FOOD PRODUCTION

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 7, 4 October 1943, Page 6

FOOD PRODUCTION

Conference Of United

Nations N.Z. DELEGATES’ REPORT

Diet And Health Needs Of

The Future

Recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture held in May and June of this year at Hot Springs, Virginia, United States of America, are contained in the .report of the New Zealand delegates—the Director' of the Export Division', Marketing Department, Mr. G. A. Duncan, the Director-General of Agriculture, Mr. E. J. Fawcett, and Dr. R. M. Campbell, of the High Commissi oner’s Office, Loudon. The report also contains the memorandum submitted by the New Zealand delegation. The conference was attended by representatives of 44 countries, and it worked in four sections —on consumption, production, distribution and future organization respectively. In its memorandum to the conference, the New Zealand delegation stated that New Zealand had progressively increased its farm production for export, mainly iu butter and cheese, lamb, mutton and beef, wool, fruit and other products. Given suitable conditions for their production and sale it could continue to increase the output of these and other commodities. Exports represented a verylarge proportion of New Zealand s total production, in, the case of some commodities over 90 per cent; Virtually all the country’s exports were farm products; to them the whole economy -.-as largely geared. “We have shared,” said the delegates, “the common experience of disastrous price fluctuations ip agricultural products and our Government introduced in 1936 the principle of guaranteed prices for the purpose of giving security to individual producers and enabling them to plan for the future with confidence. Experience has shown that we should not. hastily scrap war-time controls and organization, but should adapt them to the solution of post-war problems. Planned increases iu production will be difficult to achieve unless based on stability of market and value.” Industrial Expansion. The delegates stated in the concluding paragraph of their memorandum that because of the exclusive concern of the conference with farm products they felt it necessary to record their sense of one danger to be guarded against. Plans to increase farmers' output, well founded as these might be in themselves, might not be duly balanced by needed expansion in industrial expansion. Such a neglect would worsen rather than improve the position of the farmer, changing to his disadvantage the real terms of exchange between what he sold and what he bought. In its wide implications this was aii issue beyond the scope of the conference; it was not, the New Zealand delegates thought, a matter that could be neglected by governments. In their report on the conference proceedings to the Prime Minister, My. Fraser, the delegates mention that the discussions revealed a wide and challenging gap bet.weeu actual levels ot consumption, even in peacetime, and the minimum necessary to health. The success of particular nutritional measures was emphasized. It was a startling fact, for instance, that in Great Britain, where wartime food imports had been so much restricted in volume and variety, and housing conditions had deteriorated, the health of the nation had been maintained at a high level. It was abundantly clear that food production was possible on a scale far exceeding all realized totals. Even so, it was equally clear that human needs based on any adequate standards of health and nutrition must be far from satisfied. The findings of the conference are summarized in a report by its SecretaryGeneral, Mr. Warren Kelehner, Chief of the Division of International Conferences, Department of State of the United States. “All men on earth are consumers of food,” he says. “More than twothirds of them are also producers of it'. These two aspects-of,, gaining subsistence from the soil cannot be separated. Men cannot eat more foods and more healthful foods unless these foods can he obtained from the land or the sea in sufficient quantities. If more and better food is to be available for all people, producers must know what they are called on to do. They must equally be assured that their labours will earn them an adequate livelihood. . Consumer and Producer. “The work of the conference emphasized the fundamental interdependence of the consumer and the producer. .It recognized that the food policy and the agricutlural policy of the nations must be considered together: it recommended that; a permanent body should be established to deal with the varied problems of food and agriculture, not in isolation but together. ’The work of the conference also showed-that the types of food most generally required to improve people’s diets and health are in many cases those produced by methods of farming best calculated to maintain the productivity of the soil and to increase and make more stable the returns to agricultural producers. In short, better nutrition means better farming. “The conference declared that the goal of freedom from want can be reached. It did not, however,'seek to conceal the fact that it will first be necessary to win freedom from hunger. In the immediate future' the first duty of the United Nations will be to win complete vietpry iu arms; as their armies liberate territories from tyranny their goal will be to bring food for the starving. The need, to reach freedom from hunger before seeking freedom from want was understood, and resolutions were adopted on this subject. These covered both the planning of agricultural production and tlie adoption r.f measures to prevent violent fluctuations in prices resulting from the shortages of tlie transition period. Long-term Requirements.

“The conditions of shortage existing at the end of hostilities-will be exceptional, and it should not be too long before the production of the basic energy foods is sufficiently restored to provide for freedom from hunger. When that state is reached it will be necessary to increase wherever possible, the emphasis on pro-, ductiou of foods containing first-class protein and other protective qualities necessary to good health. There is danger that the heavy demand for energy foods which will arise from the immediate period of shortage may lead, as the shortages are overcome, to overproduction of these foods unless Governments act with foresight in guiding producers to alter their production programmes in accordance witli the long-term requirements. The actual programmes must he drawn up to suit the particular circumstances of each country, but the conference agreed on broad general principles which should serve ns a guide in making these programmes in all countries. These principles cover not only tlie adjustment of production to tit the long-term requirements of a better'diet, but also improvements in the general efficiency of production.

“It was the opinion of the conferences that some parts of the world which at present are unproductive could be brought into agricultural production , f the appropriate measures were applied. At tlie same time il was recognized that, ill some areas of rich potentialities, development is impeded b" overcrop ding of farmers on the land. While something can be done to increase lhe produelivitv of these areas by improving methods of farming, by drainage and similar measures, it was recognized that in some cases the development of industry to provide employment for agricultural populations or emigration to other areas were, the only measures likely to oiler any significant contribution to a solution of thproblem. The conference recognized that it is useless to produce food unless men and nations have the means to acquire it for consumption. Freedom from want cannot be achieved unless there is a balanced and world-wide expansion of economic activity.”