April 18-20, 2009
Treviso, Italy
U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack will lead the U.S. delegation to the
Group of Eight (G8) Agricultural Ministerial in
Treviso, Italy, April 18-20.
The G8 Agricultural
Ministerial, composed of top agriculture leaders
from the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany,
United Kingdom, France, Italy and Russia, is one of
nine separately planned ministerial-level meetings
delineated by function, including agriculture,
development, finance and labor. It will be the first
time in the history of the G8 Summit that
agriculture ministers of the G8 countries meet to
discuss food security. During the meeting, the G8
agriculture ministers will identify a common
strategy to tackle the world food emergency and the
problem of soaring prices of agricultural raw
materials.
In addition to agriculture
leaders from the G8, agriculture ministers from
Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa, Egypt
and the Czech Republic are expected to attend this
year’s Ministerial, as well as the European Union’s
Commissioner of Agriculture and leaders of the World
Bank, the World Food Program, the International Fund
for Agricultural Development and the Food and
Agriculture Organization.
The G8 Summit brings
together the leaders of the world's major industrial
democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The European Union
also attends the G8 Summit, represented by the
President of the European Commission and the leader
of the country holding the Presidency of the
European Council. This year's G8 Summit will be held
July 8-10 on the island of la Maddalena, Sardinia.
At previous G8 Summits, leaders have discussed a
wide range of international economic, political, and
security issues.
The Presidency of the G8 is assigned by a system
of rotation. Italy holds the G8 Presidency in 2009.
It is responsible for hosting and organizing the
necessary preparatory meetings for the summit.
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