United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), specialized United Nations agency whose main goal is to afford freedom from hunger on a world scale. According to its constitution, the specific objectives are “raising levels of nutrition and standards of living ...and securing improvements in the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products ...”.

The FAO originated at a conference called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in May 1943. The 34 nations represented established the UN Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture. In October 1945 the first session of the FAO was held in Quebec.

As of 2002, the organization had 183 member nations and a single member organization, the European Union; it is headed by a director-general, who since 1994 has been Dr Jacques Diouf of Senegal. Each member nation has one vote in the general conference, the policy-making body that convenes once every two years to approve programmes, budgets, and rules of procedure, as well as to make recommendations on agricultural questions. The 49-member FAO council meets between conference sessions to monitor the world food situation and suggest necessary action. The council's committees deal with problems related to agriculture, commodities, forestry, and fisheries. The third organ, the secretariat, is responsible for implementing FAO programmes. Main headquarters is in Rome.

Functions of the FAO include collecting, analysing, and distributing information about nutrition, food, and agriculture; fostering conservation of natural resources; and promoting both adequate national and international agricultural-credit policies and international agricultural-commodity arrangements. Among its projects are the development of basic soil and water resources; the international exchange of new types of plants; the control of animal and plant diseases; and the provision to needy member nations of technical assistance in such fields as nutrition, food preservation, irrigation, soil conservation, and reforestation. In recent years, the FAO has worked to develop new plant mutations by using radioactive materials, to aid developing nations in cultivating fast-growing varieties of crops such as rice and wheat, and to establish monitoring networks to warn of possible food shortages (such as the prevalent potential for widespread starvation in Africa).

In 1974 the FAO helped organize the World Food Conference, held in Rome, which considered the critical problem of maintaining adequate food supplies. On the recommendation of the conference, the FAO expanded its information-gathering services to facilitate improved worldwide food security.