The Press THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1974. World food policies

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 12

The Press THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1974. World food policies

For the first time since 1945, world food resources in 1973 fell so low that there were no large reserves as protection against crop failures. The combined wheat stocks of the exporting countries fell to less than four weeks’ consumption for the world. The immediate crisis seems to have been averted by bumper harvests in Russia and the United States, but production in Australia cannot be estimated until the floods have subsided; the future for rice supplies is far from promising. Food prices rose sharply during the shortage; wheat and soya beans trebled in value in 10 months, and prices will be slow to retreat with the prospect of large increases in transport costs. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (F.A.0.) has attempted to avert shortages by encouraging and —in some needy countries —actually financing the accumulation of grain stocks. The F.A.O. is so concerned now that it has agreed that this year’s world food conference will be convened by the United Nations rather than itself, because Russia is not a member of the F.A.O. Too much should not be expected from the conference. The F.A.O. is encouraging international stockpiling, but most of the delegates to the F.A.O. conference in Rome last November preferred national planning, co-ordinated by a system of international consultation. The United States Secretary for Agriculture (Mr Butz) summarised the concern of many delegates when he said that the belief that developing countries only needed greater opportunities in order to increase their exports might well be a pious hope; many of them were approaching a situation in which they would be unable to import enough food or oil to maintain their meagre standards of living. It is not in New Zealand’s interests to encourage stockpiling of staple commodities. Although meat and dairy produce are not as important to world requirements as wheat and rice, any stockpiling will lead not only to a levelling out of supply—which might assist New Zealand—but to a levelling of price as well, which would not. Much of the world might like to buy New Zealand’s meat and dairy produce, but few countries can afford to pay the prices which are necessary to maintain New Zealand’s standard of living. A scheme which set out to reduce the price of staple world foods would be retrogressive. The world food conference must look for ways to increase the ability of the developing nations to pay. In the last 30 years a considerable effort has been made to lift the living standards of developing nations; it must be continued. New Zealand should not support any plan which might reduce its standing of living, without promising any improvement in the standard of living in the world’s poor countries.

According to the president of the International Development Association (Mr Robert McNamara) some of the poorest countries of the world will have even more harrowing food shortages later this year because the United States Congress has refused to make further contributions to I.D.A. after June 30. Last September the United States agreed to meet 33 per cent of the budget at a conference of 25 developed nations, including New Zealand, which j participate in I.D.A. Among the countries which will :iuffer if Congress does not change its mind are six j|n West Africa — Niger, Upper Volta, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Chad — which have been suffering one of the worst droughts in recorded I listory. New Zealand, as a modest participant in 1 .D.A., should surely be adding its voice to others u dnch are appealing to the United States to maintain tl ve flow of development assistance to those who need it most.