World Summit on Sustainable Development Department of Public Information - News and Media Services Division - New York
	Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August-4 September 2002	30 August 2002

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION   Any action to decrease the number of starving people in the world would have a direct impact on sustainable agriculture and development, Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said at a World Summit press conference today. The FAO was currently working on an Anti-Hunger Programme, which called for public investment of $24 billion per year, Mr. Diouf said. Of that, $5 billion would be in the form of food assistance, $3 billion would be commercial loan, and the remaining $16 billion -- for agricultural and rural development -- would be shared equally between developed and developing countries. Some 200 million people in the world, most of whom lived in rural areas, did not have adequate access to food, he continued. Official development assistance (ODA) for agriculture had dropped by 50 per cent over the past few years. If that trend were not reversed, the FAO would fail to reach its anti-hunger goals. Drawing attention to the food crisis in Southern Africa, Mr. Diouf said the FAO had sent a joint mission with the World Food Programme (WFP) to the region in April. In June, the two agencies had approved an emergency operation requiring $507 million to feed 13 million hungry people. So far, $26 million of the amount needed for the operation had been mobilized, he said. The agencies were also seeking $24 million for seeds, fertilizer and small implements, so that farmers could maintain productive capacity for the next crop. Asked about the risks of foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that donors had sent to African countries, Mr. Diouf said he regretted that no existing international agreements were in force for GMOs and food aid. An ad hoc committee of Codex Alimentarius, the joint FAO-World Health Organization (WHO) organization, was working to develop appropriate standards. However, the FAO had ensured that the risk assessment procedure any country used on food it was sending to another would be equivalent to what it would use to feed its own people. The FAO, together with the WHO and the WFP took the view, based on current scientific knowledge, that food being offered to African countries was not likely to present a health risk. A correspondent commented that the Zambian government had refused to distribute GMO food to its people. Would the FAO intervene? Mr. Diouf said the FAO could not act on behalf of a country's government, but only provide information and advice to concerned countries. The agency would be in contact with Zambia to provide any information they needed to make an objective judgment about the food. Press Conferences Summit News