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The fight against hunger
The fight against hunger Its history on the international agenda
Michel CCp2de
The problem of worldwide hunger was first recognized as an issue for international concern within the League of Nations before the second world war. However, it was not until after the war, and the demise of the League of Nations, that it was put firmly on the international agenda. This article traces the history of the fight against hunger from those days to the World Food Conference in 1974. Keywords: Food policy; tional organizations
Hunger;
Interna-
Professor Cepede is Honorary President of the French National Committee of the FAO. He can be contacted at 2 bis Avenue de Senart, 91230 Montgeron, France. This article has been French by David Green.
translated
from
Although the fight against hunger is the oldest of man’s battles, it only became a global human enterprise after the second world war. During the 1930s’ crisis, the major scandal of our age blew up at the very core of the League of Nations. The economists convened in London by the League of Nations in 1933 concluded that agricultural overproduction, particularly of food, was the primary cause of the economic crisis. This was based on the argument that since food consumption is inelastic, what is produced in excess of demand is a ‘surplus’ which causes a slump in market prices if there is no prospect of an increase in demand. In the same way that Gregory King at the end of the 17th century had posited, that only a small shortage would be sufficient for food prices to go up, so it was held that a market ‘surplus’ of 10% would be sufficient jar a price fall of 50%. With the diagnosis thus established, the recommendation followed: production had to be cut back and the surplus destroyed. This was ‘Economic Malthusianism’ .
The nutritionists Nevertheless, the League of Nations, the organization concerned with the problems of global health, had brought together a small group of nutritionists, including W. R. Aykroyd, E. Y. Bigwood, John Boyd Orr, Burnet and Andre Mayer. The results of their work demonstrated that the higher incidence of disease and higher mortality rate among the poor occurred because they were relatively undernourished. Using the data of the Registrar-General, John Boyd Orr published in 1936 the first treatise on food economics under the evocative title, Food, Health and lncome.1
‘John Boyd Orr, Food, Health and Income, Macmillan, London, 1936.
282
The first studies in those countries that were then colonies (by Aykroyd in India, and by Bigwood in the Belgian Congo), provided evidence that what was the lot of the poor in the rich countries, was that of the average citizen in the colonies. Thus, at the same time that the economists were identifying food overproduction as the cause of the economic crisis, a significant proportion of the world’s population could 0306-9192/84/040282-9$3.00
0
1984 Butterworth
& Co (Publishers)
Ltd
The fight against hunger
not get enough to eat to remain healthy; in the face of malnutrition adults could not work efficiently and the young could not grow properly. The scandal duly broke.
The NGOs Two groups from non-governmental organizations interested in the work of the nutritionists: 0
a
(NGOs)
became
the trade union representatives in Geneva at the International Labour Office (ILO), for whom food science brought scientific confirmation to the claims for a minimum level of purchasing power; the farmers, for whom the work of the nutritionists provided the basis for agricultural producers to undertake their productive role feeding mankind - without suffering the absurd reproach of being responsible for overproduction.
Two Australians, Stanley Bruce (the future Viscount Bruce of Melbourne) and Frank L. McDougall, convened nutritionists, union delegates and farmers at Geneva. They persuaded the General Assembly of the League of Nations to decide that it was essential to proceed with ‘the marriage between health and agriculture’, through the means of food (11 September 1935). The League of Nations decided to set up the first World Food Survey for the 1934-38 period. The International Agrarian Conference (Brussels, 1936) founded an International Agrarian Centre which brought together farmers, workers and scientists, who were determined to fight against Economic Malthusianism. Food, in respect of its relationships with agriculture, was put on the agenda of the 17th International Congress of Agriculture held at Scheveningen (The Hague in 1937). From this Congress right up to the outbreak of the second world war, the International Agrarian Centre continued to support the movement born at Geneva. The problem of hunger was put on the international agenda.
From the Atlantic Charter to Hot Springs A small group of those who had played a leading role in Geneva in 1935 (including Frank McDougall and Andre Mayer) was in the USA when Roosevelt and Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter on 14 August 1941. ‘Freedom from want’ was one of the four liberties promised by the Charter. McDougall ensured that President Roosevelt received the ‘Geneva old boys’ who sought to persuade him that the first human liberty should be freedom from hunger. Roosevelt was so willing to take account of what had been accomplished at Geneva and to listen to the suggestions of his visitors, that they proceeded to recommend that the agricultural policy of Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ be extended to the global level, particularly the provisions of the 1938 Agricultural Adjustment Act: 0 0
FOOD POLICY
November 1984
Measures relating to stabilization, and guarantees of prices and stock levels: the ‘ever normal granary’. Measures to make use of the supposed surpluses to improve the nutritional level of the poorest people, especially the vulnerable groups - children, adolescents, pregnant and breast-feeding
The fight against hunger
women: the School Lunch Program, the Food Stamp Plan, etc. After these discussions, Roosevelt convened the first conference of the United Nations at Hot Springs, Virginia in May-June 1943. To the general surprise of the world’s chancelleries, the conference was devoted to questions of food and agriculture. The banns of marriage had been read at Geneva in 1935; the ceremony took place at Hot Springs in 1943, since the conference decided to create a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Inter da, the conference affirmed that: ‘There has never been enough food for the health of all people. This is justified neither by ignorance nor by the harshness of nature. Production of food must be greatly expanded; we now have knowledge of the means by which this can be done. The first cause of hunger and malnutrition is poverty. It is useless to produce more food unless men and nations provide the markets to absorb it . . .’
The role of the FAO The constitution and programme of the new organization were approved at the first session of the FAO conference on 16 October 1945 in Quebec. Andre Mayer (1875-1958), member of 1’Institut de France, was named President of the Executive Committee, and John Boyd Orr (1880-1974) the Director General of FAO. After the foundation of the United Nations Organization (UNO) eight days later in San Francisco, an agreement was negotiated between the FAO and UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC): the two organizations must cooperate and act mutually on those problems that fall within their competences. The role of the FAO is clearly defined in the preamble to its ‘constitution’: ‘The Nations accepting this Constitution, being determined to promote the common welfare by further separate and collective action on their part for the purpose of: 0 0 0
raising the levels of nutrition and standards of living of the peoples under their respective jurisdictions; securing improvements in the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products; bettering the condition of rural populations;
and thus contributing toward an expanding world economy, hereby establish the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations . . .’ In 1965, on the 20th anniversary of the FAO, and with the principle of freedom from hunger introduced into the protocol concerning those rights recognized under the international Charter of Human Rights, the FAO conference decided to make the struggle against hunger in this preamble explicit. Despite the efforts of those who wished to cast the FAO in the role of a ‘fact-finding institution’, the organization now exercised a number of powers of recommendation to member governments as well as to ECOSOC.
From Quebec to the World Campaign
Against Hunger
The FAO had to take on important
responsibilities as early as 1946, when it alerted ECOSOC to the danger of famine confronting Europe.
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1984
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A Special Meeting on Urgent Food Problems was convened in May 1946, and set up the International Emergency Food Council (IEFC) to carry on the work of rations distribution which had been organized by the Combined Food Board during the war. In distributing both agricultural produce and freight, IEFC performed sterling work and knew how to alleviate the worst effects of the post-war world. But the conference also took notice of the fact that the agricultural producers, who had not forgotten the harsh trials they had suffered in the pre-war economic crisis, would be able to produce what was necessary to feed the world’s population only to the point where they could be assured that their efforts would not lead to a general decline in prices, and that they would not once again be ruined by a situation of abundance. The Conference thus invited the Director General to make proposals to resolve this problem to the 2nd session of the FAO Conference at Copenhagen in September 1946. The drawing up of these proposals was made possible by the simultaneous publication of the results of the First World Food Survey (1934-38). This publication enabled the drawing up of proposals for a World Food Board and the formulation of objectives for the year 1960 the doubling of pre-war world food production on the basis of a forecasted 25% rise in population. The proposal for a World Food Board met with a cool reception at the Copenhagen Conference which instructed a ‘Commission of governmental representatives to study this and all other proposals’. From the beginning of the work of the Preparatory Commission on Food Proposals (Washington, October 1946 to January 1947), it was evident that the proposal of John Boyd Orr and the Executive Committee of the FAO for a World Food Board would not be accepted. The Commission proposed that a World Food Council composed of governmental representatives should be entrusted with the task of monitoring, between sessions of the FAO Conference, the food and agriculture situation, and that, as the FAO Council, it should replace the Executive Committee of individuals who had been elected by the conference through the force of their personalities. This Executive Committee had after all been responsible for encouraging John Boyd Orr to make ‘embarrassing’ proposals such as that for the World Food Board. The Third Session of the FAO Conference (Geneva, September 1947) approved the Commission’s proposal. The delegations attached to the Excutive Committee only succeeded in ensuring that the Chairman of the World Food Council would be an independent person elected by Conference. The first Independent Chairman of the Council, elected at Geneva in 1947, was the President of the Preparatory Commission, the Australian Stanley Bruce, who held office until 1951.2 Soon afterwards, John Boyd Orr resigned as Director General, and ‘His successors were Josub de Castro was succeeded by Norris E. Dodd (1948-53), leader of the US (Brazil, 1951-55); S. A. Hasnie (Pakistan, 195549): Louis Maire (Switzerland, delegation at Copenhagen and at Geneva.3 In January 1949, Sir John 195$&63ji George Haraoui (Lebanon, became Lord Boyd Orr, and in the same year received the Nobel Peace 1963-64); Maurice Gemayel (Lebanon, Prize. 196549); Michel C&p&de (France, 196973); Gonzalez Bula Hoyos (Colombia, The new Director General, N. E. Dodd, became aware that each time 1973-77); Bukar Shaib (Nigeria, 1977that the IEFC stopped intervening in the markets for agricultural 61): and N. S. Swaminathan (India, 1961-). products - which, in the opinions of the experts, were no longer in short 3Their successors were Ph. V. Cardon (USA, 195446); B. R. Sen (India, 1956supply - some disturbing phenomena became evident and the necessary 67); A. H. Boerma (Netherlands, 1966production rises slowed down. Hence, in 1949, Dodd got authorization 75); and Edouard Saouma (Lebanon, from the Council to propose his project for an International Commod197~).
FOOD POLICY
November 1984
The
fight againsthunger
ities Clearing House (ICCH). The Council also refused to set up this organization in 1950 and created instead the Committee on Commodity Problems (CCP), which was composed of governmental representatives elected by the Council. Further, although food production was increasing faster than population growth, it was becoming increasingly clear that the per capita consumption goal proposed for 1960 in 1946 (125 on an index with the base of 100 for 1934-38) would not be attained. (On the basis of trends at that time, a figure of only 112 would be achieved by 1960). Furthermore, production increases were occurring much more in the rich countries than in the poor regions. The governmental representatives were determined not to allow the crisis conditions of the 1930s to be repeated, and they again began worrying about problems of a ‘surplus’ rather than about hunger in the poor regions. Putting a brake on ‘overproduction’ in the rich countries soon seemed a more effective course of action than responding to calls to step up production to feed the poor. In 1958, Director General B. R. Sen proposed to the FAO and the UN the launching of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign. Approved in 1959 by the FAO Conference as well as the UN General Assembly, the Freedom from Hunger Campaign was launched on 1 July 1960.
Freedom from Hunger Campaign The campaign mobilized NGOs to build up the pressure of public opinion behind the fight against hunger and to organize popular involvement in the campaign. This was directed towards the rich countries as well as towards those countries which required help along the development path, through actions to ensure the development ‘of the whole of mankind and of every man’ (F. Perroux - J. Lebret). This alone would ensure victory over humanity’s oldest enemy - hunger. The campaign was initially to run for five years, reaching its climax in 1963 at the World Food Congress. This was held in Washington, DC, on the day after the 20th anniversary of the Hot Springs Conference. It was subsequently decided to prolong the campaign throughout the whole of the UN Decade for Development (1960-70), and in the ensuing Development Decades. In 1963, despite the efforts of those responsible for running the campaign, it was clear that it had not succeeded in mobilizing public opinion, and more importantly the actions that had been implemented had not by then led to any significant results. Within the context of the campaign, the UN General Assembly (Res M96 (XV) invited the FAO to establish mechanisms for making use of ‘surpluses’ for the benefit of ‘food-deficient people’. The FAO Council authorized Director General Sen to respond to this request. The report Development
Through
Food - A Strategy of Surplus
Utilization was
submitted in April 1961 to an Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. An American proposal led to the setting up of the World Food Programme jointly by the FAO and the UN. This was initially set up as an exljerimental three-year programme (1963-65) with a budget of $100 million. To arouse the world’s conscience and to impart the highest moral authority to the Freedom from Hunger Campaign, on 14 March 1963 Dr B. R. Sen convened a special assembly of eminent representatives from
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1984
The fight against hunger
the worlds of literature, medicine, science, public administration and politics. Out of the 29 people in attendance, 11 were Nobel Prize winners either in a personal capacity or as directors of their institutions. Also, of the 24 others who had been invited but who, despite being unable to be present at Rome, had approved the 14 March 1963 declaration (The Proclamation on the Right to be Free from Hunger), there were another seven Nobel laureates. The 1st World Food Congress thus received a fillip that enabled it to overcome the atmosphere of ineffectiveness brought about by the paucity of results from the first three years of the campaign. The World Food Congresses were gatherings of men and women engaged in the campaign at which, unlike at intergovernmental conferences, ministers and even heads of state would speak only in a personal capacity. They have also shown that solidarity is possible for carrying out such a major project. A major issue at the 2nd World Congress in The Hague in 1970 related to the Resolution of the UN Conference at Geneva in 1961 which had recommended that every country should devote 1% of its GNP to aid for Third World Development. This goal echoed in Lester Pearson’s 1969 report for the forthcoming Second Development Decade, had not been achieved. Andre Philip, who in 1961 had been the proposer of the UN Resolution, persuaded the Congress to recommend that each developed country: . . . should achieve by 1972 the goal of devoting 1% of its GNP to the net transfer of financial resources to developing countries, by progressively improving the composition of global aid so that by 1975 the official (publicly funded) component of aid would comprise 0.7% of the GNP of every developed country’.
A number of participants at the Congress thus made a solemn commitment to devote annually 1% of their income to the World Campaign against Hunger, since their governments would not make the necessary effort. This was the origin of the Third World First (1% Tiers Monde) groups which were set up in several developed countries.
The World Food Conference,
Rome 1974
The organizers of the major international conferences (Environment, Stockholm; Population, Bucharest; Food, Rome) had to give representation to the NGOs. Hence for the World Food Conference, ECOSOC requested the Secretary General of the Conference, Mr Sayed Marei, to invite those NGOs, ‘which were capable of making a positive contribution to the work of the Conference’, to send observers. More than 170 NGOs were thus represented. Despite the wishes of Mr Marei, it seems that the intention was to relegate the NGOs to a very marginal role. The NGO representatives were located half a kilometre away from the conference hall, only had two seats in the plenary sessions, and were subjected to experts’ speeches on a massive range of topics. The leaders of the most representative NGOs, particularly those who enjoyed Consultative Status in ECOSOC, reacted vigorously and obtained a room for NGO representatives within the conference building. Once installed, the NGOs worked conscientiously and effectively. Two resolutions were drawn up. The first, adopted at the FOOD POLICY
November
1984
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The fight against hunger
opening of the Conference by 11 International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) representatives and three of the Freedom From Hunger Campaign Committees, was distributed to the governmental delegates. The second, adopted unanimously at the end of the working sessions, was presented to the Conference as the definitive Resolution of the NGOs. The first resolution dealt with four points: 0
0
0 0
To invite the international scientific community to carry out a truly interdisciplinary study into the problems of food production and consumption, and to approach the UN University that had recently been created. To regulate international markets so as to achieve the satisfaction of the needs of vulnerable groups and the most disadvantaged populations, rather than acquire profits through contrived scarcity. To condemn unequivocally ‘the use of food aid and of the threat of hunger as a strategic weapon of national prestige or political power’. A satisfactory level of production should be attained without the abuse and exploitation of either land or people; specifically the food of the producer and of his family should be guaranteed since at present the families of rural food producers make up the majority of the world population who suffer from undernourishment or malnutrition. The resolution
concluded:
‘Since all constructive proposals made since 1946 have been constantly rejected by intergovernmental conferences, the undersigned organizations consider that the refusal of governments to act and to set these projects in motion is mainly responsible for the present critical situation. In consequence, in order to deal effectively with the food problems of present and future generations, an exclusively intergovernmental organization would not be effective enough. An organization devoted to such tasks must involve the active participation of NGOs, particularly those which represent the producers (farmers, fishermen, producer cooperatives, rural workers, and the food industries) and the consumers (women, families, consumer cooperatives, trade unions)‘. The second reiterated all these points and emphasized the role that the NGOs were demanding that they would undertake to fulfil in the fight
against hunger. The World Food Conference concluded its work by the adoption, by consensus, of a Universal Declaration for the complete elimination of hunger and malnutrition, and of 28 Resolutions. The consensus method enabled a seeming unanimity to be established, even on controversial topics. However, the Arab states declared that the terms of Resolution VIII (Women and food) were unacceptable, and the Chinese delegation affirmed that the World Information and Rapid Alert System that Resolution XVI requested the FAO to set up, was nothing but an intolerable system for espionage. There were few vestiges of the concerns of the NGOs in the texts of the Conference resolutions:
288
0
Appeal to the Scientific Community. The Declaration
0
8) that the developed countries should communicate results to developing countries. Resolution IV agricultural research, popularization and training’, paragraphs with no reference to the UN University. Regulation of markets. There was reference in the FOOD POLICY
stated (at para their research on ‘Food and comprised 26 Declaration
November
to
1984
The fight against hunger
the question of reasonable prices, to the New International Economic Order (NIEO), to price stabilization at fair and profitable levels, and to food security. This latter point was the main element of Resolution XVII, yet Resolution XIX, ‘International commerce, stabilization and agricultural adjustment’, advocated: not the regulation but the liberalization of international commerce; the growth of developing countries’ agricultural exports, although at ‘stable prices that are fair and profitable’ (at para 2); further on (para 4) ‘profitable’ referred to prices for the producer and ‘fair’ to prices to the consumer; and the conference requested (at para 3) that ‘speculative practices tending to destabilize markets and increase profits be discouraged’. This was a long way from the World Food Board of 1946. 0
0
Food as a political weapon.There was no longer any reference to food as a political weapon, except for the Declaration, which stated that aid should be rendered ‘without any political pressure’ (para 4), and that assistance should be ‘devoid of considerations which interfere with the national sovereignty of the recipient states; and Resolution XVIII which emphasized that, ‘food aid should be given in a form compatible with the sovereign rights of nations without there being any conflict with the development objectives of the beneficiary countries, or imposition of political objectives by the donor countries’. In respect of the protection of the environment and the conservation of natural resources, reference was made in both the Declaration and Resolutions, in particular Res VI for soils and Res VII for water. Here there were useful observations, but nowhere was the main problem dealt with - the exploitation of the rural poor producers and the key problem of satisfying the needs of their families. It was not until the preparatory documents for the World Food Council’s Addis Ababa (1984) meeting that it was recognized that the majority of the world’s population suffering from undernourishment and malnutrition came from these rural families.
As for the role of the NGOs, the Conference considered that the primary responsibility rests with governments (Declaration 2), and the UN family was requested to ‘mobilize, as a matter of urgency, the pressure of the whole international community, including the nongovernmental organizations, to conquer hunger and malnutrition’. (Res I, 10).
Missed opportunities In the new institutions proposed by the Conference, no role in decision making was accorded the NGOs. This is not surprising in the case of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); but once again an opportunity was missed to bring together producer and consumer representatives and governmental representatives in a body analogous to that for employers and employees in the ILO. The situation is in fact quite the reverse. The World Food Council was created by Resolution XXII, despite the existence of the 1948 body which had been set up under the same name but was now simply called the Council of the FAO. The World Food Council was set up ‘at the level of ministers or Plenipotentiaries’; the 36 governmental members are nominated by FOOD POLICY
November
1984
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The fight against hunger
ECOSOC and elected by the General Assembly, and they elect their President from among themselves. The Secretariat services are provided within the framework of the FAO. This attempt to make the FAO subject to the UN - an essentially political body and a younger, sister organization - poses serious problems. We should recall that the same conflict broke out between the IL0 and the League of Nations in the 1920s. It was only because the former was able to retain its complete autonomy that enabled it to survive the second world war, which had its origins in the collapse of the latter.
290
FOOD POLICY
November 1984
Michel CCp2de
The problem of worldwide hunger was first recognized as an issue for international concern within the League of Nations before the second world war. However, it was not until after the war, and the demise of the League of Nations, that it was put firmly on the international agenda. This article traces the history of the fight against hunger from those days to the World Food Conference in 1974. Keywords: Food policy; tional organizations
Hunger;
Interna-
Professor Cepede is Honorary President of the French National Committee of the FAO. He can be contacted at 2 bis Avenue de Senart, 91230 Montgeron, France. This article has been French by David Green.
translated
from
Although the fight against hunger is the oldest of man’s battles, it only became a global human enterprise after the second world war. During the 1930s’ crisis, the major scandal of our age blew up at the very core of the League of Nations. The economists convened in London by the League of Nations in 1933 concluded that agricultural overproduction, particularly of food, was the primary cause of the economic crisis. This was based on the argument that since food consumption is inelastic, what is produced in excess of demand is a ‘surplus’ which causes a slump in market prices if there is no prospect of an increase in demand. In the same way that Gregory King at the end of the 17th century had posited, that only a small shortage would be sufficient for food prices to go up, so it was held that a market ‘surplus’ of 10% would be sufficient jar a price fall of 50%. With the diagnosis thus established, the recommendation followed: production had to be cut back and the surplus destroyed. This was ‘Economic Malthusianism’ .
The nutritionists Nevertheless, the League of Nations, the organization concerned with the problems of global health, had brought together a small group of nutritionists, including W. R. Aykroyd, E. Y. Bigwood, John Boyd Orr, Burnet and Andre Mayer. The results of their work demonstrated that the higher incidence of disease and higher mortality rate among the poor occurred because they were relatively undernourished. Using the data of the Registrar-General, John Boyd Orr published in 1936 the first treatise on food economics under the evocative title, Food, Health and lncome.1
‘John Boyd Orr, Food, Health and Income, Macmillan, London, 1936.
282
The first studies in those countries that were then colonies (by Aykroyd in India, and by Bigwood in the Belgian Congo), provided evidence that what was the lot of the poor in the rich countries, was that of the average citizen in the colonies. Thus, at the same time that the economists were identifying food overproduction as the cause of the economic crisis, a significant proportion of the world’s population could 0306-9192/84/040282-9$3.00
0
1984 Butterworth
& Co (Publishers)
Ltd
The fight against hunger
not get enough to eat to remain healthy; in the face of malnutrition adults could not work efficiently and the young could not grow properly. The scandal duly broke.
The NGOs Two groups from non-governmental organizations interested in the work of the nutritionists: 0
a
(NGOs)
became
the trade union representatives in Geneva at the International Labour Office (ILO), for whom food science brought scientific confirmation to the claims for a minimum level of purchasing power; the farmers, for whom the work of the nutritionists provided the basis for agricultural producers to undertake their productive role feeding mankind - without suffering the absurd reproach of being responsible for overproduction.
Two Australians, Stanley Bruce (the future Viscount Bruce of Melbourne) and Frank L. McDougall, convened nutritionists, union delegates and farmers at Geneva. They persuaded the General Assembly of the League of Nations to decide that it was essential to proceed with ‘the marriage between health and agriculture’, through the means of food (11 September 1935). The League of Nations decided to set up the first World Food Survey for the 1934-38 period. The International Agrarian Conference (Brussels, 1936) founded an International Agrarian Centre which brought together farmers, workers and scientists, who were determined to fight against Economic Malthusianism. Food, in respect of its relationships with agriculture, was put on the agenda of the 17th International Congress of Agriculture held at Scheveningen (The Hague in 1937). From this Congress right up to the outbreak of the second world war, the International Agrarian Centre continued to support the movement born at Geneva. The problem of hunger was put on the international agenda.
From the Atlantic Charter to Hot Springs A small group of those who had played a leading role in Geneva in 1935 (including Frank McDougall and Andre Mayer) was in the USA when Roosevelt and Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter on 14 August 1941. ‘Freedom from want’ was one of the four liberties promised by the Charter. McDougall ensured that President Roosevelt received the ‘Geneva old boys’ who sought to persuade him that the first human liberty should be freedom from hunger. Roosevelt was so willing to take account of what had been accomplished at Geneva and to listen to the suggestions of his visitors, that they proceeded to recommend that the agricultural policy of Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ be extended to the global level, particularly the provisions of the 1938 Agricultural Adjustment Act: 0 0
FOOD POLICY
November 1984
Measures relating to stabilization, and guarantees of prices and stock levels: the ‘ever normal granary’. Measures to make use of the supposed surpluses to improve the nutritional level of the poorest people, especially the vulnerable groups - children, adolescents, pregnant and breast-feeding
The fight against hunger
women: the School Lunch Program, the Food Stamp Plan, etc. After these discussions, Roosevelt convened the first conference of the United Nations at Hot Springs, Virginia in May-June 1943. To the general surprise of the world’s chancelleries, the conference was devoted to questions of food and agriculture. The banns of marriage had been read at Geneva in 1935; the ceremony took place at Hot Springs in 1943, since the conference decided to create a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Inter da, the conference affirmed that: ‘There has never been enough food for the health of all people. This is justified neither by ignorance nor by the harshness of nature. Production of food must be greatly expanded; we now have knowledge of the means by which this can be done. The first cause of hunger and malnutrition is poverty. It is useless to produce more food unless men and nations provide the markets to absorb it . . .’
The role of the FAO The constitution and programme of the new organization were approved at the first session of the FAO conference on 16 October 1945 in Quebec. Andre Mayer (1875-1958), member of 1’Institut de France, was named President of the Executive Committee, and John Boyd Orr (1880-1974) the Director General of FAO. After the foundation of the United Nations Organization (UNO) eight days later in San Francisco, an agreement was negotiated between the FAO and UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC): the two organizations must cooperate and act mutually on those problems that fall within their competences. The role of the FAO is clearly defined in the preamble to its ‘constitution’: ‘The Nations accepting this Constitution, being determined to promote the common welfare by further separate and collective action on their part for the purpose of: 0 0 0
raising the levels of nutrition and standards of living of the peoples under their respective jurisdictions; securing improvements in the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products; bettering the condition of rural populations;
and thus contributing toward an expanding world economy, hereby establish the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations . . .’ In 1965, on the 20th anniversary of the FAO, and with the principle of freedom from hunger introduced into the protocol concerning those rights recognized under the international Charter of Human Rights, the FAO conference decided to make the struggle against hunger in this preamble explicit. Despite the efforts of those who wished to cast the FAO in the role of a ‘fact-finding institution’, the organization now exercised a number of powers of recommendation to member governments as well as to ECOSOC.
From Quebec to the World Campaign
Against Hunger
The FAO had to take on important
responsibilities as early as 1946, when it alerted ECOSOC to the danger of famine confronting Europe.
284
FOOD POLICY
November
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A Special Meeting on Urgent Food Problems was convened in May 1946, and set up the International Emergency Food Council (IEFC) to carry on the work of rations distribution which had been organized by the Combined Food Board during the war. In distributing both agricultural produce and freight, IEFC performed sterling work and knew how to alleviate the worst effects of the post-war world. But the conference also took notice of the fact that the agricultural producers, who had not forgotten the harsh trials they had suffered in the pre-war economic crisis, would be able to produce what was necessary to feed the world’s population only to the point where they could be assured that their efforts would not lead to a general decline in prices, and that they would not once again be ruined by a situation of abundance. The Conference thus invited the Director General to make proposals to resolve this problem to the 2nd session of the FAO Conference at Copenhagen in September 1946. The drawing up of these proposals was made possible by the simultaneous publication of the results of the First World Food Survey (1934-38). This publication enabled the drawing up of proposals for a World Food Board and the formulation of objectives for the year 1960 the doubling of pre-war world food production on the basis of a forecasted 25% rise in population. The proposal for a World Food Board met with a cool reception at the Copenhagen Conference which instructed a ‘Commission of governmental representatives to study this and all other proposals’. From the beginning of the work of the Preparatory Commission on Food Proposals (Washington, October 1946 to January 1947), it was evident that the proposal of John Boyd Orr and the Executive Committee of the FAO for a World Food Board would not be accepted. The Commission proposed that a World Food Council composed of governmental representatives should be entrusted with the task of monitoring, between sessions of the FAO Conference, the food and agriculture situation, and that, as the FAO Council, it should replace the Executive Committee of individuals who had been elected by the conference through the force of their personalities. This Executive Committee had after all been responsible for encouraging John Boyd Orr to make ‘embarrassing’ proposals such as that for the World Food Board. The Third Session of the FAO Conference (Geneva, September 1947) approved the Commission’s proposal. The delegations attached to the Excutive Committee only succeeded in ensuring that the Chairman of the World Food Council would be an independent person elected by Conference. The first Independent Chairman of the Council, elected at Geneva in 1947, was the President of the Preparatory Commission, the Australian Stanley Bruce, who held office until 1951.2 Soon afterwards, John Boyd Orr resigned as Director General, and ‘His successors were Josub de Castro was succeeded by Norris E. Dodd (1948-53), leader of the US (Brazil, 1951-55); S. A. Hasnie (Pakistan, 195549): Louis Maire (Switzerland, delegation at Copenhagen and at Geneva.3 In January 1949, Sir John 195$&63ji George Haraoui (Lebanon, became Lord Boyd Orr, and in the same year received the Nobel Peace 1963-64); Maurice Gemayel (Lebanon, Prize. 196549); Michel C&p&de (France, 196973); Gonzalez Bula Hoyos (Colombia, The new Director General, N. E. Dodd, became aware that each time 1973-77); Bukar Shaib (Nigeria, 1977that the IEFC stopped intervening in the markets for agricultural 61): and N. S. Swaminathan (India, 1961-). products - which, in the opinions of the experts, were no longer in short 3Their successors were Ph. V. Cardon (USA, 195446); B. R. Sen (India, 1956supply - some disturbing phenomena became evident and the necessary 67); A. H. Boerma (Netherlands, 1966production rises slowed down. Hence, in 1949, Dodd got authorization 75); and Edouard Saouma (Lebanon, from the Council to propose his project for an International Commod197~).
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ities Clearing House (ICCH). The Council also refused to set up this organization in 1950 and created instead the Committee on Commodity Problems (CCP), which was composed of governmental representatives elected by the Council. Further, although food production was increasing faster than population growth, it was becoming increasingly clear that the per capita consumption goal proposed for 1960 in 1946 (125 on an index with the base of 100 for 1934-38) would not be attained. (On the basis of trends at that time, a figure of only 112 would be achieved by 1960). Furthermore, production increases were occurring much more in the rich countries than in the poor regions. The governmental representatives were determined not to allow the crisis conditions of the 1930s to be repeated, and they again began worrying about problems of a ‘surplus’ rather than about hunger in the poor regions. Putting a brake on ‘overproduction’ in the rich countries soon seemed a more effective course of action than responding to calls to step up production to feed the poor. In 1958, Director General B. R. Sen proposed to the FAO and the UN the launching of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign. Approved in 1959 by the FAO Conference as well as the UN General Assembly, the Freedom from Hunger Campaign was launched on 1 July 1960.
Freedom from Hunger Campaign The campaign mobilized NGOs to build up the pressure of public opinion behind the fight against hunger and to organize popular involvement in the campaign. This was directed towards the rich countries as well as towards those countries which required help along the development path, through actions to ensure the development ‘of the whole of mankind and of every man’ (F. Perroux - J. Lebret). This alone would ensure victory over humanity’s oldest enemy - hunger. The campaign was initially to run for five years, reaching its climax in 1963 at the World Food Congress. This was held in Washington, DC, on the day after the 20th anniversary of the Hot Springs Conference. It was subsequently decided to prolong the campaign throughout the whole of the UN Decade for Development (1960-70), and in the ensuing Development Decades. In 1963, despite the efforts of those responsible for running the campaign, it was clear that it had not succeeded in mobilizing public opinion, and more importantly the actions that had been implemented had not by then led to any significant results. Within the context of the campaign, the UN General Assembly (Res M96 (XV) invited the FAO to establish mechanisms for making use of ‘surpluses’ for the benefit of ‘food-deficient people’. The FAO Council authorized Director General Sen to respond to this request. The report Development
Through
Food - A Strategy of Surplus
Utilization was
submitted in April 1961 to an Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. An American proposal led to the setting up of the World Food Programme jointly by the FAO and the UN. This was initially set up as an exljerimental three-year programme (1963-65) with a budget of $100 million. To arouse the world’s conscience and to impart the highest moral authority to the Freedom from Hunger Campaign, on 14 March 1963 Dr B. R. Sen convened a special assembly of eminent representatives from
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the worlds of literature, medicine, science, public administration and politics. Out of the 29 people in attendance, 11 were Nobel Prize winners either in a personal capacity or as directors of their institutions. Also, of the 24 others who had been invited but who, despite being unable to be present at Rome, had approved the 14 March 1963 declaration (The Proclamation on the Right to be Free from Hunger), there were another seven Nobel laureates. The 1st World Food Congress thus received a fillip that enabled it to overcome the atmosphere of ineffectiveness brought about by the paucity of results from the first three years of the campaign. The World Food Congresses were gatherings of men and women engaged in the campaign at which, unlike at intergovernmental conferences, ministers and even heads of state would speak only in a personal capacity. They have also shown that solidarity is possible for carrying out such a major project. A major issue at the 2nd World Congress in The Hague in 1970 related to the Resolution of the UN Conference at Geneva in 1961 which had recommended that every country should devote 1% of its GNP to aid for Third World Development. This goal echoed in Lester Pearson’s 1969 report for the forthcoming Second Development Decade, had not been achieved. Andre Philip, who in 1961 had been the proposer of the UN Resolution, persuaded the Congress to recommend that each developed country: . . . should achieve by 1972 the goal of devoting 1% of its GNP to the net transfer of financial resources to developing countries, by progressively improving the composition of global aid so that by 1975 the official (publicly funded) component of aid would comprise 0.7% of the GNP of every developed country’.
A number of participants at the Congress thus made a solemn commitment to devote annually 1% of their income to the World Campaign against Hunger, since their governments would not make the necessary effort. This was the origin of the Third World First (1% Tiers Monde) groups which were set up in several developed countries.
The World Food Conference,
Rome 1974
The organizers of the major international conferences (Environment, Stockholm; Population, Bucharest; Food, Rome) had to give representation to the NGOs. Hence for the World Food Conference, ECOSOC requested the Secretary General of the Conference, Mr Sayed Marei, to invite those NGOs, ‘which were capable of making a positive contribution to the work of the Conference’, to send observers. More than 170 NGOs were thus represented. Despite the wishes of Mr Marei, it seems that the intention was to relegate the NGOs to a very marginal role. The NGO representatives were located half a kilometre away from the conference hall, only had two seats in the plenary sessions, and were subjected to experts’ speeches on a massive range of topics. The leaders of the most representative NGOs, particularly those who enjoyed Consultative Status in ECOSOC, reacted vigorously and obtained a room for NGO representatives within the conference building. Once installed, the NGOs worked conscientiously and effectively. Two resolutions were drawn up. The first, adopted at the FOOD POLICY
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opening of the Conference by 11 International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) representatives and three of the Freedom From Hunger Campaign Committees, was distributed to the governmental delegates. The second, adopted unanimously at the end of the working sessions, was presented to the Conference as the definitive Resolution of the NGOs. The first resolution dealt with four points: 0
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To invite the international scientific community to carry out a truly interdisciplinary study into the problems of food production and consumption, and to approach the UN University that had recently been created. To regulate international markets so as to achieve the satisfaction of the needs of vulnerable groups and the most disadvantaged populations, rather than acquire profits through contrived scarcity. To condemn unequivocally ‘the use of food aid and of the threat of hunger as a strategic weapon of national prestige or political power’. A satisfactory level of production should be attained without the abuse and exploitation of either land or people; specifically the food of the producer and of his family should be guaranteed since at present the families of rural food producers make up the majority of the world population who suffer from undernourishment or malnutrition. The resolution
concluded:
‘Since all constructive proposals made since 1946 have been constantly rejected by intergovernmental conferences, the undersigned organizations consider that the refusal of governments to act and to set these projects in motion is mainly responsible for the present critical situation. In consequence, in order to deal effectively with the food problems of present and future generations, an exclusively intergovernmental organization would not be effective enough. An organization devoted to such tasks must involve the active participation of NGOs, particularly those which represent the producers (farmers, fishermen, producer cooperatives, rural workers, and the food industries) and the consumers (women, families, consumer cooperatives, trade unions)‘. The second reiterated all these points and emphasized the role that the NGOs were demanding that they would undertake to fulfil in the fight
against hunger. The World Food Conference concluded its work by the adoption, by consensus, of a Universal Declaration for the complete elimination of hunger and malnutrition, and of 28 Resolutions. The consensus method enabled a seeming unanimity to be established, even on controversial topics. However, the Arab states declared that the terms of Resolution VIII (Women and food) were unacceptable, and the Chinese delegation affirmed that the World Information and Rapid Alert System that Resolution XVI requested the FAO to set up, was nothing but an intolerable system for espionage. There were few vestiges of the concerns of the NGOs in the texts of the Conference resolutions:
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Appeal to the Scientific Community. The Declaration
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8) that the developed countries should communicate results to developing countries. Resolution IV agricultural research, popularization and training’, paragraphs with no reference to the UN University. Regulation of markets. There was reference in the FOOD POLICY
stated (at para their research on ‘Food and comprised 26 Declaration
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the question of reasonable prices, to the New International Economic Order (NIEO), to price stabilization at fair and profitable levels, and to food security. This latter point was the main element of Resolution XVII, yet Resolution XIX, ‘International commerce, stabilization and agricultural adjustment’, advocated: not the regulation but the liberalization of international commerce; the growth of developing countries’ agricultural exports, although at ‘stable prices that are fair and profitable’ (at para 2); further on (para 4) ‘profitable’ referred to prices for the producer and ‘fair’ to prices to the consumer; and the conference requested (at para 3) that ‘speculative practices tending to destabilize markets and increase profits be discouraged’. This was a long way from the World Food Board of 1946. 0
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Food as a political weapon.There was no longer any reference to food as a political weapon, except for the Declaration, which stated that aid should be rendered ‘without any political pressure’ (para 4), and that assistance should be ‘devoid of considerations which interfere with the national sovereignty of the recipient states; and Resolution XVIII which emphasized that, ‘food aid should be given in a form compatible with the sovereign rights of nations without there being any conflict with the development objectives of the beneficiary countries, or imposition of political objectives by the donor countries’. In respect of the protection of the environment and the conservation of natural resources, reference was made in both the Declaration and Resolutions, in particular Res VI for soils and Res VII for water. Here there were useful observations, but nowhere was the main problem dealt with - the exploitation of the rural poor producers and the key problem of satisfying the needs of their families. It was not until the preparatory documents for the World Food Council’s Addis Ababa (1984) meeting that it was recognized that the majority of the world’s population suffering from undernourishment and malnutrition came from these rural families.
As for the role of the NGOs, the Conference considered that the primary responsibility rests with governments (Declaration 2), and the UN family was requested to ‘mobilize, as a matter of urgency, the pressure of the whole international community, including the nongovernmental organizations, to conquer hunger and malnutrition’. (Res I, 10).
Missed opportunities In the new institutions proposed by the Conference, no role in decision making was accorded the NGOs. This is not surprising in the case of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); but once again an opportunity was missed to bring together producer and consumer representatives and governmental representatives in a body analogous to that for employers and employees in the ILO. The situation is in fact quite the reverse. The World Food Council was created by Resolution XXII, despite the existence of the 1948 body which had been set up under the same name but was now simply called the Council of the FAO. The World Food Council was set up ‘at the level of ministers or Plenipotentiaries’; the 36 governmental members are nominated by FOOD POLICY
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ECOSOC and elected by the General Assembly, and they elect their President from among themselves. The Secretariat services are provided within the framework of the FAO. This attempt to make the FAO subject to the UN - an essentially political body and a younger, sister organization - poses serious problems. We should recall that the same conflict broke out between the IL0 and the League of Nations in the 1920s. It was only because the former was able to retain its complete autonomy that enabled it to survive the second world war, which had its origins in the collapse of the latter.
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