By The People:
America's Role in Feeding The World
A Conversation About Hearts, Minds and Hunger

In January 2003 KVIE, the Central Valley's public television station, was proud to be one of the few PBS stations chosen to participate in an important effort to engage citizens across the country in conversation about America's changing role in the world.

Initiated by McNeil/Lehrer Productions, "By The People: America in the World" is a project that will include special national and local programming, and the creation of local forums where ordinary American citizens will gather to talk their hopes and concerns about the country's future.

Another goal of "By The People" is to demonstrate the connection between local and global concerns. With this in mind, KVIE will focus its own programming and a series of community discussion forums on America's role in feeding the world. While our country's military and political activities abroad dominate the news, the decisions we make about food aid, trade, and technology play a vital role in shaping how America is perceived abroad. Those same decisions will also directly affect our way of life in the Central Valley, and throughout the United States.

A booklet has been designed to help participants in these community discussion forums begin to grapple with a wide range of food-related issues. These pages are the result of many hours of research, discussion and collaboration among experts and average citizens. Invaluable help was received from our partners at the California State Library, The Great Valley Center, The U.C. Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the U.C. Cooperative Extension, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and Food First.

In addition we owe an enormous amount of gratitude to moderator and writer Craig Paterson who skillfully guided our deliberations and donated large amounts of time to the organization and writing of this material.

This booklet was designed to provide a framework for conversation, and should be seen as an open invitation for participation. While these topics are routinely discussed in the halls of power, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions around the world, many of us feel as if we've pushed to the sidelines of a vital national discussion about our nation's role in the world.

To quote another framing booklet produced by the "National Issues Forums" for the "By The People" project, "Our purpose is to invite a much larger group to the discussion table. We want to initiate a truly public discussion about what our relationship, as Americans, should be with other peoples of the world. What kind of world do we want to create for our children and grandchildren? What needs to happen for us to move in that direction? Our purpose is not to make the case for a particular point of view, but rather to frame a broad discussion that is informed by different points of view.

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