The food and agricultural organization.pdf

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extracted text: THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations has been conceived on the proposition rthat na· tions can unite together to raise and supply each other enough food and sufficient supply of all the products of 2griculture, forestry and fisheries· at prices which are fair rto consumers and producers aJ.ike. It holds to the faith that these age-old ideas of mankind can be realized when the knowledge and tools at hand are used to full advantage. . In the light of what all men agree to be desirable and modern science has made poss·ible :FAO fashioned i~ s declared purposes of- - Raising the levels of nwtrition and the standards of living of the peoples of all countries; Securing improvements in the efficiency of : the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products; Bettering the condition of rural popuLation; And thus contributing toward an expanding world economy. TO A1 FFORD FREEDOM iFROM :WANT This international organization grew out of a wartime conference to implement hope for a peace affording assurance that all men in all lands may live their lives in freedom from want. Assembled' for this purpose, represrntatives of. :the allied countries at war under the flags of the United Nations held a . conference on !Food and Agriculture at Hot Springs, Va., U.S.A., Ln May, 1943. The conference, convened at the initiative of ·President Roosevelrt, agreed on these several points: Two-thirds of the people in the world are ill-nourished. Their health could be vastly improved if they were able to get enough of the right kind of food. The farmers of the world, constituting two-thirds of its population, could produce enough if they employed methods known to modern science. JUNE, 1949 Through increased production and effective distribwtion, full-time work for a,ll could be provided and a process put in motion to stamp out want. To attain ,these ends, the nations must act in concert. HOW/ .FIAO WAS ORGANIZED Before the Hot Springs Conference disbanded it recommended the creation of an Interim Commission to prepare for a permanent agency to carry through 1the design of its program. The First Session of the FAO Conference met in Quebec, Canada, in October, 1945. Forty-two governments ratified the constitution andl five were later added 1 !0 these, so that at the start of its second year, F AO had 47 members. PRACTICAL MEN GIVE EFF'ECT TO IDEALS F AO .jg served by a working staff trained in dealing with the special problems which must be met in advancing toward the goals set by the nations when they established the Organization. Standing adlv.isory committees of leading experts from all parts of the world assist the staff in making studies, collecting information, and analyzing data. Collecting information relating to food and agrfoulture is tjle first step :n attaining the aims of F AO. The second step is facilitating the free and rapid exchange of the information throughout the world. But the task involved in the adtvance toward ;FA O's objectives will require con:tinued progress in education and research. One of the Organization's n;ain functions therefore is to promote this progress. FAO gives assistance to governments that ask for it. One form of this assis1tance is the sending of missions of e:ivperts to study the probl'ems of these governments pertaining to food, agriculture, foreRtry, and fisheries. The Organization is prepared to follow this Page 325 nse with .technical aid: .in working out the solution of these problems. F!AO OF.FERS A WORLD PROGRAM FAO follows · a policy of recommending international action, based on ex· isting information, to attack major objectives. Everybody agrees thait ·if men, women and chil'dren everywhere were fed as human beings should be fed thel'e would be a market for all the food that could be produced "in the foreseeable future. FAO offers a program to the world to make this possibiJ.ity a rea1ity. By Hs program of internatfonal ac· tion FAO hopes to free agricultural procedures from the fear of overproduction; to free all men from fear of want; to free the world! economy ·from mankind's fear of depression and scarcity, and from national policies fost~ring false security through naitional self· sufficiency leading down the road to war. F AO's power of action is limited, but its power of suggestion is vast, for in its purposes it appeal's to mankind's conscience and common sense, and in its informaition, based on science, it appeals to human intelligence. HOW F AO IS GOVERNED F AO Js governed by a Conference in which each member nation has one vote. The Conference meets at least once in every year. Between sessions an Executive Committee exercises pow_ ers -delegated to it by 1 the Conference. A Director-General, who is appointed by the Conference, directs the work of the Organization with the aid of a staff selected by him. Sir John Boyd Orr is the first Director-General. - F'AO AND THE UNITED N\AiTIONS F AO is a specialized agency of the United Nations, with which it is associated by functional rel'ationships with the Economic and Social Council.. Other specialized agencies. with which FA 0 has or will have close ties, cooperating in ithe advancement of common purposes, include the Internation· al Labor Organization (!LO), the proposed International Trad'e Organizaiion (ITO), the United Nations EduPage 326 cational, Scientific, and Cul1 tural Or· ganization (UNESCO), and the proposed Woi'Id Health Organization (WHO). FAO is absorbing the International Institute of Agriculture, founded at Rome in 1905. HOW .F AO WORKS F'AO received from 1 the people of its member governments a mand'ate to proceed against the forces• ·causing want, hunger, and starvation, and was given machinery with which to carry on its work: (Jrgent Food Problems: Facing up to the food crisis developing in rt:he wake of the war, FAO called a Special Meeting on Urgent Food Problems in May, 1946. It placed before the meeting its first world: Food Appraisal, a report which it now is· sues as a quarterly pu.blication to inform all nations of the world aboUJt the food position. Representatives of interested! countries meeting in Washington agreed on recommer.dations which in June, 1946 resulted in the creation of the Intern2tional Emergency Food Council. The pr.incipal' function of this body, which by the beginning of 1947 had a mem· bership of 31 governments, and is largely staffed by F'AO, is to allocate short food suppl.ies for the duration of the emergency. World Food Surv.ey: Meanwhile a group of experts. assembled by F AO was compiling a longer term Worl'cJ! :Food Survey. Published in July, 1946, the Survey shows the food supp1ies available before 1939 in 70 countries, with a total population cf 90 per cent of the world's people. About 5 out of every 10 people in the world were subsisting before the war at a food consumption !'eve! too low to maintain normal health. Not more than a third of the total population was a!)ove rt:hat level, while the intermediate fraction subsisted at a borderline level'. World Food Proposals : In September, 1946, Sir John \Boyd Orr, Director-General of iFAO, submitted the World Food Survey together with proposals for dealing w~th the THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REVIEW world's long-term food problems to the FAO Conference at Copenhagen. The Conference accepted the objectives of these "proposals 'for a Wforld !Food Board," namely, Developin1 g and organizing produc· t1-on, distribution and utilization of .the basic foods to provide diets on a health stwnidard for peoples of aU countries, and Stabilizi,ng agricultural prices at levels fair to producers and consumers alike. Preparatory Commis\'!ion Report: A Preparatory Commission com· posed of the representatives of 17 coun. tries was then set up. It met in 1 Wash· iugton .in October 194.6 to develop concrete suggestions for· an ihitergovern· mental program to carry out the objectives of the Orr proposals. Vis:count Bruce, former Prime Minister of Australia, was the independent chairman of the commission. The Repo11t of the Commission, ·published in February 1947, recommend· e<l: I I Full agricultural production, to be stimulated by the expansion of consuwption. Industrial expansion in undeveloped countrie\S to create purchasing power and expand trade. Intergo1JernmentC1Jl commodity arrangements and agreements to stabilize agricultural prices, create famine reserves, and where prac· ticable dispose of surpluses under special arrangements to improve nutrition. Annual review of national produc.tion and nutritional programs in connection with the F AO Conference. A World Food Council of 1,8 member governments of FAO to carry ·out the functions of the annual review between the Conferences, ivith special attention to the food (llnd agriculture aspects of pro· posed arid existing imlternational commodity arrangements. 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