Rome roundtable lays groundwork for Global Alliance

An international roundtable hosted by Agriculture Minister David Carter at the World Summit for Food Security in Rome has laid further groundwork for New Zealand's Global Alliance initiative.

The roundtable was attended by around 20 countries including China, Japan, Uruguay, the United States, South Africa, India, Australia, France and the United Kingdom.


"The event was focussed on getting those who had already shown support for the Global Alliance in one room to discuss the key aspects of the proposal - ahead of, hopefully, a formal announcement at Copenhagen," says Mr Carter.


"The level of interest shown from both developed and developing countries is very encouraging and demonstrates that this is an idea whose time has well and truly arrived.


"New Zealand is now looking forward to convening an international meeting on the Global Alliance next year, and inviting other countries to take part.


"The Summit identified that one of the key challenges facing the world is how to increase food production to meet growing demand, while at the same time lowering greenhouse gas emissions.


"This is the same challenge the Global Alliance sets out to address by enhancing research across the globe on agricultural emissions reduction.


"Although there is still much work to be done, I am confident that the Rome roundtable has significantly progressed the Global Alliance," says Mr Carter.