José Graziano da Silva
| José Graziano da Silva | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) | |
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Assumed office 1 January 2012 |
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| Preceded by | Jacques Diouf |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
November 17, 1949 Urbana, Illinois, U.S. |
| Nationality |
American Brazilian Italian |
| Alma mater | Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, University of São Paulo |
| Profession | Agronomist |
José Graziano da Silva (born November 17, 1949) is a Brazilian American agronomist and writer. As a scholar, he has authored several books about the problems of agriculture in Brazil. Between 2003 and 2004, Graziano served in the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva cabinet as Extraordinary Minister for Food Security, being responsible for implementing the Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) program, which took 28 million people out of the national poverty line during the 8 years of the Lula administration. On June 26, 2011, Graziano was elected director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), becoming the first Latin American ever to hold the position. After his first term from 1 January 2012 to 31 July 2015, Graziano da Silva was re-elected for a second 4 year-term (1 August 2015 to 31 July 2019) during FAO's 39th Conference.
Graziano was born on November 17, 1949 in Urbana, Illinois. His parents were Brazilians of Italian origin (from the Calabria region). Therefore, he has triple citizenship: Brazilian, American (by jus soli) and Italian.
Graziano graduated as an agronomist in 1972, after attending the University of São Paulo's Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz. He earned an MBA from that same institution in 1974, after presenting a dissertation about the distribution of wealth in Brazil. He received his doctor's degree from the Campinas State University in 1980, and went on to become a professor of Agricultural Economics in the same institution. He also later received post-doctorate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of London's Institute of Latin American Studies.
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