For Immediate Release Contact: Cheryl Morden
October 16, 1997 202-543-6336
or
Marc Cohen
301-608-2400
"Trade agreements that short change small-scale
farmers and women will not produce lasting food security,"
according to Karen Lehman, Director of the Food and Agriculture
Program of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and
Trade Policy. Trade agreements reached in the aftermath of the
World Food Summit must protect the basic human right to food by
focusing more sharply on the needs and potential of small-scale
agricultural producers and women. These groups and their dependents
constitute the majority of the world's more than 800 million hungry
people - including 11.2 million people in the U.S.
The Institute is a member of the Washington
Working Group on Food Security, which released a draft "U.S.
Action Agenda for Global Food Security" on the occasion of
World Food Day. The document outlines specific priority actions
to be taken by government, civil society, and business to accelerate
and expand efforts to achieve global food security.
The group is also calling for the launching
of a nationwide Food for All Campaign, involving
presidential leadership. The Campaign should reach into every
corner of American life to raise awareness of the problem of hunger
at home and abroad. "In a $24 trillion global economy, it
clearly is possible to achieve food for all," said Marc Cohen,
Senior Research Associate at the Bread for the World Institute.
As part of the Food for All Campaign,,
the Working Group is urging the President to set a national policy
goal of reducing by half the number of food insecure people in
the United States no later than the year 2000. This is a more
ambitious goal than the global target set by the World Food Summit.
The Washington Working Group on Global Food
Security is an informal working group, which includes farmers',
community food security, humanitarian relief and development,
sustainable agriculture, environmental, policy research, and citizens'
advocacy organizations. The group came together to formulate recommendations
for the World Food Summit and continues to work on follow-up action
on global food security.
The U.S. government, in collaboration with U.S. human rights groups and other civil society organizations, should join on-going global efforts to elaborate and implement a Code of Conduct on the Right to Food. Such a Code would
apply to governments, international organizations, and businesses and would provide a set of norms against which specific policies, programs, and enterprises
could be measured. Examples of practices that
might be subject to examination by a Code are infant formula marketing
and export subsidies that bankrupt poor farmers in developing
countries. The Code should be informed by on-going international
efforts to clarify the content of the right to adequate food and
freedom from hunger.
The Administration and Congress should work
together to repeal discriminatory food stamp eligibility requirements
and to approve full funding of the Special Supplemental Nutritional
program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Congress should
require reports from the Congressional Budget Office and the Office
of Management and Budget on the additional costs to the federal
government associated with underfunding food assistance programs.
These may include, for example, ill-health, learning disabilities,
and behavioral problems.
The U.S. Government Interagency Working Group
on Food Security and the Interim Advisory Committee on Food Security
should formulate recommendations concerning assistance and
other action to protect and enhance food security of small-scale
farmers and other vulnerable groups in low-income food deficit
countries as called for by the World Trade Organization (WTO)
"Marrakesh Declaration on Least Development, Net Food-Importing
Countries."
The U.S. should also actively seek increased
food aid commitments during negotiations of the new Food Aid Convention.
The U.S. government should support the formation
of a WTO Working Group on Trade and Food Security, which would
be charged with ensuring that WTO rules and sanctions do not undermine
the implementation of the World Food Summit Declaration and Plan
of Action.
The U.S. government, working with the private
sector and civil society organizations, should strengthen existing
mechanisms and develop new tools to guard against economic vulnerability,
food shortages during emergencies, and the erosion of local and
regional food production capacity. Immediately, Congress should
reauthorize Farmer Owned Reserves and establish a mechanism
for replenishment of the U.S. Food Security Commodity Reserve
or a fund to purchase food aid for emergency use.
Government programs and private and voluntary
organizations should give priority to food security programs
and policies that recognize and empower women, particularly
in those activities critical to maintaining food security for
the family and community. The President's Interagency Council
on Women should consider establishing a task force on women
and food security.
Governments, educational institutions, civil
society organizations and the private sector should develop
and conduct a series of educational programs that will work to
enhance public awareness, skills, and involvement in efforts to
achieve food security. This should include knowledge of food
safety, healthy food choices, the human rights to food, the structure
of the global food system, and the root cause of hunger and malnutrition.
Federal, state, and local governments, civil
society organizations, and business should, on a priority basis,
allocate resources for research, education and training for ecologically
sound agriculture that preserves locally-based traditional
knowledge, engages local communities in decision-making, reduces
purchased inputs, and is socially responsible.
State and local government authorities, civil
society organizations, and businesses should establish state
and local food security councils, which could initiate local
food mapping and food security assessments, identify and strengthen
community-based food security strategies and, with support from
the federal government, strengthen local food systems.
Global food security efforts by the U.S. government,
civil society organizations and the private sector should seek
to strengthen rural/urban partnerships, both at home and
abroad. Strengthening the rural/urban links recognizes the potential
of both sectors to contribute to overall food security and could
include, for example, urban food production strategies, direct
marketing, community-supported farming, and peri-urban farming.
The government, civil society, and business
should establish Food Security Partnerships based on their
respective roles in food security efforts. The Interim Advisory
Committee on Food Security should review current regulations
concerning citizen participation as it relates to food security
and formulate recommendations for changes needed to enhance dialogue
and collaboration.
U.S. civil society organizations should participate
in the Global Forum on Sustainable Food and Nutritional Security
to strengthen collaborative work with civil society organizations
in other countries and, in particular, to support work of civil
society organizations in developing and low-income food deficit
countries. Civil society organizations also should help to
establish and participate in a Global Food Security Watch project,
which would independently monitor implementation of the World
Food Summit Plan of Action.
The Administration and Congress should increase
funding for sustainable agriculture and rural development and
programs to strengthen household food security and local food
systems, research on native and other relevant crops, and improvement
of local markets in low-income food deficit countries. This should
include bilateral and multilateral foreign assistance, food aid
through private and voluntary organizations, and export promotion
programs. The funding should be increased by 30% in FY 99 and
10% in each of the following five years.
The relevant U.S. government agencies, land
grant institutions, private and voluntary organizations, in collaboration
with relevant U.N. agencies should continue to develop universally
accepted standards and definitions to monitor food insecurity,
vulnerability, and nutritional status.