitarian assistance. We need to do both—we need to increase productivity and they need to do it themselves.”
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s news report and interview with former Ambassador Kip Tom about solutions for increasing ag production to fight global hunger issues.
Photo at top: Ambassador Kip Tom, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture during the Trump administration, receives the Certificate of Distinction from the Purdue Ag Alumni Association during their annual fish fry event on Feb. 4, 2023. Photo: Tom Campbell, Purdue University.
