Election of Graziano has extensive political significance, says Faria

Antonio Carlos Ribeiro

The election of José Graziano da Silva as the new director-general of the UN agency for Agriculture and Food Security (FAO) at the 37th Conference of the body, 27 in Rome, is seen as a victory of diplomacy.

The coordinator of the Department for World Service, of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Inter-agency Standing Committee of the United Nations (IASC), Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, said that "reason will unquestionably beyond the competence of José Graziano" and has "a much wider political significance." He will take office in January 2012.

Graziano, which is already the FAO regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean since 2006, received 92 of the 180 votes counted, the election in which he defeated Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former foreign minister of Spain, and Franz Fischler, former agriculture commissioner of the European Union.

This means that "the FAO and World Food Programme (WFP) began the narrow view of aid and food distribution to a targeted approach to food security and sovereignty," said Faria.

Former Minister for Food Security and Hunger in the first term of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, his administration and participation in the creation of the Programa Fome Zero (Zero Hunger Program) - one of the most successful of the previous government - the feedback function that does not require only "technical qualities of their leaders, but a strong ability and political force to lead a new approach to policies related to food and agriculture," he insisted.

For the coordinator of the Department for World Service, which representing the LWF on IASC, the food security is not just a poverty issue, but mainly a question of justice. "It involves the entire food production system and affects corporate interest groups, governmental and transnational." Therefore, the management of overcoming poverty has established itself as the area of public administration.

In spite of resistance - such as Senator Alvaro Dias (PSDB-PR), who called him"alms-bag" and used the word "bum" in relation to the beneficiaries - this program became state policy and had such an impact great, that the newspaper Le Figaro said that Lula has put Brazil in modernity. "I heard from senior officials from FAO and WFP all sought a 'Brazilian' to occupy the highest position of the organization," said Faria.

From January, Graziano will face the problem of relatively low funding, compared with those of other UN agencies, which can slow the performance of this organ. Currently, FAO has a budget of US$ 1 billion, plus US$ 1.2 billion, coming from voluntary donations, which prevent the body helps more countries struggling in the food sector, despite the great expertise in agriculture.

The Brazilian victory is due in part to the Chancellor Antonio Patriota, who, in defending the name of Da Silva said that Brazil has adopted successful policies in agriculture and fight hunger, which can be applied in other developing countries.

"The formation of multiethnic and multicultural Brazil contributes to the adaptation of our proposals to the characteristics of other countries in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Asia and Oceania" he said.

Brazil managed to become the largest net food exporter in the world, combining the production of biofuels with food, and protect the environment in recent years, said the Brazilian Chancellor.