Chef José Andrés: ‘We need a food czar’

Chef José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen, joins Yahoo News National Politics Reporter Brittany Shepherd to discuss why he thinks the incoming Biden administration needs to address food insecurity at the federal level. Andrés, who held a joint town hall with President-elect Biden on the issue during the campaign, said the U.S. government needs to appoint a “food czar” or a “secretary of food” to spearhead initiatives currently spread across a number of federal agencies.

Video Transcript

BRITTANY SHEPHERD: You mentioned something like the creation of a food czar, right? Could you talk a little bit more about that? And if-- I know you and Biden have a very close friendship. Have you talked to him about this?

JOSE ANDRES: Well, I would not say I'm-- I'm best friend with President Biden.

BRITTANY SHEPHERD: No, you guys are pals. You talk.

JOSE ANDRES: Why I'm recommending we need to have not even a food czar. We almost need a Secretary of Food. We need to understand one thing-- that food is more than the USDA. Food is more than just all of the mechanics of a smart agricultural system. Food is immigration. Food is health. Food is national security. Food is job creation. Food is economic growth. Food is very much at the heart of every single part.

So we need to have somebody that is able to bring the power of the federal government from the different agencies to make sure that that power is not lost by not working together. We need the food czar. We need the National Security Council person that thinks about food, because if not, the next terrorist attack will come from food. Or one day, we will wake up, and food that right now we take for granted may not be there to feed Americans or feed the people of the world. So let's start again food more seriously. In the process, we can all enjoy our happy Thanksgiving, where the food is plentiful, where longer tables and not higher walls is what will dictate the laws of the land.

BRITTANY SHEPHERD: If you were asked to advise-- I mean I know you're a busy man-- do you think you would informally or formally?

JOSE ANDRES: Listen, I left school when I was 14, and you can-- but I am a guy that I learned on the ground. I'm a guy of boots on the ground. I just came back from Colombia, where I was [INAUDIBLE] teaching. We helped bring food to 6,000 people in an island in the middle of the Atlantic that was totally destroyed by the last two hurricanes, category 5. By me doing that, I learned what's happening in real time on the ground. When I go to Lake Charles in Louisiana, and we help feed the people, I know what's going on by being with boots on the ground.

I do believe that we need the smart people in policy, smart people in government, but then we need those smart people also connecting with people on the ground, where policy is only as good as you can apply that policy in real time to the needs of the American people. Me, I see myself as a guy that can see the problem, and I can see parts of the solution, because a lot of people make me smarter. But in a way, it is because with these two eyes, I'm able to see in real time.

And with these two ears, I'm able to listen to the American people in real time of their dreams, of their hopes, of the problems, and possible solutions. We-- I've been there. We've been there. Many people, they've been there. We need a good balance between policy folks and government folks and people on the ground. Me-- I live very well in the limbo of both-- helping the people create policy, start creating a smarter policy, but then we need good, smart people in power to be successful on the ground. This is where I see myself.

BRITTANY SHEPHERD: Right. And that balance-- that's kind of what I was getting at. You know, when you go to Navajo Nation, you're able to understand what's happening there, because you're actually talking to folks, not just watching TV or picking up the phone. I mean you're looking at people in the eye and trying to understand where they're coming from, how to best get their nutritious value to them. And that's very valuable information in the federal government.

So I guess a fine of a point on it, you know, a new administration is coming in. If Biden called you up and said, Chef Jose, I need your opinion on X, Y, or Z, do you think that-- would you want to chime in and help, even if that wasn't your official job? You--

JOSE ANDRES: Obviously, obviously, I'm a proud American immigrant, a Spanish immigrant. I only know I'm only as good as the people. I have around me. And I know President Biden, Vice President Harris will only be as good as the people they will have around them. I know any American should be there to be providing support and help to this administration.

Listen, I've been going through these last four years to the USDA to try to bring a smart idea that they could put together and to kind of challenge them to understand that we have an emergency, especially this last year. I've been going to the White House to knock on the door to try to say, hello, can we do more of this? I'm here just to understand that food is something to unite people, and we all should be here trying to improve our support, our government.

So if President Biden needs my help or the help of the other 350 million Americans, I know all of us, I hope we will be there. Myself, I'm there already. I don't need to be called. My team, myself, many chefs around America, around the world, from Harlem and Queens and Bronx to Oakland to Honduras to Guatemala, it's just people that they are putting everything on the side to try to bring relief for others. I'm trying to protect my family, like all of us. I'm trying to make sure I will have a business at the end of this pandemic.

I had to close three restaurants. It's OK. I have many more, but I already had to close the restaurants. I have many people I cannot employ back, because we have no business. I have more than 700, 800 employees that I'm waiting to rehire them, I hope, soon. So those are the things that are in my head. But at the same time, it's many more Americans, millions of Americans, that they are right now suffering, that somehow the federal government is not providing relief.

I know when President Biden gets to the White House, he has empathy, he has experience. I think he means-- his words mean something, and I think he will come to try to bring America together to make sure that every American, Republicans and Democrats, will have a plate of food on the table and so they can concentrate in the betterment of their lives and looking to the future with hope.