 Hello and welcome to today's briefing on US infrastructure and hunger lessons from the COVID-19 crisis and guidance for the future. My name is Eric Mitchell and I am the executive director of the Alliance in hunger, a coalition of organizations from diverse sectors committed to building the public and political will in hunger in the United States and around the world. At the Alliance we have seen the extreme pressures that the current crisis has put on food systems, both in the US and abroad. And I look forward to our discussion today. I would like to thank our friends at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for their partnership in pulling together this event today. I also want to thank Senator Sherrod Brown, who we will be hearing from in a few moments, and all of our speakers today. Before we begin, just a few housekeeping notes. Today's event is being recorded and live streamed on Twitter on the FAO North America page. The recording will be shared with participants in the next few days. You can also add to the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag build back better and food systems. In the meantime constraints, we will provide short introductions of our speakers a link to all of the speakers bios will be shared in the chat box. We invite you to share your comments and relevant links to in publications in the chat at the bottom of your page. Please use the Q&A box for questions that you have stating your name and affiliation. The panelists are welcome to respond to questions in the Q&A box or offer their comments in the chat box while they are not actively speaking. I would now like to turn things over to my friend and colleague, Vim Lindra Sharon, director of the FAO liaison office in North America. Vim Lindra, thank you again for your partnership and your leadership. Eric and warm greetings from DC to all our participants joining in from various parts of the world, and especially to over 40 staffers joining in from the hill. The Congressional briefing actually was designed pre COVID to it was designed to actually bring information to the staffers and help them understand what FAO Alliance what other players in this field are doing in the in the sector of food security and nutrition. It's just that COVID gave us an opportunity to really open it up worldwide and we now have people joining in from all corners of the world so thank you all very much. As Eric mentioned a special word of thanks to Senator Brown, who joins us today to share with us his vision and his ideas for those of you do not know. Senator Brown co sponsored the food supply protection act introduced last year, and is a strong voice behind the cause of ensuring that food reaches those in need, and supply issues supply chain breakages do not come in the way. We also would like to warmly welcome our other speakers. Hello, DDG, the best beg doll from FAO. We have Kelly at the scene from there we have our own share from National Farmers Union and carry Calvary from the feeding America. So very very warm welcome to all of you. We are nearly a year down since the pandemic started a couple of months more than a year down. And I think this is, we thought this would be a right time to take pause and really reflect upon the impact which the pandemic has had on the food supply system. And where, where did we go wrong, or where do you think the cracks really appeared, which need to be mended and mended fast, because this is a rest assured not the last pandemic that the world is seeing so these these things will keep coming. We have to gear ourselves to ensure that when such pandemics and other calamities do strike the food systems do not suffer. It is, it is really ironical that the in this beginning of this pandemic we saw food going waste, while people going hungry and this has happened right here in America it's not a story that we've been from the least developed countries of the developing world, this has happened in developed parts of the world in a speaker from feeding America will note and you will hear how food banks and other human service organizations experienced exceptionally high demand during the pandemic. And these pictures of miles and miles of cars lined up to take food of people who have never ever visited food bank before they are they are actual pictures area they were reality. And how still the food bank struggled, while on the other end meat plants closed down, while on the other end food was thrown milk was it was milk was spoiled and thrown but not could not reach those in different needs. We have had the problem, even pre covid of destructive supply chains and chronic and acute hunger is that the pandemic really made the situation acute, and has brought back into focus, the need to really mend, mend, mend the processes and the whole supply chain. What are the possible actions and government working both domestic and international partners we have a responsibility to facilitate the movement of workers and of Agri food products it's imperative that countries keep the food supply chain on both domestic and international it's imperative that trade restrictions do not come into play where unnecessary because it hurts both the producers and the consumers and in the long run, the whole global food supply chain. So these are these are important issues, I can go on and on on what needs to be done what happened, but I'm sure that would be taking away from the thunder of all our speakers, who have some very valuable insights and points to share with all of you. So, I will stop here, and I will welcome all of you again, and request all of you to be really participative, because there is no one solution our speakers will share that ideas they are extremely knowledgeable. They have seen what has happened around the world they have seen what has happened in US, they have worked in the area they will give solutions, but despite that let me tell you those are not the final solutions, and those are not the only solutions. Much of what comes will come from what you share with us, your ideas, what do you think could be possible solutions are going forward so please use the chat box, please be interactive please put your questions. Put your ideas there so that we can take this conversation forward, and we do not really stop right here with the webinar as if everything is done and dusted, but we need to really keep talking about these issues, and working on them and finding solutions in context which vary from country to country. So with those words, let me hand over the provovial virtual mic back to Eric to take the conversation forward. Thank you. Thank you for giving such a great summary of our conversation today. Before we before Senator Brown arise I'd like to turn it over to miss Beth back to Beth back to is the deputy director general of FAO, this back to is responsible for FAO's partnership and outreach work, including partnerships with you in collaboration rescue mobilization and private sector partnerships. Her full bio is in the chat deputy director general back to thank you for joining us today. Thanks very much Eric and thanks to my colleagues in our DC office and Linda and others for the invitation to be with you here virtually from Rome. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for joining us today at the FAO headquarters, and I would just say to start it's, it's a really, I think timely conversation and one that I really appreciate the organizers attention to putting this group of us together because even for me personally, I grew up on a family farm that still operates today in Indiana, just right in the state as well. So from the very productive fertile landscape of the Midwest. I've been here in Rome now with FAO working on these global issues for a year. I arrived in Rome four days before the country of Italy went into its own national lockdown, all tied to coven so this all comes very much full circle for me. I'm here with the US agricultural supply chain. I've spent time on the hill I've spent time in industry come again from a family farm, watching from Italy, all of the things that were happening in US agriculture and in US food and agricultural systems was quite striking. And in contrast to the things that we were seeing and observing here at FAO around the world. So, again, thank you for the invitation for putting this very important discussion together. And it's my pleasure to try to offer perhaps a few comments about the global perspective on some of what has come as a result of coven in the ways that we think about food value chains and now systems. So we'll have to admit this, this first slide is the depressing slide. This is the one that actually paints a pretty bleak picture for the state of hunger, the state of health, the state of poverty, the state of income inequality. So then Linda, I think referenced coven 19 came at a time when we were already beginning to move off track of so many important development goals that the world collectively has been trying to achieve. Since 2014, the decades long decline that we had been seeing in hunger around the world had ended. And now today we have more than 690 million people in the world, almost 9% of the world's population who are hungry. We have 650 million people considered obese, while 10% of the world's population are living in extreme hunger. So we have 3 billion people on this planet who cannot afford a healthy diet, a healthy and nutritious diet, not just safe and affordable, but healthy and nutritious. And at the same time, income inequality and gaps in our economic and fiscal resources continue to widen. And then when it relates to food and agriculture as a source of livelihood for so many around the world. This is all compounded by other very critical existing threats, whether that be conflict, natural disasters, climate change, pests and plagues, all of these are stressing, excuse me, our food systems and triggering food insecurity all around the world. Also, before talking about food systems or supply chain impacts directly in an audience like this, it is also increasingly important for us to collectively acknowledge the impacts that COVID-19 is having on children. This is our next generation around the world. It is really hard I think for all of us to appreciate the impacts that COVID is going to have over the coming years, whether that be on our next generations educational achievement and attainment on their mental well being, but also very particularly on their underlying health as supported physically by access to nutritious foods. We are already in just the year that has taken place as a result of COVID, seeing more childhood stunting, we are seeing and we are also seeing obesity numbers on the rise. And I just would continue to encourage all of us who work in food and agriculture to not lose sight of this focus that I think needs to come today more than ever on our young people on children. And as I said this next generation of contributors to society next generation for food and agriculture. This is an incredibly important aspect I think of how we need to target not only our ideas and our solutions but also to bring together a number of our efforts to ensure that we really do address these fundamental issues for them. COVID-19 when it came, it was clear that the disruptions were immediate. This was not a challenge, a pandemic that really sort of slowly found its way into our daily lives. It was so fast, so furious, and also I think has been an epidemic, a pandemic that we have realized has touched every life on this planet. There is no one that has been left unaffected by COVID-19 in some way. And for today's discussion, I think has been Linda pointed out in his opening, what it also has done is it has highlighted many of the fragilities of our contemporary food systems. The challenges that have emerged include access, not necessarily availability but access to safe, nutritious food at affordable prices. It has exposed in many cases the vulnerability of people, the vulnerability of employees, the vulnerability of a workforce, all across the food system. It has even demonstrated that in many cases the survival, the very livelihood, the very effectiveness of firms and industries, farms, businesses all across the food and agricultural value chain are at risk. Again, whether that be producers, manufacturers, traders, food processors, transporters or retailers. In the US, the ripple effects of a seemingly well-balanced system were also evident. Distribution channels were upended, which meant that food access was problematic. And this creates food security risks oftentimes for the most vulnerable of populations, whether that be those suffering from poverty, the elderly, young people, other disadvantaged groups. The things that produce, process and deliver food to consumers and businesses are today we know more than ever reexamining risks and uncertainties across all steps in the value chain from farmers to end customers. Surprisingly, all this creates uncertainty across the global value chain with distinct challenges for farmers, for producers, consumers, package good companies and retailers alike. Much depends very quickly on how we adapt to these new sensitivities and how we find a way together to return to pre pandemic norms and standards. Options to food systems also create opportunities to drive longer term transformation, including for organizational and social innovation, low and high tech innovation, automation, digitalization and other technologies are increasingly being adopted that will better protect workers, consumers and all of those engaged in the food and agricultural value chain. 2019 has indeed given us an opportunity to rethink solutions to labor shortages to evaluate evaluate value chains and to consider new approaches to logistics and infrastructure. And if we are to maintain the aspirations of what is known as the agenda 2030 building back better is the only option ahead of us. And therefore some of the fundamental longer term challenges to the sustainability of food systems still need to be overcome and factored into response and recovery plans. In this context, I would argue that we should aim to catalyze today more than ever the transformation to food systems that are resilient to shocks and even climate change related events. To ensure individual health and well being, we need to promote inclusion and improve environmental and economic sustainability by increasing efficiency and reducing waste. In this sense, FAO has been working on its own COVID-19 response and recovery program, an initiative that was structured around several key objectives generated from country level national governments that are considered to be inspirational regarding what needs to be done in the coming years to create better food systems. Let me very quickly go through these few items and then we'll close and allow for the other speakers to come in to follow. And I think this gives us an increasingly important opportunity to increase the adoption of technical and institutional innovations, all along the supply chain, whether that's ensuring improved food and input logistics and distribution, our food procurement practices, the adoption of e-commerce and other types of important platforms. There is increasingly an opportunity for us to bring more innovation into these supply chains. FAO can strengthen the capacity to enhance food safety and nutritional quality across food systems, focusing on capacities that quickly facilitate a switch from emergency or crisis mode to maintain food safety to really rethink and expand food safety infrastructure, regulations and technologies. We can increase our capacity to reduce food loss and waste in a more inclusive and sustainable way through innovations, whether that be product reformulation, processing, packaging and preservation of better quality, safe and nutritious food products, including those that would have a longer shelf life. We can enhance the capacity of agri-food enterprises and value chain stakeholders as being key drivers of food systems transformation. This includes interaction with the private sector, more public-private partnerships and bringing more dialogue and engagement among key stakeholders. We can work to attract investment for the green recovery of food value chains to help address the short-term disruptions that are being caused by COVID-19 while laying the foundation for a more green and resilient post-crisis recovery, reducing, for example, sustainability conditions to financial stimulus packages or financial products and by reducing these higher levels of environmental and sustainability risks. And finally, I think more than ever, there's the opportunity for more improved institutional and policy environment reform. This is at the global, the regional, the national and even the states, the state and local levels. This needs to include an analysis of the trade-offs of certain policies, incorporate more dialogue among policymakers and key stakeholders, all to ensure that we bring, I think, much more concerted effort to address these immediate impacts, but be able to also together support the transition to more sustainable food systems in the long term. In closing, let me just say that while many of these that I have touched on are considered global concepts focused on food systems transformation. I think they are quite relevant to the discussions taking place in this very session and across the United States and other advanced food and agricultural economies about the need for more efficient, inclusive, and now more than ever resilient supply chains. I'm convinced that ag tech and food tech advancements will drive this and that policy and social innovations and strategic partnerships and collaborations will also be required. Again, thank you to all of you for participating in today's conversation. Thanks again to my colleagues, Eric to you for helping put today's dialogue together and I so look forward to hearing the comments of Senator Brown, and so many other important speakers as we advance this important conversation. Thank you. Thank you, Beth for such a great presentation, and I'm hoping that those slides can also be available to the to the group later on. It is now my distinct pleasure to welcome Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio. Senator Brown has represented the state of Ohio since 2007. He serves as Senate Committee on Banking Housing and Urban Affairs. He also serves on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and as co chair of the Senate hunger caucus. Again and more complete bio is in the chat box, but Senator Brown I will turn it over to you. Thank you so much for your presentation and enjoyed the comments and as Bechtel thanks for your service with the work you're doing and I, I years ago I, many of you know that George McGovern served as, as us ambassador to the un agencies for food and agriculture I sit at Senator McGovern's desk in the Senate floor, and I spoke with him one time maybe a decade ago and you have probably heard the story because I wasn't the only one he told it to about his time in Rome. And he told me about an audience he had with Pope John the 23rd neither George nor I was Catholic but the story is still great. Again, he said to McGovern when God asked did you feed the hungry you can say you surely did and that was that to George McGovern was one of the most meaningful moments of his life and all of you can say the same so thank you probably won't have a pope say that to you but you can say it to each other and you can tell your children and your grandchildren of, of your service and how important that is. The pandemic has been, as we know the great revealer it's laid bare this racial disparities income inequality in our society. It reminds us that hard work isn't paying off for all that many people in this country whether it's a working mother and Tony halls Dayton, who's had to rely on snap bags for the first time to put food on the table, or the worker at the meat packing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota faced with a nearly impossible decision of choosing between a paycheck or protecting her family from the virus. So how many had to choose her paycheck, and how many came down with coven working at that plant the pandemic also revealed just how fragile our food system is we see all the pictures of farmers plowing under crops and Darry's dumping milk, because of the decline in food supply and we have the most efficient food supply system in the world but it's not nearly as resilient. As so many told us it was the just in time system is a marvel of logistics and modern farming, but it resolved in the destruction of 10s of millions of pounds of food at the same time is unemployment was storing businesses across the country food banks were opening food distribution sites with cars waiting in line for miles in Ohio the we relied on the National Guard to to volunteer at food banks because most food banks, at least in my state I assume everywhere most of the volunteers are older and we're probably not a good idea and many didn't decided not to volunteer as a result. The good news, we did step up to provide relief to millions of people last year in March, and then again in March, especially in March with the with the American rescue plan. We increased and made it easier to access snap benefits we help farmers find new markets for crops we provided universal free school meals to children. We need to seize the moment as we build on this pro on this progress I leaving the Senate that that was on March 6 we had been in but voting all night. From for 1213 hours to the final vote was about noon 1230 something like that on Saturday, March 6 and like sending Nixon Senator Casey on the Senate floor is one of the world champions of children in our society, nationally and internationally I would add he we were just talking as I was walking out in a reporter said what do you think tell me what you think and I said this is the best day of my career, my professional life because what we did in that bill from helping pensioners to what we did with snap benefits what we did with Medicaid especially what we did to expand something I've been working on for eight years to expand the child tax credit. 92% of people in my state 92% of Ohioans will benefit from that it will reduce the poverty rate in half so we seize the moment to build on that progress we're not done. Too many people work full time yet corporations don't pay them enough to put food in the table. Too many children go without during summer months and weekends and during vacations. Our food banks are stretched the breaking point, and we need to improve our food system make it more inclusive and resilient as Ms. Bechtel said, we can ensure that men and women working in packing plants are on food production lines are treated with the dignity they deserve and are at a workplace that values their dignity. The next week is a celebration of something probably most of you have never heard of its workers Memorial Day. We every late April every year in this country we celebrate those workers who were injured on the job or killed in the job. I've been involved in this since some some years ago. So workers Memorial Day rally and Lorraine Ohio and I was given this pen that you may or may not be able to see it's a depiction of a canary in a bird cage the mind workers took a canary down in the mines. There was no union strong enough to protect me no government that cared enough to protect him in those days. And workers are on their own and they are still too often on their own we know so many of them were we we we honor workers Memorial Day. We honor all the workers who get sick and passed away we know so many of them were meat packing workers last year because they didn't have a union strong enough for a government that care enough to protect him. We can do more to help small and medium sized farmers grow their business and increase the amount of locally grown crops and livestock in their own communities. Yesterday in the banking and housing committee on the rural economy where we heard a lot about all the ways corporate consolidation and agriculture has and Senator tester who is an organic farmer in Montana and Senator testers words how the ag and corporate consolidation is simply dried up his words dried up communities around the country. The conservative politicians blame that they think all the answers are more drilling more fracking more coal more oil than that's going to rebuild rural America surely not. It's what we've done to agriculture in this country in so many ways. We're going to do more to make sure no neighborhood no town no county is without a market that sells fresh food my wife and I live in Cleveland and zip code 4 4105 that zip code and the first half of 2007 had more foreclosures in the zip code in the United States. There is not a grocery store particularly close to the zip code. Not outside but not particularly close certainly not walking distance to many many families that live in this neighborhood. If we're serious about ending hunger. We will do more to help people's hard work pay off there's not there's there's just not much dignity and a job if it doesn't pay enough to put food on the table would Dr King said no job is menial if it has an adequate wage attached to it but so often it doesn't. We made more. I think we made important progress with with that in the rescue plan with the dramatic expansion of the ITC and CTC. Now we get to work to make those expansions permanent. Some some don't want to don't want it beyond one year. I think the majority of the Senate wants to see it permanent as we work on all of that we need your voices in your stories and I'll close with this every year. Just last last last week we did this which is becoming annual event I asked six of my colleagues three Republicans and three Democrats to join me in the Senate floor to read from Dr. King from the Birmingham jail and most of you aren't old enough to remember this but most of you know the history I assume that Dr King in 1963 while in jail was for doing what he did so well with civil disobedience he wrote on mostly scraps of paper a letter to moderate investors who were saying to Dr King yeah we want you we want voting rights we want equality we want the civil rights bill we want the voting rights bill but don't go too fast and so his letter. The part of the letter that when we divided into seven so we each read apart the part that I always grab as the. And it includes these words when he said progress after working real progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability and it in progress comes because of your activism and how you've devoted your work and what you're doing Mr Mitchell and is back to on all of you and it it really really matters so thank you for having me for a few minutes and thanks especially for your service to people in this country and people around the world. Thanks so much. Thank you Senator Brown for all that you are doing on on Capitol Hill and leading this effort and thank you for your for being a champion for our cause. I'm next I'm now going to turn it over to Kelly out of Sina. Kelly has an extensive experience in both the federal and private sector worlds, including a lone career as chief counsel for the US House of Representatives, Committee on Agriculture and senior counsel in the office of the general council at the US Department of Agriculture. Kelly now serves as the director of federal government affairs for for bear. Kelly, I'm going to ask you. Once one question I love to get your thoughts from your perspective and background. What has us da done in response to go for COVID to try and fill the gaps and breakdowns in our food systems. And where do you see opportunities for private sector companies to engage and make improvements. So good morning good afternoon the evening to everyone on the call. First before I begin answering your question I want to thank the Alliance in hunger, and also at they own North America for having me here this morning. As Eric mentioned, I used to work on Capitol Hill for the House Agriculture Committee so I definitely rose the opportunities to talk about nutrition and food insecurity because that was like my first love. And I think that what we, you know, saw during the pandemic and you know that's and then Linda have so eloquently and the senator have pointed out is that we saw the vulnerabilities to our food systems. You know, there were, I think here in America, we look at our food system, our cultural system as one of the best in the world. But what we saw is that it wasn't resilient enough to be responsive to the needs that occurred during the pandemic, not as quickly as possibly that was needed. USDA responded by creating this farmers to families food box, and that was made available through the coronavirus assistance program that was passed by Congress. And so with this farmers the families food box, it was something that was needed, because, as I think a senator Brown pointed out, there were, you know, fields being plowed, there was, you know, food going to waste there was no being done. And at the same time you had, you know, people that were in great need because they were, you know, out of work restaurants hotels of food service businesses they were all closed. And so you have this gap of this, you know, increased surplus of goods of commodities, and this increased the need, but no way to kind of, you know, connect the two. And so, you know, the farmers the family food box was a solution to that and so with that program. USDA purchase, you know, food boxes, they worked with national local regional distributors to get boxes of food and commodities to the organizations that have been, you know, get those food boxes to the people in need and probably carry. We'll talk about that in greater detail when she's when she's asked the question. But, you know, that program supplied I think as I saw last week 157 million food boxes and that was, you know, really good. I think what we've seen now is that with this current administration. They're going to discontinue that program because they believe there was some administrative challenges there's some things that can be improved. But just that the, the need to have that show that when we have a pandemic when we have an economic crisis, we need to be able to be responsive, you know, in a quicker manner. And so I'm sure there will be lessons learned from the program that can be applied going forward. Secretary Bill Sack of USDA mentioned that there's going to be more reliance on the assistance. The food assistance program, which is basically a program that is run through food banks, and also thinking about a new dairy program so there's going to be some restructuring of kind of like what we saw with that farm family food box. And just the need and the, the existence of that program shows that we need to think about having some type of permanent plan in the future. I think as the ninja, you know, pointed out, this is probably not the the last economic food crisis that we may undergo. So I think that we should learn some lessons from this that we can apply going forward, particularly as we starting to have, you know, conversations, you know, with the UN and other, you know, entities around global policies. You know, this is a policy that should be taken into account. And to your question about, you know, what can corporate America, what can companies do. I think that even though USDA has, you know, technical officers and people that share this information with growers and how they can participate in these different programs. You'll be surprised to know that a lot of our growers people that, you know, purchase seats and other profit section measures from us. They didn't know about the program, or they had questions. And so, you know, one simple thing that corporate America can do what companies can do is make sure that we are communicating and that our growers know about the programs that are available to them through the federal government. And of course, you know, we can also be supportive, making sure that we play a role, figuring out whether it's, you know, information, or there's something else that we need to do. Thanks Kelly for your for your for your comments and your thoughts, particularly on the role that corporate America can play and also just being able to disseminate that information so folks know what resources out there and recognizing that there is there needs to be some type of permanent solution to ensure that those gaps are filled. I'm not going to turn it over to our fantastic policy experts. Aaron Shire is the senior government relations representative for the National Farmers Union, an organization that advocates for family farmers ranchers fishers and their communities through education cooperation and legislation. Kerry, Kerry Calvert is the vice president of government relations for feed in America, whose mission is to advance change in America by ensuring equitable access to nutritious food for all in partnership with food banks policymaker supporters and the communities they serve. As we start out with a couple of questions for each of them, I encourage the audience members to ask questions that may have that they may have through the Q&A and chat features in your in your chat box. Aaron, let me start with you. The members of your organization farmers and ranchers occupy occupy that unique first step in the supply chain producing the food that sustains us overall. Can you talk about some of the weaknesses in our food systems that had the greatest impact on farmers and ranchers during the pandemic, and what needs to be done to address these issues. Hi, everyone, and thanks, Eric for the question really appreciate everyone joining this conversation today and really appreciate the invitation for National Farmers Union to join the conversation. I just wanted to share that National Farmers Union is a member of the Alliance and hunger. We feel it's, it's an indispensable way for us to join with organizations working across the food supply chain to achieve a hunger free world. So I just wanted to highlight the importance of the Alliance for NFU. So the question that Eric asked. I think we've already really in some ways touched on these things because we all know I think at this point right the pandemic resulted in such drastic shifts in consumer demand, severe supply chain disruptions and leading to increase farmers difficulty finding markets. So, you know I wanted to start by talking about how the shutdowns were especially severe, where commodities were perishable I think Kelly mentioned right dumping of milk and other things like that. So fruits, vegetables milk really difficult to find markets quickly. Kelly mentioned farmers families food box was one really important quick pivot for that. I think a really stark example of the disruption that was unique to farmers that many experienced on the consumer end were disruptions with livestock producers in terms of meat packing facility shutting down. And I think this really highlights the fragility of our current system for everyone across the supply chain farmers, consumers and workers. And in part, this is due to a trend toward fewer and larger plants meat production per plant has increased threefold since 1976. There are 12 plants just 12 today produce more than 50% of our country's beef supply it's the numbers are similar in pork. This this creates a less nimble system and plants go offline. There's reduced capacity, and that also means you can't get processes many animals and this reduces access for farmers to markets and results in a lower price pay price for farmers increase prices for consumers in some cases shortages. So the pandemic highlighted this but this really is an issue right that preceded the pandemic and our member growers who represent about 200,000 farmers and ranchers across the country. Many were sounding the alarm about diminishing options for getting their products to market fewer smaller local original plants for them. So we need to schedule harvest states out more than a year. And so I think a solution to this is a need to expand our local and regional processing infrastructure. I think it also tells us in terms of what we saw with these processing plants that we need to further increase safeguards to protect worker health and safety. One other issue I wanted to touch on briefly that I think pertains to these disruptions that we saw and how they affected farmers was the vulnerability of our supply chain. Due to extreme concentration in our food system. The senator mentioned this the issue of corporate consolidation, a Senator tester, you mentioned that Senator tester brought it up just yesterday at a hearing. And this is largely a result of lax antitrust enforcement, and we need to make sure our antitrust laws are vigorously enforced, and that our markets for agricultural goods and services are competitive and fair. Thanks Aaron. Another question for you you discussed a few of the larger structure issues with our food within our food system, and how the pandemic really highlighted the need for significant reforms. Can you talk about ways that farmers and ranchers adapted to this crisis, and how effective were the federal programs and helping farmers addressing food insecurity. Sure. Well, farmers adapted. And largely through two means, one creative shifts in marketing their products and federal support. So combination of those two, which of course I shouldn't just say federal support trickle down to the, to the state level as well. So the issue of creative marketing shifts what I mean by that is that some farmers pivoted quickly to address the shifts in demand that occurred as a result of pandemic. For example, farmers producing for local markets were able to do this relatively well for for sort of their farmers markets community supported agriculture operations. There were many times where they were more direct to the consumer, because they had an easier time communicating with their, their members or their customers. In some cases, they created online order and delivery systems or previously they didn't do that, you know they'd acquire PPE and other things to make farmers markets safer. But the way these more direct market operators function during the pandemic shows how these systems improve overall system resiliency and remind us that we should be doing more to buttress those those local and regional and shorter supply chain systems to allow them to grow and flourish since they're often under resourced on the federal support side of things. And I think did already a really good job mentioning some of those things, but payments from USDA were really important through the coronavirus food assistance program. The food purchase and distribution programs of various sorts, especially the farmers to families food box played an important role, and it did help some farmers connect with consumers is sort of a unique program in that way. In terms of the sport, some of it is ongoing some of the shifting Kelly mentioned how the food box program is ending in its current guys, but will likely sort of have them have it in a modified form going forward due to some of the challenges with it administratively. And USDA also rolled out sort of their, their broader plan the pandemic assistance for producers program I'm not sure yet whether we're supposed to call that PAP or what. But that has a lot of different things in it that are important to assist farmers and thus of course ensure that food is getting onto consumers tables. But one thing I want to touch on before I wrap up here is that with all of those things the federal support and the pivoting that farmers were able to do. There were holes. There were holes in federal support, early rounds of the coronavirus food assistance program left out many smaller and underserved growers, there wasn't enough outreach. Kelly talked about that importance of making sure folks know about the programs and what's available. And I think we've already touched on some of the shortcomings of the food box program. So I won't go in depth there really, but the bottom line is there, there needed to be greater access for all producers to that program who wanted to make sure they could serve people in their community who needed that food so I think some lessons learned here is that farmers were remarkably resilient and capable of adapting federal investment was key and helpful. But there are some holes and that support and we need to make sure support is distributed equitably and that it's accessible to all farmers who need it, and not just to the best resource. Yeah, thanks Aaron and I think your comments has started a number of questions but before we turn to the Q&A. I'm going to turn things over to Kerry and ask Kerry a few questions and give her a chance to make comments and respond. Kerry, very early on in the crisis we noticed massive disruptions in food availability through food banks do both to increase demand and difficulties in sourcing product. What were some of the biggest challenges your network faced. So, thanks so much for for that question, you're right. You know, early on in the pandemic first hit our food banks were seeing a double demand, you know, some food banks were reporting like 100% increase in demand others 50% 60 diverged out. Over the last year to about a 50 to 55% increase in demand, you know, 40% of those that were coming to us had had not needed emergency food assistance before so right when the pandemic first hit. Frankly, it was just a mismatch of supply and demand at our network right demand was much higher than the supply. But the nature of trying to provide emergency food assistance to double the normal amount of people in a public health pandemic meant that our food banks had to shift to, you know, drive through distributions with more boxed non perishable product. We just learned how to innovate and do perishable and non perishable together, but that meant that at the same time that we needed more non perishable product for increased needs from the community consumers who before the pandemic were, you know, 50% of their their daily meals from food service and other consumer facing businesses, everyone was at home eating, right. So there is a run on partial perishable and non perishable food at our retail system at the same time that there was a run on our non profit retail system, if you will, to use an analogy for our food banks we hear often, you know, I'm going to echo the comments that a lot of others have made here, all of us have said, you know, our food supply chain is designed for efficiency and affordability and just in time delivery and that is not always compatible with resiliency and flexibility and being able to turn on a dime. I mean, looking back the fact that collectively as a nation 50% of where we accessed and consumed food from the fact that that up to 50% of that access has changed over the last year. I'm surprised that we didn't see more disruption looking back right. So you know we did see some resiliency, but there are still some some gaps there and I'm happy to happy to get to that when it's time. Thanks Kerry. Another question for you looking forward, especially since infrastructure has become a front and center issue here on Capitol Hill. What consideration should policy policymakers make or take into account so we do. So we do not end up in such a fragile food security situation during the next crisis. Yeah, that's a, that's a great point, you know, I think America supported the Food Supply Protection Act that was introduced last year and I think there are a lot of great ideas from that some of them have been incorporated, broadly speaking and the American Rescue Plan Act with some funding and some direction to USDA to, to try to use the funds to, you know, make our food system more resilient and certainly we're all learning new ways that infrastructure can be defined. We can make the care infrastructure human infrastructure, but also, frankly, you know, how about the physical infrastructure of how our food moves, you know, a lot of fruits and vegetables grown domestically are sold into our food service and restaurant as well when that demand is disrupted, you know, farmers can't afford to harvest pack and transport the food to a food bank to the to donate it you know there's there's not enough finances there so frankly, you know, there's not a lot that the federal government can do to establish, you know, funding like it comes down to money, right. People are like farmers lost paying customers, and they need to be compensated to provide that food to people that can't afford to go through food banks or other charitable institutions, you know, we need to fund that resiliency in our food supply chain otherwise, you know, food banks can't afford to pay at all and growers and producers can't afford to do so either they donate again, but we know much more could be done with, you know, adequate funding when there's these supply chain disruptions, not just say, you know, we know that perishable foods are healthier for us. I love. I really do like how Secretary Vilsack is framing this as not just food insecurity but it's nutrition insecurity perishable food costs more to obtain a, you know, and the retail sector and it costs more for food banks and you know the local agency partners that we're working with to distribute. You know there's, there were challenges in USDA's operation of the farmers to food box program, but at its core what they were trying to do was, you know, purchase food that didn't have a buyer at the time, and distributed as quickly as possible, and to try to account for, you know, any infrastructure gaps, right. We think there's more equitable ways to do that and we're eager to see how USDA will, you know, retool things with the funding they have from the American Rescue Plan Act. You know, I think we need to fundamentally realize that there is a cost, and it will cost money to make our food supply chain more resilient in terms of reimbursing the growers and producers and also enabling that distribution of perishable nutritious food to people that need it. Thanks, thanks Kerry. Aaron, do you have any thoughts on that question or anything else to add, which is curious. No, not at the moment I thought that was an excellent response. Sorry. So we do have a first question from the audience. Here's a quick my first question is can the panelists please comment on the role that the local and regional food systems can and or should play in fostering resilience and food systems. And to start and really quickly, I think local and regional food systems are great. State departments of ag agriculture are deeply embedded in this issue in their community and I think are in a really strong place to make a lot of these connections. We saw some of this happen in the pandemic so for instance California utilized unused special crop block grant funding from fiscal year 2021 to put money into the farmers to families produce program that our food banks and run with a lot of farmer funds in the state of California. I think it again comes down to funding. You know we need to make sure regional food systems are equipped with the money to do this. That sentiment. I think there's a, there's certainly been a lot more investment in local and regional food systems in recent years but still not nearly enough. The, in the last farm bill in the 2018 farm bill, sort of one of the, I guess you would say the flagship program for local and regional food systems lamp, which includes the farmers market promotion program the local food promotion program and the value added producer grant program. No, it, it now finally has $50 million in funding per year but that's very, very low compared to a lot of other, a lot of other ways that we invest federally in local and regional food systems I think there's an opportunity to do more and strengthening those systems those direct connections to consumers can be really good for farmers to capture a larger share, larger share of the food dollar, the retail food dollar, and can also be really good for consumers to get healthy food, fresh food. So I think that that we need to do more to invest there. Thank you. Here's a question as he is not a policy related question but love to get your thoughts on it. How do you feel the media in the United States and elsewhere has covered food security issues during coven. Do you think the general public understands the scope of the problem, and was the story told of how households became vulnerable and what needed to be done. Did that really help you know was that was that helpful. Do you think. Interesting question and you know. I'm dating myself here but I was at feeding America during the, you know, 2008 2009 2010 recession as well. And one of the things that I've noticed is that when there's a big national catastrophe, whether it's a recession, or maybe a regional natural or, say a global pandemic. It serves as a great equalizer. People are able to understand this could happen to me this could happen to a friend of mine this could happen to a family member, and they're able to. I think relate in a way, and that is very very helpful in terms of reducing stigma in terms of food insecurity, it can happen to anyone you can, you know, experience economic insecurity and need additional resources, and that is nothing to be ashamed of at all. So I think that's helpful. But in a way. And it certainly has brought attention to how fragile the service sector economy is how you know there are challenges with financial security for a lot of hourly wage burners and those were a lot of the public that was impacted by the pandemic. I do think that the general public wants to feel like things are getting back to normal. I think one of the things we'd like to see is attention paid to the fact that it will take, first of all, normal was not working for everyone equally in our economy, right, people were working hard, still qualifying for food assistance and still needing help putting food on the table. You know, a large part of people that come to us for help our food insecure and make too much to qualify for federal nutrition programs. So normal didn't work for everyone, prior to the pandemic. But we also realized that it will take a while for people that were already food insecure to recover. And we want to make sure that the public's attention is on that throughout the recovery we need to make sure the recovery is equitable for everyone. Beth, I'm interested in getting your thoughts from a global perspective to that question if you're if you're able to respond. Yeah, sure. Again, from a from a personal perspective, it was a bit, you know, sort of surreal to watch what was happening in in the US and how that was being covered at a time when you know here in in Italy and Europe we had already gone into a national lockdown and we're taking such what seemed like draconian and stringent sort of restrictions across this country to to navigate the the surgeon in the pandemic. But when you now step back and we're in this a year and we've seen how the pandemic has spread from continent to continent country to country. One of the things that really does concern me in today's environment is that many of us. I think it's sort of under undergirds carries comment. We each are kind of looking at getting out of the coven sort of situation through our own sort of country level or our own sort of state or community level lens, you know how soon. The lockdown in a way in Rome right the cafes and the pizzerias aren't open here and that's all people in Rome can sort of think about is how soon does that come back. When at the same time we realize that even just I think today it was announced that today may be the highest number of cases total worldwide in the last year. We're thinking about the impacts that are taking place in Brazil that are happening in Venezuela that are happening in Iran that are happening in sub Saharan Africa. You know these other parts of the world that that still are are just struggling from a containment perspective, let alone have the hopes of really you know navigating vaccinations or even beginning to come back to these conversations with resiliency and building back better and and beginning to really rethink a number of their own, you know, programmatic requirements so there's there's a disparity there and I hope that conversations like this, allow for all of us to kind of keep our understanding on what has been a global challenge that requires global solutions that we can't go back into really sort of our more nationalistic kind of narrowly focused, you know, prisms and lenses but really need to take this opportunity. The media the question about the media that that is one where we have a real opportunity with them to I think tell that broader story and I think I think it's probably not been done as effectively is as it needed to be. Thank you Beth and Vim Linger I see that you have your hand raised. Eric just to compliment on what Beth said and to for the benefit of our listeners just want to draw their attention to what we have at FAO the data lab the data lab, which actually scrutinizes 270 newspapers around the world and the latest tweets and we have a semantic search engine for news collected on Google. So it does a search for COVID-19 impact analysis and on daily important impact on food security food value chains etc. And this is what we then provide the countries with facts and information as evidence so just invite all our listeners and all our participants to Google FAO data lab and you'll get all information there so there is a lot of information available through the media which FAO really gets into and uses to generate evidence for governments or just just the information there. Thank you so much for that and Aaron I have a question for you. What kind of laws and policies either encourage consolidation of meat packing plants or make local slaughter, both selling difficult. I think the issue has more to do with some of the lack of enforcement of some of our existing laws that have allowed for quite a bit of consolidation in that industry. On the other hand, part of it is just the fact that I think Carrie mentioned this and others have to about how some of these systems sees these bigger plants or larger scale things are efficient. They are, they do create certain efficiencies, but they may be more likely to crack or to break under certain pressures. And so part of that is a structural economic issue. And part of what I think we need to do is given the fact that the economies of scale aren't in the favor of some of the smaller plants necessarily is we need to find creative solutions to to helping existing plants expand to accept animals that are uniform in a certain way and then also to help new plants come online where it makes sense. But for example, say a mobile processing unit that can get around to different locations where there's just not enough supply in that region, but where those mobile units could help so I don't think it's just about laws I think in some cases with the scale of, of me processing it's, it's kind of about challenging economics. Thank you and Aaron actually I'm going to keep you in the quote unquote hot seat just for one more. Another question and actually, this part can go to both you and Beth to get a global perspective. This is around the challenges that black indigenous and Latino farmers are facing or have faced in this part of this discussion, can you just, can you touch on some of that, what underrepresented farmers are facing as part of as a result of COVID and then baby Beth from your perspective from from the countries that you are working with and partnering with in the farm, the local farmers that you're working there, you can also discuss maybe some of the challenges that they are also But Aaron, I'll start with you and then keep it open. Sure. There are major inequities in our current food system. And certainly, I think this connects to some of the issues I was talking about earlier. Some farmers of all stripes are are operating on a smaller scale or connected into the same networks and might not be reached, say by our federal support programs and we need to make sure that that USDA is reaching everybody and supporting everyone. And I think that this also connects to farmers of color underserved producers may be producing at all scales but I think this does connect to that issue of local and regional food systems. I think it comes down to issues of land access and inequities around that. So, I think there are a lot of different issues in that regard. Sure. So, I mean, clearly, you know is as we work in so many of the developing countries where we're working with wide constituency of farmers whether that's based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, heritage and tradition. You know, we think about how we can best support the farming practices sustainable agricultural production practices and ultimately livelihoods for women in agriculture for young people in agriculture. For those who have, again, sort of struggled to, to, you know, advance their livelihoods and their their business operations. So, a particular group that we know that has been incredibly affected are again women farmers around the world. And, you know, that is, I think something that this pandemic, again, regardless almost socio economic status has revealed as you think about women in the workforce in a professional setting but also as caretakers for a family, whether that's the generation ahead of them or the generation of children that they're raising, providing that kind of family support. Many times, especially in Africa, we have women farmers who are not only, you know, navigating the business but they're also doing the work at the same time that they also are supporting families. And so when you have not only a pandemic that creates this health crisis for families and for communities but is now a real economic crisis as they can't get products to marketplaces or can't have access to other kinds of production inputs. It creates and amplifies magnifies the problem even further. And so, again, I think for us to answer that question, it may, you know, sort of be a bit different than a question of ethnicity as it is almost a regional or a demographic question but I would say that, you know, those are underserved populations that we focus on, in really all of our programming at FAO. Now with the pandemic, we're really sort of trying to make sure that, you know, not only are we navigating support for their agricultural production practices but now having to also, I think, be mindful of the underlying effects on their overall livelihoods and finding ways to support that through jobs promotion and other kinds of infrastructure and resiliency programs is something that's been really important for us. Thank you for that. I just wanted to add in that, you know, one of the questions we've had for USDA is, you know, how can you know the Department of Agriculture procures and buys a lot of food, right, and there are already federal procurement, you know, administrative procedures for land and procurement for small businesses for veteran owned businesses and for disadvantaged business enterprises. So, one of the questions we have to USDA is, you know, are you able to do more set of sides in your procurement of food. Buying food every year is that, you know, can you do a pilot? Are there other things you can do to see how federal procurement can help support not only local and regional food systems, but also support growers that need the economic help. You know, I don't think it gets at the whole of the problem at all. But, you know, I think we should ask how can this, how can equity or equitable access both really be looped into all aspects of, you know, how the federal government is purchasing and providing food. So much for, thank you everyone for your comments. I have another question. This is back to a policy specific policy question. You know, previous COVID relief packages as you all know had a lot of expansions in SNAP program, WIC and other domestic nutrition programs. What are some of the opportunities that we see looking ahead that can make some of those temporary extensions and improvements permanent. Just want to get as we since we have Hill staffers in the audience, just want to give them a chance to see where they can fit in and helping to make some of these improvements permanent. I would love to see a lot of the investment in nutrition security that were in the American Rescue Plan Act extended for the length of the recovery. You know, I think was a CBO that estimated that returned a full employment for all sectors impacted by the pandemic wouldn't be until 2024. And that timeline may may shift as, you know, economic conditions change, you know, for instance, we estimated that last year that up to 50 million people could be food insecure in 2020, you know, thanks to a lot of the federal investments and, you know, an improvement in unemployment rates. Our estimates of food insecurity are 42 million in 2021. So we've already seen, you know, that things can shift quickly but the role of the federal government in providing resources, not only for the immediate urgent need but throughout the recovery is just parallel, you know, for every one meal we provide SNAP provides nine. So there is definitely no way we're able to meet the need without a robust investment from, you know, the federal government and from Congress and we're hoping to see continued interest in strengthening federal nutrition programs. I would echo those sentiments as important as it is in thinking about right how we, during the pandemic, made sure excess crops and livestock had a place to go. SNAP and things like universal school meals, access, these sorts of things are crucial. And I think it's important to take the opportunity given some of those expansions and strengthenings during the last year or so to continue to move the ball forward in that area. So we certainly support that as well at National Farmers Union. Thank you. I'm trying to go through some of our, some of the questions that we have not already answered and so to pass there's a number of questions in the chat box there looking for partnership opportunities. So that could be ways for you guys to respond. And within the chat box. One particular question was, and probably said this already but you just say it again is like, how much of the critical infrastructure for food security was unprepared for the pandemic and I guess what parts of the infrastructure can be improved in a post pandemic world. I might be interested in hearing how the private sector and, and other NGO partners on this briefing would respond to this but I mean, there's a balance between, you know, do the gaps indicate that we need to build additional infrastructure that we need to have more mobile flexible options, whether it's mobile meat processing mobile canning, for instance, a lot of the areas where our food banks have partnerships with farmers. The area that that food bank serves is saturated and can't take any more fresh produce, right, even when we're paying the pick and pack out costs for the donated produce you know we're paying the labor and the packing cost for the farmer he's donating the food. More so it costs so much to ship it that, you know, produce donations were going unmatched in our network. You know feeding America stepped up and we're covering half of the cost to transport that. So, you know what's more affordable mobile canning operation or, you know, trucking crops from one state to a next because there's an oversupply here and there's a needed market here in our state. Frankly, I think they're both going to be a very similar cost, but we need mobile flexible operations if we have decreased food access in communities. That's where, you know, mobile grocery mobile food distribution. You know, that is where you can add, you know, some of those that additional flexibility for what's already not there. Let's, thanks Kerry let's go ahead and we can actually, we'll still start wrapping up and I would like to provide each of you an opportunity to provide a very top line message that you would like participants to to walk away from like you like the audience to walk away from, especially since we have a number of hill staffers here. Aaron I'll start with you. I think that the, the pandemic has shined light on many of the shortcomings in our food system. I think we talked about so many of those today, and we need to build a more resilient and diverse farm and food system that ensures both that that farmers can earn a healthy living, and that nobody goes hungry. I know it's pretty high level but thank you for going for high level right. Yeah. Sure, maybe two points. One, I'm not sure if this is an international day or how it's recognized but I've been told by my team that today is national or international or world innovation and creativity day. There's a day for, for everything now but I think it's, it's an important reminder around a conversation like this to really highlight innovation and I saw a couple of comments in the chat and I know I referenced it a little bit in my comments as well. So that's everything from policy innovation. And I think Senator Brown really raises a lot of very important new ideas. I mean, I was going to say to this group it's been probably almost boy it's going on 20 years since I was on Capitol Hill myself and was a part of crafting the farm bill. And they've changed a lot in those 20 years but I would just say, from now on outside looking in perspective, this might be one of those windows to really bring significant policy change to us agriculture. So that's the result of this pandemic again looking at it as an opportunity, and then in the world of technology, you know, we're now in a place where again in my previous life, I was probably focused on so many of the blue sky, sort of bells and whistles, game changing that were coming to food and agriculture. Today, you know, we're focused on some of the most basic kinds of technology and innovation applications for farmers and other parts of the world that some of them may have been adopted by, you know, my family 40 to 50 years ago, and just have not been adaptable or affordable so innovation, I think is one last key message that I would want to bring. And the last point I would make is just as we all have this opportunity to have dialogue around food systems transformation. Please please please don't lose sight of thinking about it through a global lens. It's got to be a local context, I understand that but I think with again the UN food system summit coming up. It's an opportunity presenting itself to all of us with the attention on food and agriculture climate. And now the pandemic. This is our window of opportunity to bring the alignment and the linkages between and among these systems the solutions the fixes the improvements, all together so that we're having it on a more macro level of discussion, which is part of what I love about today's conversation itself so thanks again. Thank you Beth and thank you for highlighting the moments and opportunities that we have in front of us to to to take advantage of this situation. Carrie. Last remarks. Well, thank you. You know, I, I agree. You know, it strikes me the similarities between what we're seeing at the global level and what we see in the US. I'm not going to say it's comforting to realize that there are these that the same challenges are repeated just on a different scale. But I do think it helps us in understanding what works and how that can be replicated in other places. So I think what I would leave people with is, you know, we need to make sure we're providing the right tools for a strong recovery for the people facing hunger for businesses and our food system and growers that have been impacted by this pandemic, because that will frankly help our economy rebound in a much stronger way. And I know it's hard to keep, you know, going back to the well and asking for more resources but that is the place we are at. And I shared a link to our feeding America's estimates of food insecurity for 2021 as well as our priorities for COVID-19 recovery in the chat box. You know, likely just like we're going to need additional investments in safety net systems, I'd say don't overlook the safety net system for our food system. You know, we've seen a little bit of funding allocated to that in legislation last year and in the recent bill. I don't think that's going to be the last amount of funding that's going to be needed. We have an opportunity to learn from this. I'm not normally a silver linings person, but we can learn from this to make sure the funding and the structure is there so that further disruptions don't result in, you know, the visuals that Linda mentioned earlier of, you know, nutritious food being wasted and miles long lines at food banks. That's not something we want to see. You know, I know it still happens sometimes, but I think we've come a long way from there and we'd like to see that progress continue. So thank you for this opportunity. Thank you, Carrie, Beth, and Aaron for your insight and expertise. I also want to thank Kelly from Bayer for her thoughts on the private sector role is and then obviously we want to thank Senator Brown for his leadership and all that he is doing to help. Again, like I said, really move this need on Capitol Hill. I'm going to turn it back over to my friend and colleague and linger who's going to provide us with closing remarks. Thank you, Eric. You've left me with a extremely difficult job because of compressing all that we heard just now from such brilliant speakers and thinkers and doers. It's next to impossible for me to put it all together within a minute or two. But I'll give it a shot. While I was listening to this conversation what really struck caught with me was the fact that there are contexts and these contexts are different in which all of us operating in different countries are operating. But I found that with every speaker from Senator Brown to bed to carry to around. Okay, every one of them had two issues which were common. And those are the only two words which I really want to highlight, and they are access and equity. That is something which each and every speaker underlined highlighted spotlighted. And that is something which we really have to take it back with us and work on it. Talk about it because tell it until we establish a equitable system till and until we establish access, not just for food as Beth pointed out, but to every other aspect whether it be inputs whether it be finance whether it be whatever you can think of in this whole arena, access and equity will remain the top two bullets on which I think policy makers and others in this sector will need to keep working on as we build back better. And as it is today, we know that there is perhaps more more fruit in a rich man's shampoo today than on a poor man's plate. So that that needs to change that needs to change fast. We need to work on nutrition we need to work on food, and we need to work on hunger. Now, those were my thoughts on the negative side, but I want to leave all of you with a very very positive feeling because this this pandemic also has brought forth I thought extremely strong resilient humankind which responded very strongly and has managed to find ways to survive and to do well and bounce back. It is extremely important for us to invite that spirit of resilience as we go forward. They'll always be, you know, enough negativity to speak about on all fronts but humankind, I don't think we can afford to go forth with such negativity. Our energy has to be directed to objectively understanding and identifying issues, we have to consolidate a very small gains and look forward to better days and to building back better. So, thank you. I really want to thank all our speakers for sharing their honest, truthful, frank, and at times very undiplomatic ideas. Thank you so much and that's exactly why we want to have such webinars where we can engage in a truthful, honest discussion because it's not finger pointing. It's just trying to raise issues for all of us to understand and go back and work on. So thank you very much for joining us today and giving us your time. With that Eric, let me say goodbye very warm goodbye and have a good day all of you. Thank you.