Bilateral meeting with Luke Lindberg, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, United States Department of Agriculture

Rome – FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, met today with Luke Lindberg, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), at FAO headquarters in Rome.

The Director-General welcomed the Under Secretary and thanked him for the longstanding and consistent support of the United States to FAO, and in particular conveyed his appreciation for the close technical collaboration with USDA.

Under-Secretary Lindberg thanked the Director-General for the opportunity to meet. He highlighted the potential of biotechnology in support of FAO’s mandate, and also referred to the unique comparative advantages and complementarities of FAO and the World Food Programme and noted the potential for even closer and more efficient collaboration.

The Director-General highlighted FAO’s broad technical expertise across crop production, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, its central role in standard setting and normative work through the CODEX Alimentarius and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), as well as its focus on supporting least developed countries (LDCs), land locked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS) overcome food insecurity and improve access to nutritious foods.

The two further discussed the centrality of science, technology, innovation and research to transform agrifood systems, including the potential of artificial intelligence to boost agriculture-based rural economies.