UNJUST POLITICAL, SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS DEPRIVE POOR OF MEANS TO EAT, SAYS ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT IN WORLD FOOD DAY MESSAGE

25 October 1996

Press Release
GA/9142/Rev.1*
FAO/3640/Rev.1*

UNJUST POLITICAL, SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS DEPRIVE POOR OF MEANS TO EAT, SAYS ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT IN WORLD FOOD DAY MESSAGE

19961025 To Reach Goal of Eliminating Hunger, Calls for Courage to Tackle Forces That Maintain Such Injustices

Following is the text of the statement by the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia), on the occasion of World Food Day:

We have gathered here because we have not been successful in overcoming global hunger and malnutrition. Today's observance of World Food Day indicates how much more needs to be done, even though we have recognized for many years that adequate nutrition is a basic right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights pronounced freedom from hunger as one of the "inalienable and inviolable rights of all members of the human family". This was reiterated in the "Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition", adopted by the World Food Conference in 1974. But we know all too well that freedom from hunger is a right that many hundreds of millions of human beings are unable to exercise. Although the world now produces enough food for all its inhabitants, a staggering 800 million people are chronically undernourished -- unable to grow enough food to meet their nutritional needs, or without access or adequate access to food. This fact alone, when coupled with our sophisticated knowledge base and boundless potential for social justice, should energize us to search for and commit to real and sustainable solutions to overcome such intolerable inequities. When we in the international community set targets such as "food for all", it is essential that we do not fall casualty to slogans, but critically examine the root causes of hunger. Why is it that despite several decades of intensive agricultural development programmes promoted in developing countries through the "green revolution" are malnutrition, starvation, agricultural decline and famine still with us? Today, hunger and poverty are no longer restricted to developing countries, but are sharply increasing in developed countries, despite the affluence, social and technological progress enjoyed in those countries.

__________ * Revised to correct headline and first paragraph.

- 2 - Press Release GA/9142/Rev.1 FAO/3640/Rev.1 25 October 1996

Clearly then, the problem of hunger and food insecurity is not simply about finding ways of increasing agricultural production, but needs to be recognized and addressed as a multidimensional issue requiring multiple solutions.

The history of hunger is a history of unjust political and socio- economic systems which, frequently in combination with ecological degradation, have marginalized the poor and deprived them of the means to eat.

If our goal is to eliminate global hunger, we will stand a better chance of success only if we have the courage to identify and tackle the structures and forces that maintain such social injustice. We are no strangers to such an approach. The United Nations has been analysing the pressing issues of our times in a series of global conferences, as we shall be doing at the World Food Summit next month. I hope that discussions in Rome will benefit from the cumulative knowledge gained from previous conferences.

One such benefit would be an appreciation that there is no single or easy solution to complex political and socio-economic problems. The huge dimensions of hunger and food insecurity that we face today are closely linked to poverty and land tenure issues, to unsustainable production and consumption patterns, to property rights regimes that erode the diversity of genetic resources, to the impact of technology on small producers, the role of women in agrarian communities, and the multiple guises of power politics which commodify food as political and economic weapons in the globalized marketplace.

Even if the root causes of hunger seem too complex to unravel, we should not be too quick to embrace the doctrine of trade liberalization and the promise of new science and technology as magic solutions. Experience has shown that a concentration on intensive agriculture, once touted as the solution to hunger, has in the long term impoverished small farmers, degraded lands, reduced agricultural productivity, and is responsible for problems of food safety. Neither should we commit the mistake of allowing the world's genetic resources to fall into the hands of private sector monopolies who can then hold huge populations to ransom.

The United Nations must always be on the side of equity and social justice, and protect the interests of the marginalized and the poor. To do so in the case of food security and in the pursuit of eliminating hunger would mean finding the political ways and economic means to protect the interests, rights and traditional skills of farmers and those that "cannot sleep because of hunger".

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