Biotech Updates

Jose Graziano da Silva of Brazil Elected FAO Director-General

July 1, 2011

José Graziano da Silva of Brazil is the newly-elected Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He was Brazil's Extraordinary Minister of Food Security and Fight Against Hunger, who was responsible for the design and implementation of the country's highly-successful "Zero Hunger" Program. The five year program helped 24 million people out of poverty and reduced malnourishment by 25 percent.

Graziano da Silva has served as FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean since 2006. He is FAO's eighth Director General and will succeed Senegal's Jacques Diouf on 1 January 2012, for a three year term.

See the news release at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/80713/icode/.