ActionAid USA is raising concerns over the nomination of Cindy McCain as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
While McCain is a noted philanthropist, the U.N. food agencies need an ambassador who is committed to protecting the right to food and has a history of putting everyday people before big agribusiness corporations. A just and sustainable food system is inseparable from human rights and will not be built through acts of charity alone.
For too long, the office of the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. food agencies has prioritized the interests of U.S. corporations. Previous ambassadors have proposed policies at the international level that are out-of-step with U.S. food and farm policies at home, while seriously undermining international human rights agreements.
President Biden has claimed that “America is back” on the international stage, but we are still waiting for a U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. food agencies who will join the rest of the world and put human rights at the center of food and agricultural policy-making.
In the face of rising hunger, worsening climate change, and the Covid-19 crisis, the next ambassador must stand with and for the tens of millions of people who work in the food system, and for the families for whom the right to food means life or death.
Available for interviews: Tristan Quinn-Thibodeau, ActionAid USA National Campaigner; Alberta Guerra, Senior Policy Analyst (based in Rome)
Contact: Molly Boyle, molly.boyle@fpmgi.com, 202-777-3668