Proposals On Food Distribution

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29872, 12 July 1962, Page 10

Proposals On Food Distribution

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July IL

“I am not here just to spread the gospel but also to get suggestions from your Government,” said the executive director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (Mr A. H. Boerma) on arrival by air from Sydney today.

Before leaving New Zealand again tomorrow for Sydney he planned to meet the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake), Government officials and Dairy and Meat Board officers to discuss a venture by the United Nations and F.A.0., based in Rome.

Established last April, the venture proposes that the food surpluses produced by a number of countries each year are distributed to needy countries, both for humanitarian reasons and to aid economic development. The F.A.O. hopes to establish a food pool at a central point, the United Nations where it can be quickly utilised in times of crisis, such as earthquake or flood, in under-developed countries.

At this point of the venture it is required to establish a pool of 100,000.000 dollars—two-thirds in commodities. and one-third in cash —and Mr Boerma is making a world tour, finding out if the various governments are interested in giving to the cause.

The pool would be pre-

pared for a period of three years, said Mr Boerma, with 25 per cent, set aside in the first year for emergencies. There were three main purposes for the project. The first was the natural humanitarian reason, the second was to help in education through a school feeding programme, and the third purpose, and one which should really interest New Zealand, was to give under-developed countries an incentive to strive for economic development. If food were given for, say. two years to farmers and to help feed their livestock, the countries would get over their first hurdle and would be able to learn to help themselves. Also the countries would gradually create a taste for certain products which they themselves could not produce. This would open up new markets, “and it is in New Zealand’s own interests to raise these new markets.”

The various governments are to tell how much they wish to contribute at a special meeting at the United Nations on September 5.