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Notes from the

WORLD FOOD CONGRESS

Compiled by Joan Veon
Report of the Second World Food Congress
The Hague, Netherlands June 16-30, 1970

By: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 1970
 

History:

The first World food Congress met in Washington, D. C. in June, 1963, called for the holding of similar congresses periodically:

"To review a world survey, presented by the Director-General of FAO, of the world food situation in relation to population and overall development, together with a proposed programme for future action."

Commission II of the first World Food Congress called for "the formulational of a world plan in quantitative terms...." Commission IV proposed that "a balance sheet should be prepared to list and make known the needs and resources available for the war on hunger."

These recommendations ed to the preparation by FAO of its Indicative World Plan for Agricultural Development which was presented to the FAO Conference in November, 1969.

Five areas for the future of FAO were drawn up:
 

  1. The mobilization of human resources for rural development.
  2. The promotion of high-yielding varieties of basic food crops
  3. Filling the protein gap
  4. War on Waste
  5. Earning and saving foreign exchange.
To organize the work, there were 4 commission proposed for two separate stages. Commission I to IV were to deal with ensuring basic food supplies, higher living standards and improved diets, people in rural development and trade patterns and policies.

Commissions V to VII would be asked to examine public sector support, private sector support and direct participation programmes.

Commission VIII was to consider mobilization of public opinion without which any action proposals emerging from the Congress would remain words.

For the World Congress, the Government of the Netherlands appealed to Netherlands industry for money to help in ensuring the attendance of people from developing nations. Their $200,000 brought 176 people to the Hague who could not otherwise come. 1800 participants were registered with 600 from developing countries.

AT the opening, Queen Juliana spoke followed by U Thant. he said, "Political thinking, vision and determination have not kept pace with the other rapid changes on earth...Governments spend $200 B a year on armaments..."

The Sectary General was followed by Lester B. Pearson who, as Chairman of the Quebec conference in November, 1945, had presided at the founding of FAO.

Dr. B.R. Sen, Director-General of FAO from 1956 to 1967, said that FAO was one of the first fruits of the new ideas on international cooperation which arose out of the second world war....

The first Director-General of FAO was Lord Boyd-Orr. Then Dr. B.R. Sen from India from 1956- to 1967 and A.H. Boerma from Holland.

Dr. Sen said in opening the discussion that IWP was a far-reaching document, providing a blueprint for development strategy looking forward to 1975 and 1985.

The IFA panel on population growth in relation to economic development felt that population growth was the principal contributor to the widening gap between rich and poor countries. In India, there were 20 million live births a year, "one and a half seconds, one baby." Sir David owen said that although family planning was only one element in the attack on poverty, it had been neglected in the past by the United nations. He recommended that the Congress should recommend that more resources be given tot he many NGOs active in this field.
 

The Environment:

The Panel on the "Conservation of Man's Environment" included Lord Ritchie Calder, Professor, International Relations, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, Dr. Makoto Numata, Professor of Botany and Ecology, Chiba University, Japan, and Enrique Beltran, Director Institute of Renewable Natural Resources, Mexico who said, "It is essential to work to ensure that man can live in dignity in his environment." To do this we must adopt and ecological view and consider not only the direct effects of food production but also the side effects which might be harmful.

Dr. Numata said man's environment was being rapidly degraded by the combination of population explosion, urbanization, industrialization and motorization. Pollution could replace disease and hunger in becoming the controlling factor in man's development.

The WORLD FOOD CONFERENCE - SELECTED MATERIALS FOR THE USE OF THE U.S. CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO THE WORLD FOOD CONFERENCE - Rome, Italy,

NOVEMBER 5 - 16, 1974 - Compiled for the Subcommittee on Foreign Agricultural Policy of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, U.S. Senate, October 30, 1974.

Forward by Hubert Humphrey

"Recognizing the necessity of international cooperation in approaching the issue of world food security, Dr. Henry Kissinger, in his first address to the General Assembly of the UN as U.S. Secretary of State, proposed a UN conference on food to be held in November, 1974 following a suggestion that I posed at the Secretary' confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.