Food and Agriculture Organization

The 34th session of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was held in Rome, October 17–27, 1960. Noting that this was the fifteenth anniversary of FAO-the first specialized agency to be set up by United Nations governments, the Council urged all nations to increase their active support of the organization and to participate fully in the Freedom-From-Hunger Campaign. In adopting the report of the Committee on Commodity Problems, the Council once again expressed concern at the adverse effects of the worsening in recent years of the ratio of agricultural product prices to those of other goods and at the slow growth of markets for agricultural exports in the industrial countries. The Council was reminded of the Special Fund projects for which FAO already was, or was to become, the executing agency; they included an inter-regional desert locust project and regional projects pertaining to 1) agricultural education in Latin America, and 2) animal health in the Near East. Concerning the report on the Freedom-From-Hunger Campaign, delegates stressed the need for strengthened planning with respect to the projects undertaken within the framework of the Campaign. The Council also heard reports on: the control of foot-and-mouth disease; FAO's joint programs with the UN Children's Emergency Fund; recent developments in the organization of international work in oceanography; and program appraisals, inter alia. Resolutions were adopted on the following subjects: 1) the provision of food surpluses to food-deficient peoples; and 2) administrative and financial matters, including approval for the setting up of a joint policy committee on oceanography by FAO and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.