FAO's Origins

MAC/WFY

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0230_553559_05_cha01

FAO's Origins

forty years, science had advanced more than it did in the previous two thousand
years to `let loose new forces into the world'. He added:

those forces cannot be bottled up; they must either be harnessed to serve
the ends of mankind, or they will break loose in a riot of destruction. How
those forces are used will affect all nations equally. The world is now so small
that any war will be a world war; and prosperity must be a world prosperity.
Governments realize this, and they are, therefore, attempting to set up world
organizations which will enable those powers of science to be applied on a world
scale. It is very fitting

that FAO should be the first of these organizations.

It deals with the primary products of land and sea; it deals with food the
primary necessity of life.

He went on:

Each nation has accepted the responsibility

to provide, as far as possible,

food and a health standard for all peoples.

But something new has arisen. All

the governments have agreed to cooperate in a great world food scheme, which
will bring freedom from want to all men, irrespective of race and colour.

the nations of the world are going to get together to feed the people of the
world, they must increase the production of the most important foods. In many
cases that production must more than double. This will bring prosperity to
agriculture

[which] must overflow into other businesses and into world

trade. But

we do these things not because they will bring prosperity, but

because they are right

if we put first things first, and do the things which

we know to be right, a great many social, economic and political difficulties
will disappear.

You say it is a dream. Then, it is the business of FAO to make

that dream come true.

I am almost tempted to say that if this Organization

succeeds it will perform a miracle. Well, we are living in a day of miracles.

The need for some form of multilateral world food security arrangement had

already been recognized by the League of Nations before the Second World War
to rationalize food production, supply and trade for the benefit of both producers
and consumers, in both developing as well as developed countries. Attention was
focused on two basic concerns: first, to reconcile the interests of producers and
consumers by protecting them from uncontrolled fluctuations in world agricul-
tural production and prices; and secondly, to use constructively agricultural output
in excess of commercial market demand (the so-called agricultural `surpluses') to
assist economic and social development in developing countries without creating
disincentive to their domestic agricultural production or disruption to local or
international trade. This vision of world food security that re-emerged at the
creation of FAO has remained a constant, if flicking, light.

In the 1920s, the preoccupation with post-war recovery and the impact of a

rather short lived boom and slump, followed by a new era of prosperity (which in
the views of many was expected to last much longer than it did), provided relat-
ively little incentive for intergovernmental action on international commodity

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Useful links	FAO's Origins MAC/WFY Page-5 0230_553559_05_cha01 FAO's Origins 5 forty years, science had advanced more than it did in the previous two thousand years to `let loose new forces into the world'. He added: those forces cannot be bottled up; they must either be harnessed to serve the ends of mankind, or they will break loose in a riot of destruction. How those forces are used will affect all nations equally. The world is now so small that any war will be a world war; and prosperity must be a world prosperity. Governments realize this, and they are, therefore, attempting to set up world organizations which will enable those powers of science to be applied on a world scale. It is very fitting that FAO should be the first of these organizations. It deals with the primary products of land and sea; it deals with food the primary necessity of life. He went on: Each nation has accepted the responsibility to provide, as far as possible, food and a health standard for all peoples. But something new has arisen. All the governments have agreed to cooperate in a great world food scheme, which will bring freedom from want to all men, irrespective of race and colour. If the nations of the world are going to get together to feed the people of the world, they must increase the production of the most important foods. In many cases that production must more than double. This will bring prosperity to agriculture [which] must overflow into other businesses and into world trade. But we do these things not because they will bring prosperity, but because they are right if we put first things first, and do the things which we know to be right, a great many social, economic and political difficulties will disappear. You say it is a dream. Then, it is the business of FAO to make that dream come true. I am almost tempted to say that if this Organization succeeds it will perform a miracle. Well, we are living in a day of miracles. The need for some form of multilateral world food security arrangement had already been recognized by the League of Nations before the Second World War to rationalize food production, supply and trade for the benefit of both producers and consumers, in both developing as well as developed countries. Attention was focused on two basic concerns: first, to reconcile the interests of producers and consumers by protecting them from uncontrolled fluctuations in world agricul- tural production and prices; and secondly, to use constructively agricultural output in excess of commercial market demand (the so-called agricultural `surpluses') to assist economic and social development in developing countries without creating disincentive to their domestic agricultural production or disruption to local or international trade. This vision of world food security that re-emerged at the creation of FAO has remained a constant, if flicking, light. In the 1920s, the preoccupation with post-war recovery and the impact of a rather short lived boom and slump, followed by a new era of prosperity (which in the views of many was expected to last much longer than it did), provided relat- ively little incentive for intergovernmental action on international commodity back to top Next page
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