THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Friday, October 4, 1946. FARMING FOR THE WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26274, 4 October 1946, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Friday, October 4, 1946. FARMING FOR THE WORLD

There has come to farmers throughout the world a call to unity and the acceptance of their responsibilities as international providers. Because the peoples of this world

| cannot exist without the products of I the soil it is, in the end. to the j guardians of the soil that the world I must turn for sustenance, and whether the farmer- be a high j country sheep man in New Zealand. I a tea grower in Ceylon, or a market j gardener in France it is his task to produce food. No formula that politicians may devise for future peace can have any hope of success without the active support of the farmer. Hungry men and hungry nations are dangerous. If they have no food-they have nothing to lose by violent excursions to secure it. The Assembly of the United Nations has recognised this, and its Food and Agricultural Organisation has already established the International Emergency Food Council to plan the short-term allocation, conservation, and distribution of food, and has also taken steps to organise a longterm policy of international cooperation. It is proposed that this long-range plan should be operated by a Woiid Food Board, the organisation to which reference was made in the president’s address to the annual conference of the Federated Farmers of New Zealand in Welling- ] ton on Wednesday. There can be ! no doubt that the time has come J for the farmers, not only of New i Zealand but of the whole world, to i take a more important role in j international affairs. It will be for j the farmers of this country to decide whether the World Food Board is the proper vehicle for influencing world policies on food production. The functions of the be to stabilise agricultural prices in the world markets, to establish food reserves to meet emergencies such as crop failures, to provide funds for the disposal of surpluses to needy countries, and generally to | assist trade in agricultural com- j modities by co-operation with ! various organisations interested, j From an international viewpoint the j stabilisation of prices on figures in ' lint with ruling prices in the i countries of production, and the j setting up of an organisation to j dispose of surpluses, appear as I attractive propositions. There are, j however, certain safeguards which j any producing country must demand before declaring its adherence to the scheme. As Mr W. E. Hale, chairman j of the New- Zealand Dairy Board, ! stated at the time that the setting i up of the World Food Board was ! being discussed at Copenhagen, a pol- ! icy of control or restriction by quota j could do more harm to New' Zealand i than to any other country. In this i respect the proposal made at the j International Farmers’ Conference ! in London to form an International j Farmers’ Organisation deserves the j support of every practical farmer, j Such an organisation could be of j immense value to world agriculture | and —what is more important from j New Zealand’s point of view'—could | take a lead in organising the dis- ! posal of surpluses. It is, as the j president of the Federated Farmers j has stated, an essential corollary of j a World Food Board, and to the ! New Zealand farmer it offers a means whereby he can insist on retention of his present principal market while still co-operating in a wider plan for the supply of food to needy nations.