An International Grain Reserves System

Abstract

After considerable internal deliberations in advance of the World Food Conference, the US government adopted a position favouring the negotiation of an international grain reserves system provided each country could chose its own method for holding and controlling the reserves. President Ford set forth the US position regarding food reserves in a speech at the United Nations on 18 September 1974 when he said

to ensure that the survival of millions of our fellow men does not depend upon the vagaries of weather, the United States is prepared to join in a worldwide effort to negotiate, establish, and maintain an international system of food reserves. This system will work best if each nation is made responsible for managing the reserves that it will have available.

Secretary of State Kissinger amplified the US position in his keynote address to the conference (see above). While not endorsing any specific plan, US congressional support for negotiations looking toward an international food reserve system was expressed in legislation passed in 1974 and 1975. The US House of Representative resolution 1399 of 3 December 1974, stated that

International agreement should be sought for a system of food reserves to meet food shortage emergencies and to provide insurance against unexpected shortfalls in food production, with costs to be equitably shared and farmers given firm safeguards against market price disruption from such a system.