ONE Health Live
Examining the issues of importance to animals, humans and the environment to help those across the food production system better understand the issues from a science-based perspective.
ONE Health Live
IICA builds One Health solutions through trade standards and policy
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
A single pest can shut a border. A single disease can wipe out herds and destabilize prices. So how do 34 countries across the Americas coordinate fast enough to protect food security, animal health, and human nutrition while still keeping trade moving? We sit down with Lloyd Day, Deputy Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), to unpack how regional cooperation actually works when the stakes are high.
We talk through IICA’s unique role as an intergovernmental connector: aligning agriculture ministers, supporting in-country programs, and building consensus around science-based standards used in Codex Alimentarius, IPPC, WOAH, and WTO SPS processes. Lloyd explains why predictable, trusted rules matter in real life, especially when trade disputes flare up or when supply chains get stressed by climate events and geopolitics.
From Mediterranean fruit fly control to New World screwworm risk, African swine fever response, and renewed focus on avian influenza, we explore concrete examples of One Health action that combine prevention, preparedness, and control. We also go big-picture on innovation in agriculture: digital tools, AI, new genetics, resilient seeds and animals, and the growing bioeconomy, all aimed at producing more food with the same land while protecting soil and natural resources.
If you care about sustainable agriculture, biosecurity, and science-based trade, this conversation will sharpen how you think about solutions. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review so more people can find One Health Live.
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_00Welcome to One Health Live, where we examine the topics of importance to animals, humans, and the environment to help those across the food production system better understand the issues from a science-based perspective. We strive to be thought-provoking and fact-based in our effort to bring you the latest news and information. I'm Sarah Muirhead, and with me today is One Health Live co-host, Dennis Urbling, founder of Global Farmview. Our guest today, which I would like to ask Dennis to introduce, is from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. Dennis, over to you.
SPEAKER_01Sarah, delighted to be with you today and very pleased to be able to introduce our guest today. Our guest today is Lloyd Day. He is the Deputy Director General of the In-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. References Aika, an organization he's actually served in since 2012. Lloyd has prior leadership roles in the U.S. with the state government in California, federal government based in Washington, D.C., and corporate agriculture. Lloyd brings a true depth and perspective from the government as well as the private sector, and importantly the global agriculture arena. So, Lloyd, welcome, and we're delighted you're joining us today. As we kick this off, Lloyd, I guess I'll ask the first
What IICA Does Across The Americas
SPEAKER_01question. Um, first, can you provide a brief overview of the In America Institute for Cooperational Agriculture? A little bit about the history of AECA, its rules, and its priorities.
SPEAKER_02Sure, Dennis, good morning to you. Good morning to Sarah. It's a pleasure to be with you. I was just thinking about how long we've known each other, Dennis, and it's probably about 24 years when I joined the U.S. government in 2002 when I came to Washington, D.C. So it's great to see you again. Uh, we still look the same as we did 24 years ago, I'm sure. Um, anyways, Ica is uh Inter-American Institute uh that was founded in 1942 by Henry Wallace. Now I like putting uh his picture up on uh on speeches and seeing if anyone knows Henry Wallace, because Henry Wallace was a major player uh back in the uh Roosevelt administration. He was Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President of the United States. And before that, he founded Pioneer Hybrid Corn. So this guy's been around a lot. He has strong connections to uh Norman Borlog and to uh uh George Washington Carver. And so there's a lot of history uh with Henry Wallace, but he founded us in 1942. The United States founded us with Ecuador and Costa Rica. We were placed strategically in Costa Rica, kind of in between North America and South America, uh, and it was in the middle of a war. And during the war, uh the United States was looking for inputs for sources of both food as well as for materiel for the war as well. And so we were founded at a time of the war, and we recall back then the Inter-American Institute for Sciences, Agricultural Sciences. Uh that changed in the 1970s when we left the science part and the uh the university and research part over the mountains here to the to behind me, two volcanoes, uh, at a place called Turialba, which is now known as Katia, the uh tropical agricultural research and education center. Um, but we uh focus on technical cooperation. Our mission is to serve the ministers of agriculture of the Americas. So 32 countries from Canada in the north and the United States, of course, all the way down to Argentina and Chile in the south, and 14 member states in the Caribbean. And our goal is to help their ministers of agriculture conduct the type of policies and programs and projects that help their sectors become more competitive.
Serving Diverse Farming Systems
SPEAKER_00So you've got uh ICA has a huge, as you mentioned, geographical diversity from the Amazon to the Caribbean to the to vast farmlands, and also a huge diversity from ag production systems, from small farms to integrated operators. How do how do you serve such a diverse um collection of stakeholders that are probably having a lot of different needs?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, it's tricky. Uh, you know, we have certain countries which are are similar, both in the north and the south, that are large uh livestock and grains uh and oil seeds producing nations, and then you have in the middle in the tropics and in the Caribbean, you know, a different type of agriculture. So we work with each of our representations in the 32 offices to tailor uh programs and projects in responses to their particular needs. But there are certain things that are universal, and those are the things that we concentrate on in our technical cooperation programs, and then we translate those to all the uh all the different member states. And then again, we are the Americas. We're a different part of the world. We're newer, we're fresher, we're actually the breadbasket of the world. So it's bringing all those countries together uh in a way where we can be uh hopefully with consensus to take this to international organizations, et cetera, so that the Americas has a strong voice uh and sometimes a uh a somewhat a very heterogeneous world town, also.
SPEAKER_00So you're an intergovernmental organization. Provide us some insight into how you work with other international intergovernment organizations and even probably how you work with the private sector.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's
Standards, WTO, And Global Partners
SPEAKER_02that's a complicated uh question. So there's in terms of international government organizations, there are there are some that are similar to us that we work very closely with, in particular the international standard setting bodies. And by those, I'm talking about Codex, the IPPC, and the WOA or the OIE or whatever name they may have this year. Um and how we work with them is very important because we use them as those standard setting bodies to then go to the SPS committee of the WTO and the WTO in general to say we need science-based standards to base our trade on. And so we are present with our uh member states at all those uh different fora. I just got off a call that was a coordinating call uh with the uh uh member states related to the WTO SPS committee because we have a certain trade issue that we're trying to get everyone aligned on so that we can take it to that committee and have unison. And we're actually going to be speaking with colleagues in Africa also to see how they can work with us on a similar on the same issue so that we have some unanimity from the Americas and Africas when we're dealing with trade disputes with certain um parts of the world that are not based on science. So we work with all of them. We also work with all the banks, uh, the the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the uh regional bank for Latin America, CAF, uh local banks in every single country, as well as the Central American Regional Bank. So we work with all those banks because finance is really um crucial to all these folks, and but finance from these banks goes to the member states. And so we then need the member states to get it to the agriculture ministers as well as to farmers of all sizes. And as you know, it's the smallest of the farmers that don't have those access to uh to financing. So we need to find other ways, and often that's through uh donations from member states like the United States, Canada, like Mexico, sometimes from the European Union, sometimes from countries like Korea or Japan. So we work with all of them, Germany. Uh so we work with all these different countries, Spain. I was just speaking to the Spanish Development Agency, to find ways in which projects can actually reach those kinds of producers that aren't necessarily bankable yet and raise them up so that they can be bankable in the future.
SPEAKER_01You've talked about the Americas and the critical role they play in food production. As a matter of fact, you referenced their kind of the global food basket, which I think we recognize, the diversity of that food basket. Um, as we think about global food security specifically, which is a great topic today amongst many parts of the world. Can you elaborate a little bit on examples of ECA's work as you look at both the developing sector and developing countries as well as developed countries?
Plant And Animal Health Projects
SPEAKER_01Is how do you look at the different areas and how does that come together? And I know you referenced standards and other things already.
SPEAKER_02When we talk about developed countries, I think most of what we can do is in the policy realm. And a lot of that's based on working with those three agencies uh in Rome and France and in other places, so that we can have this consensus around global policy from the perspective of the Americas. And so uh the United States is a big leader on that, all of so is Canada and so is South America, so that we can have this consensus from the Americas when we go to the FAO or to Geneva or to um to different standard setting bodies. And so the policy levels where we work very closely with those kind of bigger producers. Um and then smaller producers, we work on specific projects that, and a lot of it's related to um your uh uh uh area of expertise, uh Dennis and Sarah. Some of it's animal health, some of it's plant health in particular. I'll I'll use a couple examples uh on plant health. We we work with uh with Mexico in particular on something that was originally funded with the United States, but that's a Moscow Med project, which is a sterilization of the Mediterranean fruit fly uh and Chiapas, so that we we reduce the amount of the those uh those pests with the potential of arriving to the United States. And so that's been a very successful program for a number of years. We're getting more involved in these right now with the uh screw warm, the new world screw warm outbreak, which is, you know, we had 30 years of success in Panama with the uh with the with the with the facility down there, but now that's morphed and that's changed and it's moved up into now it's hit the United States. And so we're working with the U.S. government, with Mexico, all the way through South through Central America to set up programs and projects that will help um uh hopefully eliminate that uh that new uh pest from uh from our area. But the same occurs, for instance, in the Dominican Republic. When African swine fever hit them, we worked closely with a lot of those uh uh individuals that we've already talked about, other international organizations, and with U.S. government, with APIs, to find ways to uh uh address African swine fever specifically there in uh in trying to eradicate it and uh and to depopulate uh the uh the potential risk populations. But then with APHIS, we've worked in the the region around the Dominican Republic so that they're prepared. So it's both control, prevention, and uh control once happens. And so that's a lot of what we do on a uh and the different different varies of uh degrees from developed countries to more developing countries.
SPEAKER_01Well, you've kind of opened up kind of where I was gonna go with the next question there. As we think about one health, the broader topic we're in today, we reference food security, you've just mentioned the animal diseases, we think about sustainability, we think about biosecurity, we recognize they all intersect. And I was gonna, you know, dive deep a little bit how you work with the different governments and maybe even add in the private sector. So recognizing there's a critical government role there, the private sector. But if you want to elaborate a little bit more in that one health context of how these things come together.
SPEAKER_02So
One Health With Public Private Cooperation
SPEAKER_02the private sector is really important. As you know, we work with uh the organizations that you've been a part of for a number of years, especially when it comes to Codex Alimentarius. Uh the private sector plays a big role in moving forward, whether it's a molecule or it's a drug or something like that, so it's deemed as healthy. And what we've done at EECA uh is work on both the private and public sectors, make sure we have the scientific information from the private sector, all the information necessary. Then we prepare the uh the member states so that when they go to, for instance, Codex Elementarius, uh, that they're prepared and they can then lobby uh other nations, uh, whether it's the European Union, whether it's uh the the uh Southeast Asians or the ANSIS uh allies or like-minded nations in general, so that we can have enough consensus so that we can move the process forward. And it takes a lot of time, as you know personally, um, but it's really that's really the combination of where the public and private bridge happens through ECA. And there's no other organization that really does this on a regional basis. Africa has some uh uh uh activity with uh with their organizations, but not solely on agriculture. And and we're solely on agriculture for the Americas, and we bring a block of 32 member states with allies and lots of other uh parts of the world so that when we get to a uh an area like or to an organization like Codex or the IPC or the WTO or the WOLA, we have consensus among a number of nations in order to move forward, hopefully, a science-based regulatory environment where we can have predictable trade. And that's the most important thing.
Trade Rules That Protect Food Security
SPEAKER_00So, Lloyd, when one thinks of food security, you have to think both domestic production and imports. Those are both key, of course. How does ECA work in the area of food trade? Of course, we want to note the importance of regional and global food security and essential human nutrition. How does that all come together?
SPEAKER_02So trade's a very important uh component of what we do, in fact. Of our four main uh strategic areas, trade is one of those four. Uh, but of course, it's connected to agricultural health. Uh so we're we ensure that all of our countries, our member states, are prepared for uh any kind of deliberations related to trade, whether they be binational uh trade uh deliberations, whether they be multilateral uh trade uh deliberations, like the recently approved EU Mercosur, uh, or the discussions related to NAFTA or CAFTA or Andean free trade. We have experts that assist with all that, but we also work on ensuring that we have this science-based uh um uh regulatory foundation so that all the countries are working based on that when we talk about trade disputes when it gets into the area of agriculture or animal health. Uh, and that's the tricky stuff because everyone has their own science, but there's some agreed upon things, and that's where they go to the international standard setting bodies uh that are very important. We're going to be fortifying that uh trade sector and so that we're act even more active, because you know, there's uh a lot of examples where where trade is working. Uh the North American trade agreement, NAFTA, I still call it NAFTA, Dennis. I know it's the USMCA and it has, of course, a different acronym in every language, but um that about almost 40 to 50 percent of trade that happens from those countries happen between each among each other. And so that's an example of it really working. As we go further south in our region, it drops to about 15%. And that's there's a lot of room for improvement there. So if we can improve different customs unions, trust among phytosanitary and sanitary authorities, we can really hopefully improve the well-being and the ability of those countries to trade with each other, and that's just gonna uh improve the uh well-being of farmers and ranchers in all those countries, as well as the resilience of countries, because sometimes, you know, with weather-related events or diseases, et cetera, you're gonna have a spike in production one year and a decline in another year. We're about to have an El Nino event here in uh in the Americas, and that's gonna mean less water here in Central America, more water in other places, and we'll have to see how how farmers and how crops um react to that, and then how they uh how the markets and supply chains change adjust, just like they've been adjusting for the past several months with the uh the closure of the Strait of Hormouths.
SPEAKER_01Lloyd, I think as you've referenced the different things, a word is collaboration comes to mind of my for me as I think about one health challenges, whether it's the animal disease issues, um, you know, think about the um international standards. How do we better collaborate to advance food security and human nutrition? How do we encourage innovation? And, you know, pick up on the point you did, how do we ensure we're advancing those safety standards that are common? Just ideas there as we think about innovation and moving forward in collaboration in that process.
Innovation, Vaccines, And Avian Flu
SPEAKER_02Well, innovation is another one of the four pillars uh of our new strategic plan. Uh so the four pillars are science and innovation, uh, agricultural health, nature, uh, natural resources, and then of course, trade, as I discussed. And so collaboration and how do all those areas collaborate with each other are very important. Uh, we're working closely with other international organizations, as you've discussed on a new project related to avian influenza. Uh, and that's something where, you know, there's a lot of talk about avian influenza, but we haven't seen a lot of action, especially with other international partners. And now with uh with the FAO, with the World Bank, with the IDB, and probably some others that I'm forgetting, and I apologize for that, we are working all together on a major project to work on avian influenza together. And I think that's really important because there's a lot of distrust about, you know, different science, different technology uh vaccines. Uh, for example, if we can eliminate uh the loss of life in uh in poultry populations, just as we can potentially do it in swine populations and in cattle populations through uh trusted uh science-based and approved uh medicines and vaccines, that improves farmers' incomes, it improves the well-being of everyone, uh, and it also uh reduces the emissions for our environmentalist friends, it reduces emissions from all the inputs that go into animal agriculture production from the animal feed to all the land use to the uh to the animals themselves and potential emissions from them. So, you know, science helps us solve so many of our problems. And we like to tell uh colleagues around the world that agriculture is not a problem. A lot of folks have you know attacked agriculture as a problem. So, for instance, in the UN uh food system summit, we were viewed as a villain to begin with, and we said, wait a minute, we're actually the solution to a lot of your problems. This is a sector that's reducing its emissions while at the same time trying to feed the world and doing a pretty darn good job of it. Because of science, we don't use as much land as we used to. Because of science, we don't use as many animals as as we probably need to uh to feed 8 billion people. We're gonna grow another 2 billion people in the next 20, 25 years, according to uh uh economists, I suppose. And and how are we going to feed those people on the same amount of land, uh, not you know trying to save rainforests and to save soil and water and everything else. We're gonna do it through innovation. We're gonna do it through resilience, we're gonna do it through digital agriculture. AI is gonna have a component. New genetic solutions and seeds and in animals uh are is are going to help us. There was a uh a young man who worked for the uh Nobel laureate in Berkeley, Jennifer Dudna, and he had this great line where he said, uh, agriculture is the intentional modification of plants and animals for millennia. And it is. And so everyone who gets afraid of all these new scientific innovations, whether it be something in this new genetic engineering to reduce porcine respiratory syndrome or or a new uh gene that can decrease the browning of bananas or take the spines away from grapefruits or a tomato that tastes better, or a pink pineapple. All these things are wonderful. And it's just it's what's been going on for years. It's what Norman Borwag did in Mexico, thanks to Henry Wallace, who sent him there, um, and in his 14, 15 years of work to reduce wheat stem rust. Uh, but that was in a more arduous uh uh conventional plant breeding way. But now with science, we can do it hopefully a lot faster and really tackle a lot of the problems that we're going to face, whether it's depleted uh degraded soils, whether it's more rain or less rain, whether it's other pests and diseases, we're gonna have these technological solutions uh that are going to enable farmers and ranchers to have the tools to produce and to be resilient and to solve a lot of problems uh until we get to that peak population that starts declining. And then from there, what are we gonna do with all this production and food? Well, we have the bioeconomy and we can use it for fuel, we can use it for different inputs. And I know uh there in the United States, there's there's new organizations popping up related to uh um bioproducts and the different uses of bioproducts, and that's all renewable. And so I think it's exciting to be involved in this uh sector. Animal health, where you guys are involved, is so important. Uh, it's not going to change. We need more innovation, and and so I'm excited about the future, and we're grateful to the work that your sector uh provides in order to bring science uh to uh to our our agriculture and and animal health sector in order to help feed the world.
SPEAKER_00Great uh great thoughts uh today here, Lloyd.
Resilience, Soil, And Collaboration
SPEAKER_00But uh anything, any clothing thoughts, any calls for action, anything you want to uh to kind of leave us with here today?
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, we're we're we're we're we're in a very volatile geopolitical uh state right now. Uh there's there's questions about trade, there's questions about supply chains, there's there's issues of national sovereignty. I think uh what I'm very uh uh bullish about is the fact that this region of the world, the Americas, is very resilient. Uh we have great farmers and ranchers in all different aspects, small ones to large ones. Uh and and with science helping us, we're gonna be able to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. And and that's gonna come through collaboration. It's gonna come uh through working with everyone throughout the agricultural uh chain from the very beginning, uh the seed and the soil. We need to emphasize on those two things that often are they're forgotten in our deliberations because we talk about commodities or we talk about end products and all these other things. We need to ensure that that we we focus on the soil, we focus on the seeds, we focus on nature so that they have the inputs for all of this. And then as we move through the supply chain, that's only gonna get better as we become uh uh uh better ourselves. And so I'm very bullish on the future of agriculture. We're gonna have challenges, we have some today, uh, but we're gonna adjust as we have had in the past. And uh and I look forward to working with you all and your sector to help uh promote uh promote the future as well as to support what we're doing in the international standard setting body and international deliberations.
SPEAKER_01Lloyd, I'm just gonna build on that a little bit. I truly appreciate the leadership that you've taken there as we think about the role of ECA, to think about innovation, trade, and then your point about collaboration. So I just want to say it's been fantastic to know you through these decades and appreciate the excellent leadership you're taking, uh, ECA there, as well as what you're doing globally in truly advancing food security and the One Health umbrella. So we appreciate those great insights today.
SPEAKER_02Well, well, thank you, Dennis, and and thank you, Sarah, and thanks for the leadership of your sector, because your sector is vital uh to the health of uh of agriculture. And uh, and uh and there's more innovation coming from you guys all the time, and we need it. And so uh we thank thank you for your collaboration with with ECA and with all of our member states uh so that we can get the tools that farmers and ranchers need to the marketplace.
SPEAKER_00Lloyd Day, the Deputy Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. Thank you so
Final Thanks And Subscribe Reminder
SPEAKER_00much for joining us today and for sharing your excellent insight. As noted, One Health is important as we look to some of the most challenging issues of today. Don't miss a One Health Live podcast. Subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast channel. Until next time, have a great day and thank you for listening.