The Press WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1943. World’s Food
The most important aspect of the United Nations food conference may be shortly described by saying that it is the first of the peace conferences. It has nothing to do with the conduct of the war. Although the distinction is easier to state than to observe, it is not even a conference about food relief measures during the war-time and post-war period of liberation. It is essentially a conference on .long-term reconstruction policy and its continuing ends and programmes; and food is its central theme for excellent reasons. “There can be no doubt,” says Professor J. B. Condliffe, “ that " a continuing agricultural crisis " against which national govern- “ ments strove desperately to pro- " tect their farming communities " was one of the root causes of " international economic disequi- " librium between the wars.” The restrictive remedies failed. The time to try distributive ones has come and they are plainly foreshadowed in the Atlantic Charter, in the Master Lease-Lend Agreements, and so on. More than that, the ground-plan of justice and security cannot be drawn with any hope of success unless it provides for freer trade; freer trade means wider markets for agriculture, increased consumption, higher standards of living. If any post-war order, pursuing these aims, fails to make food abundant and distribute it well and fairly, it will fail completely. The world's food surpluses have never been surpluses over and above a sufficient world standard if consumption: they have been due to maldistribution, coexistent with deficient diet and. even famine. Discussion at Hot Springs, therefore, has turned on production increases and on the controls and aids necessary for efficient production and efficient distribution. The question of increased consumption has raised those of freer trade and lower tariffs. It has raised, also, the questions of transport and of market stability, both for the consumer and for the producer. Every step, of course, brings difficulties into view. For example, increased production cannot mean Increases everywhere of all food crops and products, The policies of selfsufficiency which have unbalanced world agriculture cannot be continued. But if they are to be discontinued, there will be problems both of vested interests and of technical change-over to solve. And these may well be lighter than others, especially those of tariffs and of co-operation to raise the standard of living of the poorer and more backward peoples. “We " are tackling a task not before “ deliberately attempted," said a memorandum presented by the British delegation. “It will involve " not only altered methods of pro- “ duction but improvement in the " feeding of millions of people, and “an expansion of international ’* trade to levels not previously " attained." The difficulties of the task are in proportion to the gains to be won. They are not insuperable. The conference, however, cannot overcome them. It can only examine the facts and prepare recommendations, and see to it, as far as possible, that it? work is continued along those lines, That Js the object of the draft resolution, which received “ practically unani- " mous approval," urging the creation of a United Nations interim commission on international food policy. If it is established, it will be the first regular Allied commission at work on the peace settlement, and it will be at work on the foundations.
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Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23963, 2 June 1943, Page 2
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545The Press WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1943. World’s Food Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23963, 2 June 1943, Page 2
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