FAO calls for New World Order for agriculture, $30 bn a year to end hunger

mich@el · 11-30-2008, 03:20 PM

Source: Financial Express - Economy Bureau

ChennaiFAO director-general Jacques Diouf has appealed to the world leaders to meet next year to design a new world agricultural order and find $30 billion a year to eradicate hunger from the Earth once and for all. Addressing a special session of the FAO’s 191-member-nation governing conference in Rome, he said the world summit was needed because, “after more than 60 years (since FAO’s foundation) it is essential to create a new system of world food security”.

“We must correct the present system that generates world food insecurity on account of international market distortions resulting from agricultural subsidies, customs tariffs and technical barriers to trade, but also from skewed distribution of resources of official development assistance and of national budgets of developing countries”, Diouf said.

The summit, proposed for the first half of 2009, “should lay the ground for a new system of governance of world food security and an agricultural trade that offers farmers, in developed and developing countries alike, the means of earning a decent living,” he said. “We must have the intelligence and imagination to devise agricultural development policies together with rules and mechanisms that will ensure not only free but also fair international trade.”

The summit should also “come up with $30 billion a year to build rural infrastructure and increase agricultural productivity in the developing world,” he said. Proposing to commit such a sum to save humanity from hunger was not unreasonable given it had taken only few weeks to find more than 100 times that amount to deal with a global financial meltdown. The amount was modest compared to $365 billion of total support to agriculture in OECD countries in 2007 and $340 billion in world military expenditure the same year by developed and developing countries.

At the proposed Meeting, state and government heads should also agree to create an “Emergency Intervention Fund” to provide rapid-reaction resources to boost food production in poor countries heavily dependent on food imports, Diouf said.

To boost international food security, Diouf suggested building on the present Committee on World Food Security (CFS) created in 1974 after the World Food Conference to monitor the international food situation. “As an inter-governmental mechanism, the CFS is universal and is open to all member nations of FAO and the UN and to the representatives of other international organisations, NGOs, civil society and the private sector,” he noted.

Specifically, the CFS’ role would be to prevent international food crises and help develop and implement the necessary policies at national, regional and international levels to ensure food security in the world. It could also act as a forum for debate on the pro-security principles that should govern the international agricultural system. One of its tasks would be to analyse future risks and needs and formulate appropriate policy recommendations.

It should be enhanced as a system for coherence in the governance of world food security. It should include a “global partnership for food security” building on existing alliances and an global panel of top experts building on existing external advisory panels of experts in crop, livestock, fisheries, forestry and socio-economic aspects of food and agriculture, possibly along the lines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

kidflash2008 · 12-01-2008, 09:18 AM

What they can do is build desalinization plants around the Mediterranean Sea for the Sahara Countries and other dry areas near seas. That water can be used for farming otherwise arid areas. It can be done for way under $30 billion. There is plenty of ocean water, and the salt can be taken out of it for drinking.

kidflash2008 · 12-02-2008, 08:21 AM

They still solve the problem of no water. I think it would be worth it to feed the world and let the lakes restore their original levels. Most of those countries are socialist, so the cost would be nil.
Israel uses desalinization plants for their water, why not the other countries?

Mingus · 12-03-2008, 08:18 AM

I like how, at the same time the bailout was quickly thrown together and passed, there was the 850 billion (matched by the bailout, might I add) dollar proposal to end either this or poverty. I don't remember. Either way, we threw 850 billion dollars to a broken system when we should have done this.

Seriously, why didn't we just let them tank instead of giving these idiots more money?

kidflash2008 · 12-03-2008, 09:19 AM

We should also look at alternative ways to get the energy to do those programs. Why shut down a potentially helpful solution because there are more problems? Desalinization plants are the way to go, and we can build environmentally friendly plants.
The Sahara Desert gets a lot of sun, so why not use solar energies to power the plants? That technology already exists.

11-30-2008, 03:20 PM	#1
mich@el Junior Investigator Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: http://hellhound.org/simplemachinesforum/index.php Posts: 76	FAO calls for New World Order for agriculture, $30 bn a year to end hunger Source: Financial Express - Economy Bureau ChennaiFAO director-general Jacques Diouf has appealed to the world leaders to meet next year to design a new world agricultural order and find $30 billion a year to eradicate hunger from the Earth once and for all. Addressing a special session of the FAO’s 191-member-nation governing conference in Rome, he said the world summit was needed because, “after more than 60 years (since FAO’s foundation) it is essential to create a new system of world food security”. “We must correct the present system that generates world food insecurity on account of international market distortions resulting from agricultural subsidies, customs tariffs and technical barriers to trade, but also from skewed distribution of resources of official development assistance and of national budgets of developing countries”, Diouf said. The summit, proposed for the first half of 2009, “should lay the ground for a new system of governance of world food security and an agricultural trade that offers farmers, in developed and developing countries alike, the means of earning a decent living,” he said. “We must have the intelligence and imagination to devise agricultural development policies together with rules and mechanisms that will ensure not only free but also fair international trade.” The summit should also “come up with $30 billion a year to build rural infrastructure and increase agricultural productivity in the developing world,” he said. Proposing to commit such a sum to save humanity from hunger was not unreasonable given it had taken only few weeks to find more than 100 times that amount to deal with a global financial meltdown. The amount was modest compared to $365 billion of total support to agriculture in OECD countries in 2007 and $340 billion in world military expenditure the same year by developed and developing countries. At the proposed Meeting, state and government heads should also agree to create an “Emergency Intervention Fund” to provide rapid-reaction resources to boost food production in poor countries heavily dependent on food imports, Diouf said. To boost international food security, Diouf suggested building on the present Committee on World Food Security (CFS) created in 1974 after the World Food Conference to monitor the international food situation. “As an inter-governmental mechanism, the CFS is universal and is open to all member nations of FAO and the UN and to the representatives of other international organisations, NGOs, civil society and the private sector,” he noted. Specifically, the CFS’ role would be to prevent international food crises and help develop and implement the necessary policies at national, regional and international levels to ensure food security in the world. It could also act as a forum for debate on the pro-security principles that should govern the international agricultural system. One of its tasks would be to analyse future risks and needs and formulate appropriate policy recommendations. It should be enhanced as a system for coherence in the governance of world food security. It should include a “global partnership for food security” building on existing alliances and an global panel of top experts building on existing external advisory panels of experts in crop, livestock, fisheries, forestry and socio-economic aspects of food and agriculture, possibly along the lines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. __________________ "Not all who wander are lost"

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12-01-2008, 09:18 AM	#2
kidflash2008 Senior Investigator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 1,699	What they can do is build desalinization plants around the Mediterranean Sea for the Sahara Countries and other dry areas near seas. That water can be used for farming otherwise arid areas. It can be done for way under $30 billion. There is plenty of ocean water, and the salt can be taken out of it for drinking.

12-02-2008, 08:21 AM	#3
kidflash2008 Senior Investigator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 1,699	They still solve the problem of no water. I think it would be worth it to feed the world and let the lakes restore their original levels. Most of those countries are socialist, so the cost would be nil. Israel uses desalinization plants for their water, why not the other countries?

12-03-2008, 08:18 AM	#4
Mingus Investigator Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 325	I like how, at the same time the bailout was quickly thrown together and passed, there was the 850 billion (matched by the bailout, might I add) dollar proposal to end either this or poverty. I don't remember. Either way, we threw 850 billion dollars to a broken system when we should have done this. Seriously, why didn't we just let them tank instead of giving these idiots more money?

12-03-2008, 09:19 AM	#5
kidflash2008 Senior Investigator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 1,699	We should also look at alternative ways to get the energy to do those programs. Why shut down a potentially helpful solution because there are more problems? Desalinization plants are the way to go, and we can build environmentally friendly plants. The Sahara Desert gets a lot of sun, so why not use solar energies to power the plants? That technology already exists.