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“Yeah, all set to go. Where’s Mark?” Just then Mark
emerges from the left side rear door of the office and walks over.
“Hey guys, I’ve got everything I need. Are we all set?”. “Course.
Been for a while now! Lets get in”, replies Mike. Mike gets in the
driver’s seat, while Laurie and Mark enter through the passenger
side. Laurie takes the middle seat, while Mark takes the right
passenger seat. Mike starts the van while everyone puts on their
seat belts.
     
    Well aware that it is going to be a four hour drive,
Mike realizes that they will have to stop every hour to stretch
legs and get food and use the bathrooms. A relatively long road
trip . Fortunately Interstate 5 usually runs quickly and has
over five parallel lanes on some stretches. We won’t get there
before 1:30 or even 2pm. But we should get there around that time.
We may need to lodge in Bakersfield for more than one night as
well, especially if this investigation goes on longer than
expected. Mike pushes on the accelerator and they drive off
onto Lakeview Road. After about twenty minutes of driving through
late-stage morning rush hour traffic through the downtown city
streets of Stockton, the APHIS team makes it to Interstate 5 and
begins the journey southwards.
     
     
    FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy
     
    The Viale Delle Terme di Caracalla in Rome, Italy may
be translated to “Road of Caracalla’s Spas”. Visitors, however, may
take less note of the ruins of Caracalla’s Roman Baths than of the
massive concrete office building opposite the old Roman ruins. The
huge rectangular nine-story building of the “international power
style” of architecture clearly dwarfs the ruins built two thousand
years ago by the Roman Emperor Caracalla. This is only fitting; for
as the baths were for meant for the betterment of the people of the
Roman Empire, the Headquarters of the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization were designed for the needs of the entire
world.
     
    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations primary mandate is raise global levels of nutrition and
standards of living, improve and modernize agricultural
productivity, and better the conditions of rural populations. What
the US Department of Agriculture is mandated to do within the
boundaries of the United States, FAO is mandated to do across the
world. The wide range of activities that FAO is involved in are
crucial for continually improving world agriculture and feeding the
world’s people.
     
    FAO assists developing countries by providing
improved seeds and fertilizers, soil conservation and
water-resource management techniques, advise on government policy
and planning. It aids international crop protection activities,
works to reduce reliance on pesticides, and aims to improve
household food security and rural family nutrition. FAO also has
programs to conserve and sustain crucial plant and animal genetic
resources. Finally, the Food and Agriculture Organization acts as a
neutral forum for the discussion of all worldwide food and
agricultural issues.
     
    Every year FAO must be prepared to deal with more and
more problems to global agriculture and the global food supply than
the previous year. With world population increasing at a phenomenal
rate, many projections by FAO, the World Bank, World Health
Organization, and World Resources Institute estimate that the world
would grow by over 34% from 2009, to reach a staggering population
of 8-10.5 billion people by 2050. The FAO is entrusted with the
burdensome duty to of making sure that all the people on Earth have
a good standard and safe and healthy food to eat. For this very
reason, the FAO is the largest United Nations agency and is
allotted a budget of over $1 billion US dollars annually.
     
    So naturally when mistakes are made the blame will
generally act opposite of gravity and consequently levitate
upwards. This “rule of bureaucracies” may make the position of
Deputy Director-General unenviable for