HL Deb 17 December 1973 vol 348 cc179-80WA
LORD BROCKWAY

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is their attitude to the proposal of the United States Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, that a United Nations Conference on world food problems should be held next year.

EARL FERRERS

The proposal to convene a World Food Conference in 1974 was supported by the United Kingdom, both at the Food and Agriculture Organisation Conference in Rome last month and at the Economic and Social Committee of the United Nations (Ecosoc) in New York on December 12. We consider that the Conference should concentrate on the most urgent issues where progress can be made quickly, and that it should not attempt to duplicate the continuing work of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Two areas where we believe early action should be possible are the establishment of a better mechanism for assembling supply and demand data prospects covering the major foodstuffs and all areas of the world, so that early warning is given before acute food supply problems emerge; and the improvement of the capacity for economic food production and stockholding, particularly in those developing countries which suffer most severely when food shortages arise.

House adjourned at a quarter past ten o'clock.