World Food Board Proposal

MAC/WFY

Page-29

0230_553559_07_cha03

administered under internationally agreed rules', This, they regarded, was `the
only practical alternative', since `many important governments are unlikely to
accept the obligation of making large financial contributions to an international
Price Stabilization Reserve'.

In the end, the commission's suggestions met with no more success than Body

Orr's WFB proposal. As a later FAO director-general, Addeke Boerma, put it, they
were rejected not on grounds of technical feasibility or logistical difficulties, which
were not even discussed, but on political and ideological grounds (Boerma, 1975).
In place of a WFB, the commission proposed that FAO establish a `World Food
Council', or `Council of FAO', with a membership of 18 nations. This would replace
the original FAO Executive Committee comprised of persons chosen solely for
their individual competence, the drawback being that they did not speak officially
for their governments and hence could not provide an authoritative direction
for FAO. The proposal for an FAO Council was approved

and has remained in

being until today. Meeting between sessions of the FAO Conference, the Council
would not only be concerned with the work of FAO in general but would espe-
cially keep the world food situation under continuous review and, when neces-
sary, would promptly call emergency needs to the attention of governments, a
matter of considerable importance since the post-war food emergency situation
still continued.

The commission also addressed the concern of the recurrence of surpluses in

some of the high-producing countries, particularly the United States, stimulated
by the war effort during the Second World War. Two approaches were identified.
Development and modernization of agriculture and industry should be speeded
up, which would increase purchasing power and stimulated international trade.
And intergovernmental commodity arrangements designed to keep the prices of
agricultural products sufficiently stable to assure continued production, including
limited reserves (buffer stocks) of certain commodities that were especially subject
to extreme price fluctuations. While Boyd Orr thought production and trade logic-
ally belonged together in the same organization since they interacted, the Prepar-
atory Commission separated them. FAO would be the production stimulator. Trade
arrangements would be in the hands of separate commodity organizations (like
the International Wheat Council) with which FAO might be rather loosely related,
at least pending the establishment of the proposed ITO.

At the International Monetary Conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hamp-

shire in the United States in 1944, three `pillars' for a new world economic structure
were proposed by John Maynard Keynes, the eminent economist and leader of
the British delegation, and modified by the United States delegation (Moggridge,
1992; Skidelsky, 2000). The first pillar became the IMF. The second pillar was
the IBRD. The third pillar was to be the ITO. Keynes was a strong believer in
the stabilization of primary commodity prices, which was to be one of the main
functions of the ITO. At one point, Keynes combined his proposals for a world
central bank and world currency with his proposals for commodity price stabil-
ization by suggesting a world currency based on 30 primary commodities rather
than gold, dollars or special drawing rights (SDRs). This would have stabilized the

Home

eBook	World Food Security: A History since 1945


Useful links	World Food Board Proposal MAC/WFY Page-29 0230_553559_07_cha03 World Food Board Proposal 29 administered under internationally agreed rules', This, they regarded, was `the only practical alternative', since `many important governments are unlikely to accept the obligation of making large financial contributions to an international Price Stabilization Reserve'. In the end, the commission's suggestions met with no more success than Body Orr's WFB proposal. As a later FAO director-general, Addeke Boerma, put it, they were rejected not on grounds of technical feasibility or logistical difficulties, which were not even discussed, but on political and ideological grounds (Boerma, 1975). In place of a WFB, the commission proposed that FAO establish a `World Food Council', or `Council of FAO', with a membership of 18 nations. This would replace the original FAO Executive Committee comprised of persons chosen solely for their individual competence, the drawback being that they did not speak officially for their governments and hence could not provide an authoritative direction for FAO. The proposal for an FAO Council was approved 6 and has remained in being until today. Meeting between sessions of the FAO Conference, the Council would not only be concerned with the work of FAO in general but would espe- cially keep the world food situation under continuous review and, when neces- sary, would promptly call emergency needs to the attention of governments, a matter of considerable importance since the post-war food emergency situation still continued. The commission also addressed the concern of the recurrence of surpluses in some of the high-producing countries, particularly the United States, stimulated by the war effort during the Second World War. Two approaches were identified. Development and modernization of agriculture and industry should be speeded up, which would increase purchasing power and stimulated international trade. And intergovernmental commodity arrangements designed to keep the prices of agricultural products sufficiently stable to assure continued production, including limited reserves (buffer stocks) of certain commodities that were especially subject to extreme price fluctuations. While Boyd Orr thought production and trade logic- ally belonged together in the same organization since they interacted, the Prepar- atory Commission separated them. FAO would be the production stimulator. Trade arrangements would be in the hands of separate commodity organizations (like the International Wheat Council) with which FAO might be rather loosely related, at least pending the establishment of the proposed ITO. At the International Monetary Conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hamp- shire in the United States in 1944, three `pillars' for a new world economic structure were proposed by John Maynard Keynes, the eminent economist and leader of the British delegation, and modified by the United States delegation (Moggridge, 1992; Skidelsky, 2000). The first pillar became the IMF. The second pillar was the IBRD. The third pillar was to be the ITO. Keynes was a strong believer in the stabilization of primary commodity prices, which was to be one of the main functions of the ITO. At one point, Keynes combined his proposals for a world central bank and world currency with his proposals for commodity price stabil- ization by suggesting a world currency based on 30 primary commodities rather than gold, dollars or special drawing rights (SDRs). This would have stabilized the back to top Next page
© 2009