World Food Council pledges to eliminate 'scourge of hunger' forever.World Food Council pledges to eliminate "scourge of hunger' forever THE WORLD FOOD COUNCIL, at its thirteenth ministerial Done under the direction of a supervisor; not involving discretion or policymaking. Ministerial describes an act or a function that conforms to an instruction or a prescribed procedure. It connotes obedience. session (Beijing, 8-11 June), pledged to help "eliminate the scourge of hunger forever', proclaiming also that access to food "constitutes a human right which must be defended by Governments, peoples and the international community'. Poverty was at the core of the hunger problem, the Council stated, and comprehensive economic and social measures were required to eradicate Eradicate To completely do away with something, eliminate it, end its existence. Mentioned in: Smallpox hunger. "The improvement of the human condition must be placed front and centre of economic development. Hunger is basically an economic problem and also has social aspects'. In the 17-paragraph "Beijing Declaration', adopted by acclamation, the Council recognized that peace and stability were essential for the development of agricultural production. Governments and international organizations must further encourage regional and South-South co-operation, particularly in support of food production, agro-industries, trade and management and institution building. The support of the countries of the North for the peoples of the developing South remained essential, it was stated. The ministers in the Beijing Declaration also drew attention to the growing number of human lives lost to hunger and malnutrition malnutrition, insufficiency of one or more nutritional elements necessary for health and well-being. Primary malnutrition is caused by the lack of essential foodstuffs—usually vitamins, minerals, or proteins—in the diet. . Although total food production had increased in the past 13 years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time number of undernourished humans in the world had risen, a situation which was "untenable', they stressed. Humanity could feed itself if proper means were adopted, means which depended on the political will of Governments and the international community to win the common battle against hunger. Agriculture, it was stated, represented a vital sector for establishing a social, economic and financial equilibrium equilibrium, state of balance. When a body or a system is in equilibrium, there is no net tendency to change. In mechanics, equilibrium has to do with the forces acting on a body. in developing countries. Those responsible for trade negotiations were urged to re-establish a healthy and equitable equitable adj. 1) just, based on fairness and not legal technicalities. 2) refers to positive remedies (orders to do something, not money damages) employed by the courts to solve disputes or give relief. (See: equity) EQUITABLE. exchange of agricultural products and to allow the fair participation of developing countries. The 36-member body also adopted a group of conclusions and recommendations on a variety of subjects, including hunger and malnutrition, South-South co-operation, and the impact of international trade and related national policies on food and development. The Council suggested that ways be considered for the present large food surpluses "to be used as technical and financial assistance to accelerate the economic development of developing countries'. It emphasized that food "should not be used as a means of political or economic pressure'. The Council also reviewed a number of reports, including one which asserted that hunger and malnutrition were increasing worldwide, accelerating in the 1980s. The world community was moving away from the 1974 World Food Conference objective of a world without hunger. "Hunger is growing in the face of record global food surpluses, which are disrupting the agricultural economies of developed and developing countries', it stated. "The surplus problem seems to have caught the world as unprepared as the food scarcity Scarcity The basic economic problem which arises from people having unlimited wants while there are and always will be limited resources. Because of scarcity, various economic decisions must be made to allocate resources efficiently. of the early 1970s.' The number of food-deprived people in the world could be as high as 730 million, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. World Bank estimates, the Council was told. Almost 360 per cent of the hungry lived in Asia. Some 25 per cent were in Africa, 10 per cent in Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. , and 5 per cent in the Middle East. At the same time, experts estimated that the world produced 10 per cent more food than was needed to feed everyone. Each day throughout the world, 40,000 children died of hunger-related causes, it was reported. It was as though an atomic bomb atomic bomb or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of atomic energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy nuclei (see nuclear energy). The first atomic bomb was produced at the Los Alamos, N.Mex. , the size of that which destroyed Hiroshima in 1945, were dropped on a densely populated pop·u·late tr.v. pop·u·lat·ed, pop·u·lat·ing, pop·u·lates 1. To supply with inhabitants, as by colonization; people. 2. area every three days. Eduardo Pesqueira Olea, Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources of Mexico, was elected President of the 36-member Council. Abdirizak Mohamoud Abubakar (Somalia), Muhammed Ibrahim Baluch (Pakistan), Yoctcho Roussev (Bulgaria) and Mats Hellstrom (Sweden) were elected as Vice-Presidents. Photo: Food market in China. |
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