By Jarrett Lash
As Americans prepare for Thanksgiving, it’s worth remembering that the stability of our own food system is tied to forces beyond our borders. When a drought strikes Africa or conflict disrupts trade in the Black Sea, American farmers and families feel it – through volatile prices, disrupted supply chains and uncertain markets.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is one of the few institutions with the reach and credibility to steady those shocks – providing the data, standards and coordination to keep global markets from spinning out of control.
For the United States, engagement with FAO is not a matter of abstract diplomacy; it protects a $176 billion export economy, safeguarding rural livelihoods and ensuring that Americans – and the world – retain reliable access to food in an era of uncertainty.