Food and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization is a specialized agency of the
United Nations that works to raise levels of
nutrition and standards of living; to improve the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of
food and agricultural products; to promote
rural development; and, by these means, to eliminate
hunger. In the past, the United States and several European nations have contributed to this organization by providing blankets, food, shelter, and mung beans to those in need. Its
Latin motto,
fiat panis, translates into English as "let there be bread".
Encyclopedia
The
Food and Agriculture Organization is a specialized agency of the
United Nations that works to raise levels of
nutrition and standards of living; to improve the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of
food and agricultural products; to promote
rural development; and, by these means, to eliminate
hunger. In the past, the United States and several European nations have contributed to this organization by providing blankets, food, shelter, and mung beans to those in need. Its
Latin motto,
fiat panis, translates into English as "let there be bread". FAO's headquaters are located in
Rome.
The FAO was founded in 16 Oct 1945 in
Quebec City,
Quebec,
Canada. In 1951 the headquarters were moved from
Washington, D.C.,
United States, to
Rome,
Italy. As of April 11, 2006, it had 190 members .
The main activities concentrate on four areas:
- Developing assistance to developing countries.
- Information about nutrition, food, agriculture
...
,
forestry and
fishery.
- Advice to governments.
- Neutral forum to discuss and formulate policy on major food and agriculture issues.
Directors-general of FAO
- Sir John Boyd Orr : Oct 1945 - 14 Apr 1948.
- Norris E. Dodd : 14 Apr 1948 - 31 Dec 1953.
- Philip V. Cardon : 1 Jan 1954 - Apr 1956.
- Sir Herbert Broadley : Apr 1956 - Nov 1956.
- Binay Ranjan Sen : Nov 1956 - 31 Dec 1967 .
- Addeke Hendrik Boerma : 1 Jan 1968 - 31 Dec 1975 .
- Edouard Saouma : 1 Jan 1976 - 31 Dec 1993.
- Jacques Diouf : 1 Jan 1994 - current.
Specific programmes
In 1960, FAO launched a five year campaign Freedom from Hunger that led to new development charities being formed in countries including Australia , and the United States .
FAO's efforts to eliminate the Mediterranean fruit fly from the Caribbean Basin have benefitted the U.S. citrus industry. Likewise, U.S. cattle raisers have a direct stake in FAO efforts to eliminate a tick found in the Caribbean that carries a threatening cattle disease.
During the 1990's, FAO took a leading role in the promotion of integrated pest management for rice production in Asia. Hundreds of thousands of farmers were trained using an approach known as the Farmer Field School . Like many of the programmes managed by FAO, the funds for Farmer Field Schools came from bilateral Trust Funds, with Australia, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland acting as the leading donors.
Criticism
There has been public criticism of FAO for at least 15 years. In 1991, The Ecologist magazine produced a special issue on FAO, including articles that questioned FAO policies in forestry and aquaculture, and which examined the impact of the Green Revolution in India
In 1996, FAO organised the World Food Summit, attended by 112 Heads or Deputy Heads of State and Government. The Summit concluded with the signing of the Rome Declaration, which established the goal of halving the number of people who suffer from hunger by the year 2015.. At the same time, 1,200 Civil Society Organisations from 80 countries participated in an NGO Forum. The Forum was critical of the growing industrialisation of agriculture and called upon Governments - and FAO - to do more to protect the 'Right to Food' of the poor, rather that protecting the profits of companies involved in agribusiness
The next Food Summit organised by FAO in 2002 was considered to be a waste of time by many of the participants..
In 2004, FAO produced a controversial report called Agricultural Biotechnology: meeting the needs of the poor?. The report claimed that "agricultural biotechnology has real potential as a new tool in the war on hunger" . In response to the report, more than 650 organisations from around the world signed an open letter in which they said "FAO has broken its commitment to civil society and peasants' organisations". The letter complained that organisations representing the interests of farmers had not been consulted, that FAO was siding with the biotechnology industry and, consequently, that the report "raises serious questions about the independence and intellectual integrity of an important United Nations agency". The Director General of FAO responded immediately, stating that decisions on biotechology must "be taken at the international level by competent bodies" . He acknowledged, however, that "biotechnology research is essentially driven by the world's top ten transnational corporations" and "the private sector protects its results with patents in order to earn from its investment and it concentrates on products that have no relevance to food in developing countries".
In May 2006, a British newspaper published the resignation letter of Louise Fresco, the Assistant Director General of FAO. In her letter, the widely respected Dr Fresco stated that "the Organization has been unable to adapt to a new era", that "our contribution and reputation have declined steadily" and "its leadership has not proposed bold options to overcome this crisis".
References
See also
External links
- and its
- – A summary for non-specialists of the above FAO report by GreenFacts.
- and its
- – A summary for non-specialists of the above FAO report by GreenFacts.
