José Graziano: FAO’s greatest contribution in the region was introducing the concept of food security

The former FAO Director-General reflects on the structural challenges faced by Latin America and the Caribbean during his tenure as Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative of FAO for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2006 to 2011.

As part of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), we spoke with José Graziano da Silva, who served as FAO’s Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2006 to 2011, and later as the Organization’s Director-General at the global level. His leadership marked a key period for the region, during which the fight against hunger became a political priority shared by most countries.

In this interview, Graziano reflects on the structural challenges the region faced during his tenure, the impact of landmark initiatives such as the Parliamentary Fronts Against Hunger and the Latin America and the Caribbean Without Hunger 2025 initiative, and highlights the evolution of FAO’s approach toward a deeper understanding of food security as a human right and a top-level political issue. He also shares lessons learned and his views on Latin America’s role in both the origins and the present of the Organization.

-What were the main challenges during your tenure as FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean?

The greatest challenge in Latin America is its inequality, which is a structural issue related to land ownership, income distribution, language differences across the region and even within the same country. The region has huge social and economic disparities—far too many.

I also believe another challenge is that this is a continent rooted in agriculture. Historically, agriculture has been at the region's heart, going back to maize in Mexico. But little attention has been given to the distribution of that production. The focus has always been on increasing output, without considering how it is distributed.

FAO came to add that other dimension, which is just as important, if not more so, than production itself: how food is distributed. Ensuring that people have access to food is a different challenge from simply producing it.

-What do you consider to be FAO’s impact in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly during your tenure as Regional Representative?

I believe FAO's great contribution was to strengthen the concept and dimension of food security along with the notion of agrifood systems. Fighting hunger became a political priority for the vast majority of countries in the region, especially after the food price spikes of 2007–2008. That shift required significant political courage at the time.

I think FAO's most important contribution was promoting cooperation among countries around this issue.

-How do you view the region's role in the creation of FAO?

FAO was established in 1945 in the United States, in Hot Springs, during the founding conference. There were two camps among the participants. One group wanted an organization to support agricultural progress. It's important to remember that FAO was the first international Organization created after World War II, even before the United Nations.

That group wanted to share the technological advancements of U.S. agriculture, since the U.S. was the only country at the time with agricultural surpluses. All other countries in the region faced agricultural deficits.

The other group was led by John Boyd Orr, who would later become FAO's first Director-General. He argued that fighting hunger should be the Organization's top priority—not just producing food but ensuring that bread reached everyone.

That vision prevailed, thanks—interestingly—to the support of Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the U.S. President. She backed Boyd Orr politically, and together with her husband, President Roosevelt, made hunger the founding political priority of FAO. That focus was maintained for many years.

FAO was seen as a technical assistance agency for agriculture, supporting crop varieties, seeds, and fertilizers. The focus on fighting hunger came more recently as a top priority. And that focus came from outside the region, from Europe to Latin America.

-How did the experience of Brazil's Zero Hunger program and the International Conference on Agrarian Reform influence your time at FAO?

The influence of the Zero Hunger program was direct. It was the first major country-level initiative in a country with more than 150 million people, where, at the time, around 40% lived in extreme poverty, and the number of people experiencing hunger was the highest in the region.

To reduce that to zero in such a short time was a major achievement, and it even influenced the debate around the Sustainable Development Goals. It's no coincidence that Goal 2 is "Zero Hunger"—that comes directly from there.

That experience had an impact across Latin America, as it demonstrated that if a country has political will and determination, it is possible to eradicate hunger.

As for the Agrarian Reform Conference, it was held at a time when the issue needed to be revived. Agrarian reform had peaked in the 1960s under President Kennedy's policy of preventing "more Cubas" in the region by promoting better land tenure distribution, among other measures.

In 2006, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the idea of territorial development was revived, something essential for ending hunger and poverty. I believe that was the key contribution of ICARRD (International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development), and we hope that it will be repeated in Colombia next year. Because if there's one thing Latin America still needs, it's to drive territorial development, alongside food security.

-What lessons learned during your tenure are most important to pass on to future generations in the fight against hunger?

I believe FAO continues to learn every day. I think it's now clear that hunger is, above all, a political issue. That is the main lesson.

It's not just about finding new irrigation technology, or a seed here, or a product there that will eliminate hunger.

There's a well-known story: in the 1970s, FAO turned to Mexico and found Norman Borlaug, a scientist working on maize, sorghum, and rice. They took him to India to replicate his experiments, which yielded very good results and helped prevent a famine there in the early 1970s.

But that method of fighting hunger, through technology, required political support. If those varieties and products hadn't been disseminated and implemented, the results would have been limited. That's what FAO learned: political work must come first.

And I believe that is the direction we're moving in now. In these difficult times the world is facing, working politically with member countries is the most important task.

-Any message or congratulations to FAO colleagues on its 80th anniversary?

Well, it's a joy to reach 80 years—I'm striving for that personally—and I think one fundamental truth is that FAO has always had a top-quality technical team, with a high level of competence, and generally very dedicated staff.

They serve countries not out of personal interest, not just because of good salaries, but because they have a genuine vocation to spread FAO's mission.

-Which program do you consider the most significant during your tenure?

I believe one of the most important programs launched by FAO's Regional Office in Latin America was the creation of the Parliamentary Fronts Against Hunger. This has become a model replicated in many parts of the world.

Involving the Executive Branch and parliamentarians in the fight against hunger is essential. Mainly to ensure the fight against hunger is sustainable over time, we need laws. We even need to enshrine the human right to adequate food in the constitutions of our countries.

And not just that programme. Our region was also a pioneer in implementing the Latin America and the Caribbean Without Hunger 2025 initiative.

Now that we are celebrating FAO's 80th anniversary, we should be celebrating the end of hunger in the region. Unfortunately, that's not what the data shows. There is still widespread hunger, and in some countries, we are seeing setbacks.

But that is mainly due to policies that have not been implemented—or the erosion of political commitment by some countries to fight hunger.

And I believe it is increasingly important to recognize that food security and nutrition are human rights. They're not just any rights—they are fundamental to life.

And that's what we are here for: to spread that message worldwide.

Interview