Latest / Best of: Features / UN appoints US agriculture official Luke Lindberg to head the World Food Program

Transcript

UN appoints US agriculture official Luke Lindberg to head the World Food Program · Best of: Features

• 0:05
  UN appoints U.S. Agriculture official Luke Lindberg to head the World Food
• 0:09
  Program, Written by Edith M. Lederer This article is being read by
• 0:14
  an automated voice, generated by Everlet. United Nations, the AP. The
• 0:21
  United Nations announced the appointment Friday of U.S. Agriculture official Luke Lindbergh
• 0:25
  to head the World Food Program, the UN food agency that calls
• 0:28
  itself the world's frontline responder to hunger in conflicts, crises, and emergencies
• 0:33
  around the world. Lindbergh, the son-in-law of Senate Majority Leader John Thune,
• 0:39
  is now the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Under Secretary for Trade and
• 0:42
  Foreign Agricultural Affairs. He will replace Cindy McCain as Executive Director of
• 0:47
  the Rome-based World Food Program. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Food
• 0:53
  and Agriculture Organization, Director General Ku Dong Yu, made the joint announcement
• 0:57
  after WFP's board confirmed it agreed with the appointment. Lindbergh, thirty seven,
• 1:02
  will take the helm of Dufe Pi as it struggles to raise
• 1:05
  money to help feed tens of millions of people in need. The
• 1:09
  agency, which relies on donations, says as many as two hundred sixty
• 1:12
  six million people are facing acute hunger, but it is aiming to
• 1:16
  help just one hundred ten million this year because of funding cuts.
• 1:20
  The United States has for many years been the largest donor to
• 1:23
  the UN Food Agency, and the job heading it has gone to
• 1:26
  an American since the early nineteen nineties. Lindbergh has been in his
• 1:31
  USDA role for just over a year, and President Donald Trump nominated
• 1:35
  him to head the World Food Program. A native of South Dakota,
• 1:39
  Lindbergh founded and served as president of the South Dakota Trade Association,
• 1:43
  overseeing the expansion of exports from the state. He also served as
• 1:47
  Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer of the US Export Import
• 1:51
  Bank in the first Trump administration. Guterres and coup expressed deep appreciation
• 1:56
  to McCain, widow of late Arizona Senator and Republican presidential nominee John
• 2:01
  McCain, for her leadership and dedicated service to WFP. She stepped down
• 2:05
  in February after suffering a mild stroke in October 2025. She has
• 2:10
  led the program through one of the most demanding periods in its
• 2:13
  history, serving as a steadfast voice for people affected by conflict, disaster,
• 2:18
  and severe hunger, and for the courageous personnel serving them on the
• 2:22
  front lines, they said in a joint statement. Guterres and Ku also
• 2:27
  expressed appreciation to Carl Schau, the food agency's deputy executive director who
• 2:32
  has been acting executive director since McCain left, and will remain in
• 2:36
  that position until Lindbergh takes over. This story corrects the last paragraph
• 2:40
  to say that Carl Schau has been WFP's acting executive director since
• 2:44
  McCain left, and will remain so until Lindbergh takes over.