study of the relation of agriculture to world economy;

(v) Education and extension work in the field of food and agriculture;

(VI) Agricultural credit;

(VII) Problems of agricultural population and farm labor;

7. That the Interim Commission further consider the desirability of assigning to the permanent organization functions in the field of:

(a) Development of agricultural resources and orientation of production, where necessary; (b) Agricultural commodity arrange

ments;

(c) Agricultural cooperative movements; (d) Land tenure;

(e) Other subjects on which recommendations have been made by the Conference;

8. That the Interim Commission also consider the initiation of preliminary statistical investigations and research into the problems with which the permanent organization will deal;

9. That the Interim Commission be deemed to have been dissolved when the permanent organization has been established;

10. That the Government of the United States of America be invited to take whatever preliminary action may be necessary for the establishment of the Interim Commission after the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture has completed its work.

III. IMPROVEMENT OF NATIONAL DIETS

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

Having reviewed the information submitted by the several delegations on consumption deficiencies and the relation of food to health throughout the world and being deeply impressed by the dominant role played by adequate food in the reduction of sickness and death rates and the maintenance of health,

DECLARES:

1. That the first essential of a decent standard of living is the provision to all men of those

primary necessities which are required to promote freedom from disease, and for the attainment of good health;

2. That the most fundamental of these necessities is adequate food which should be placed within the reach of all men in all lands within the shortest possible time;

3. That ample evidence has been presented revealing the existence of malnutrition in every country, with its inevitable consequences of preventable ill health; and

RECOMMENDS:

1. That the governments and authorities here represented:

(a) Immediately undertake the task of increasing the food resources and improving the diets of their people in accordance with the principles and objectives outlined in the findings of the Conference, and declare to their respective peoples and to other governments and authorities here represented their intention of so doing;

(b) Undertake periodically to report to one another through the permanent organization recommended in Resolution II on the state of their national nutrition and on the steps being taken for its improvement.

IV. DIETS OF VULNERABLE GROUPS WHEREAS:

1. There are special needs of vulnerable groups, such as pregnant and nursing women, infants, pre-school and school children, adolescents, workers, and individuals receiving low incomes;

2. Families with numerous children in lowincome groups are particularly vulnerable;

3. Social, economic, and health measures of various kinds are or should be provided for these groups;

4. Wide experience has shown that direct measures to supplement inadequate diets have been economical and fruitful;

1 Obviously this is impossible for governments whose territory is entirely or partly occupied by enemy forces.

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

RECOMMENDS:

That the several governments and authorities here represented undertake positive measures for the improvement of the diets of the vulnerable groups enumerated above.

V. MALNUTRITION AND DISEASE WHEREAS:

1. Malnutrition is responsible for widespread impairment of human efficiency and for an enormous amount of ill health and disease, reduces the resistance of the body to tuberculosis, and enhances the general incidence and severity of familiar diseases;

2. Mortality rates in infants, children, and mothers are higher in ill-fed than in well-fed populations;

3. Food consumption at a level merely sufficient to prevent malnutrition is not enough to promote health and well-being;

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

RECOMMENDS:

1. That the governments and authorities here represented:

(a) Initiate or continue the study of the relationship between malnutrition and impaired bodily health and vigor; and, in particular, investigate the role of inadequate food `consumption in the causation of, and mortality from, all those diseases which constitute their most serious health problems;

(b) Direct their attention to the study of health and well-being and of the nutritional and related factors which are necessary to secure and maintain them;

(c) Consider the most effective means of disseminating knowledge of correct feeding among all sections of the population.

WHEREAS:

VI. DEFICIENCY DISEASES

1. The progressive improvement of diets will result in better health and eventually in the elimination of specific deficiency diseases, and

a great deal of unnecessary suffering could be avoided if an immediate and concerted attack were made upon them;

2. Progress in our knowledge of nutrition makes it possible to seek out, treat successfully, and prevent the recurrence of the common diseases resulting from specific deficiencies in the diet;

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

RECOMMENDS:

1. That the several governments and authorities here represented undertake immediately: (a) To ascertain the prevalence of specific deficiency diseases among their respective peoples;

(b) To deal with them by suitable dietary and therapeutic measures;

(c) To take appropriate steps to prevent their recurrence.

VII. NATIONAL NUTRITION ORGANIZATION WHEREAS:

1. A sound food and nutrition policy must be adopted by each government if national diets are to be progressively improved, specific deficiency diseases eliminated, and good health achieved;

2. Such a policy requires the guidance of a central authority with special competence and responsibility to interpret the science of nutrition in the light of national conditions and to propose to the appropriate authorities practical means for extending its benefits to all sections of society;

The United Nations Conference on Food and
Agriculture
RECOMMENDS:

1. That the governments and authorities here represented:

(a) Undertake to establish national nutrition organizations, if such do not now exist, entrusted with the responsibility of ascertaining food-consumption habits and the nutritional status of different sections of the population;

such organizations to be composed of authorities in health, nutrition, economics, and agriculture, together with administrators and consumers' representatives, etc.; to be provided with adequate funds and facilities for the efficient conduct of their work; and to have the authority to bring their recommendations to the attention of the public and to those agencies of government which deal with agriculture and the framing of economic and social policy;

(b) Re-examine and, if necessary, reorganize existing agencies and review legislation concerned with health, agriculture, and nutrition to the end that food and nutrition policies may be efficiently carried out.

VIII. EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION AND EXPERIENCE

WHEREAS:

1. Experience has shown that national nutrition organizations receive considerable benefit from periodic exchanges of views and information on methods employed, obstacles encountered, and progress achieved;

2. Governments participating in a common undertaking will wish to collaborate so that levels of food consumption may become more equitable not only among the different sections of the population in a given country but among the several nations of the world as well;

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

RECOMMENDS:

1. That the several national nutrition organizations exchange information and experience and provide mutual assistance, both directly, when desirable, and through the permanent organization recommended in Resolution II, to which they should submit periodic reports on the results of their investigations into national dietary habits and nutritional status, and on the progress achieved in raising the level of food consumption throughout the population;

2. That representatives of the several national nutrition organizations meet regularly under the auspices of the permanent organization to exchange views and to make proposals for any national and international action necessary to facilitate the progress of their work.

WHEREAS:

IX. DIETARY STANDARDS

1. It is essential that there be some measure of the extent to which food supplies should be increased, and of the character and extent of the dietary improvements which need to be carried out;

2. This measure is best provided by dietary standards or allowances based upon scientific evidence;

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

RECOMMENDS:

That the governments and authorities here represented adopt as the ultimate goal of their food and nutrition policy, dietary standards or allowances based upon scientific assessment of the amount and quality of food, in terms of nutrients, which promote health, and distinguish clearly between these standards and the more immediate consumption goals which necessarily must be based upon the practical possibilities of improving the food supply of their populations.

X. COOPERATION OF EXISTING AGENCIES WHEREAS:

1. National nutrition organizations were established in many countries before the present war and various national and international health and nutrition agencies had achieved considerable progress in the study and improvement of diets and food-consumption levels in different countries and regions;

2. If no time is to be lost in moving toward the goals set out by the Conference, it is essential to make full use of the information and experience acquired by these agencies;

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

RECOMMENDS:

That in the establishment of the permanent organization recommended in Resolution II, in any projected regional branches of that organization, and in any national nutrition organizations, due account should be taken of the work and experience of existing international regional or national agencies concerned with food, health, and nutrition; and in any such plans, the possibility of enlisting the cooperation of such agencies should be fully explored.

WHEREAS:

XI. NON-FOOD PRODUCTS

1. Many of the non-food agricultural and marine products are constituent parts of the means to human health and welfare to an extent which merits consideration for them on a plane with food;

2. It is of great importance to consuming countries that there should be a regular and adequate supply of these commodities, and to producing countries that they should be enabled to orient their agricultural enterprises to world demand;

3. The Conference has not found it possible to reach conclusions as to the effective capacity of the world to consume specific products in future years;

4. In many countries and regions which are not well adapted to the production of food, the production of other essential agricultural and marine products and their disposal on domestic and foreign markets provide a major source of income, and the income so derived determines to a large extent the abilities of these countries and regions to secure adequate quantities of the right kinds of food;

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

RECOMMENDS:

1. That the permanent organization recommended in Resolution II:

(a) Investigate the possibility of the development by the nations of the world of national standards of minimum consumption of certain non-food agricultural and marine products, taking into account the varying climatic and other relevant conditions of the different countries;

(b) Arrange at an early date for comprehensive studies of the probable future capacity of the world to consume specific agricultural and marine products in this group, taking into account in this connection the probable effect of synthetic and other substitute products;

(c) Give special study to the development of means by which regions which are not well adapted to the production of food may share in a world-wide improvement of nutrition in keeping with the purpose of the Conference.

XII. CHANGES IN PRODUCTION IN THE SHORTTERM PERIOD

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

RECOMMENDS:

1. That, as a first step in overcoming the general shortage of food, every effort should be made by countries whose agriculture can be expanded in the short-term period, so long as this is required and so far as the conditions of individual countries require or permit, to increase the acreage under crops for direct human consumption and even to hold back the rebuilding of depleted livestock herds-essential though this rebuilding will ultimately be as well as the production of other crops which compete for acreage with essential foods;

2. That countries whose agriculture has been impaired should, in the immediate post-war period, utilize to the full their agricultural resources to bring about a rapid increase in food production, even if this involves a departure from the use of the resources which in the long run will be required, and even if it delays a return to production policies which are desirable for technical, economic, or nutritional reasons (for instance, in Europe there may need to be a concentration in the first years on vegetables,

bread grains, and other products where production can mature quickly and which yield more calories per acre than livestock);

3. That, pursuant to the above purpose, countries which have been producing more than normal output because of freedom from enemy action should:

(a) In the short run maintain such production;

(b) Whenever possible, increase production further, provided transport and the means of production, etc., are available, to assist in meeting abnormal demands.

4. That, taking into consideration that the degree of shortage of foodstuffs which will develop after the war will depend upon the course of the war and on the harvests, it will be necessary during the period from the present until the termination of the war for each of the nations which has escaped enemy invasion to continue to stress the necessity of production of those products which are required by other nations during the war, and at the same time to produce sufficient quantities of products for home consumption, subject to the requirements of the war effort;

5. That every effort should be made now and immediately after the war by countries in a position to do so, to expand the production of farm machinery and implements, fertilizers, and other materials, including improved seeds, vital to the expansion of food production, and to cooperate in making these materials available to the agricultural producing countries, so far as the exigencies of the war permit.

XIII. COORDINATION IN THE SHORT-TERM PERIOD

WHEREAS:

1. It is the consensus of the Conference that, despite all efforts to increase production, supplies of essential foodstuffs and certain other agricultural and marine products and of the necessary instruments of production, such as fertilizers and machinery, and the means of international transportation will all be inadequate to meet basic requirements in the transition period, which may extend for several years after the cessation of hostilities;

2. It is essential for the preservation of life to secure, through equitable distribution, the maximum advantage from such supplies as may be made available;

3. It is in the interest of producers and consumers alike to avoid social and economic ills due to monopolistic practices or to violent fluctuations arising from unrestrained competition for inadequate supplies, in the prices of food, the instruments of production, and other necessities, including industrial goods;

4. It is in the common interest of all that agricultural production be soundly reestablished and expanded with all possible speed in countries now temporarily occupied by the enemy as soon as they have been liberated;

5. These objectives can be achieved only by the concerted action of governments in the stimulation of production and in the allocation of supplies;

The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture

RECOMMENDS:

1. That the governments and authorities here represented, for so long after the war as shortages continue, affirm the principle of mutual responsibility and coordinated action for:

(a) The increased production of necessary foodstuffs and other essential agricultural and marine products by all possible means, subject only to the exigencies of war, in each country where such expansion can be accomplished economically, either now or in the future;

(b) The transportation, distribution, and utilitization of such products;

(c) The prevention of speculative and violent fluctuations in the prices of food, the instruments of production, and other necessities, including industrial goods, under the conditions of scarcity that appear certain to prevail after the war;

(d) The post-war readjustment of agriculture to achieve a progressive and balanced expansion of production and consumption throughout the world;

2. That these governments and authorities take, individually and in concert, whether by