Bill Hudson, president and CEO of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA), addressed a special United Nations Forum on the Global Food Crisis on Sept. 23 at the UN's New York City headquarters. His speech was part of a panel on "Partnerships along the Value Chain" at the Public-Private Partnership Forum. The event titled, "Investing in Agriculture Partnerships to Combat Hunger," was organized by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

President George Bush also spoke to the high-level audience of 140 global policymakers and corporate executives. Other panelists with Hudson included the CEOs of Monsanto and Land O'Lakes, a director of Cargill and the president of Texas A&M University.
Hudson highlighted the importance of cold chain development to alleviate the global food crisis.

"As we gather to discuss global food hunger, we could argue that the solution is not only to increase production but to reduce the losses through proper post-harvest technologies," he said. "The cold chain is a solution to improving the livelihoods of people around the world by extending product shelf life as well as creating access to markets for higher value commodities." GCCA represents the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses, the World Food Logistics Organization, International Refrigerated Transportation Association and International Association for Cold Storage Construction.