Abstract
Ideally, the goal of this chapter should be to evaluate the policies and programmes of the United Nations with respect to the global production and distribution of food. Accomplishing such an evaluation under any circumstances would be a monumental task because of the extensiveness of the United Nations’ involvements in food and agriculture. Altogether some 40 UN bodies are involved in international food affairs, and at least five UN specialised agencies in addition to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) have substantial missions in the areas of food, feeding, famine relief, nutrition, rural development and agricultural trade. The General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, subsidiary organs such as UNCTAD and UNDP, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and countless permanent and ad hoc intra- and inter-agency councils and committees all operate on world food problems. Assumedly, all are having an impact upon the global production and distribution of food. Even to take inventory of these would be a hefty chore.1
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Notes
Martin Kriesberg, International Organizations and Agricultural Development (Washington: Economic Research Service, USDA, 1977) passim.
Lawrence Finklestein, ‘Forty Years of the United Nations: from Multilateral Diplomacy of Sovereign Equality Toward the Politics of Value Allocation’, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Atlanta, Georgia, March 1984.
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Erik P. Eckholm, Down to Earth, Environment and Human Needs (New York: W.W. Norton, 1982) pp. 135–98.
See also, Eckholm, Losing Ground: Environmental Stress and World Food Prospects (New York: W.W. Norton, 1976) passim.
Kriesberg, op. cit.; See also, Raymond F. Hopkins and Donald J. Puchala, ‘Perspectives on the International Relations of Food’, International Organization, 32:3 (Summer 1978) pp. 605–13;
Hopkins and Puchala, Global Food Interdependence (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980) pp. 127–49.
Colin Kirkpatrick, ‘The IMF’s Food Financing Facility: Much Ado About Nothing’, Food Policy, 9:4 (November 1984) pp. 303–4.
Joseph M. Jones, The United Nations at Work: Developing Land, Forests, Oceans and People (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1965) p. 118ff.
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Georges Fauriol, The Food and Agriculture Organization: A Flawed Strategy in the War Against Hunger (Washington: The Heritage Foundation, 1984) pp. 41–4.
Donald J. Puchala and Raymond F. Hopkins, ‘Toward Innovation in the Global Food Regime,’ International Organization, 32:3 (Summer 1978) pp. 855–68, esp. 862.
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Utto Matzke, ‘Kritisches zum Management der FAO in Rom’, Aussenpolitik, 33:2 (1982) pp. 169–83, esp. 169 and 174.
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International Food Policy Research Institute, Meeting Food Needs in the Developing World, Research Report No. 1 (Washington: IFPRI, February 1976).
Successful development appears to be possible in a variety of economic systems, although agrarian reform and priority to agriculture at early stages appear to be common denominators. See, Bruce F. Johnston and Peter Kilby, Structural Transformation in Agriculture: Economic Strategies in Late Developing Countries (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975) passim.
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© 1989 Paul Taylor and A. J. R. Groom
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Puchala, D.J. (1989). The Road to Rome: The Production and Distribution of Food. In: Taylor, P., Groom, A.J.R. (eds) Global Issues in the United Nations’ Framework. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07734-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07734-2_7
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