World Food Day theme seeks renewed commitment to the Right to Food

16 October 2007 - FAO today called for a renewed commitment to guarantee the right to food for the world's hundreds of millions of hungry people.

Speaking at the World Food Day ceremony on this year’s theme, "The Right to Food," FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf asked: “if our planet produces enough food to feed its entire population, why do 854 million people still go to sleep on an empty stomach?” At the same time, Diouf said that “a right is not a right if it cannot be claimed.”

Public policy must be fashioned to protect and strengthen the future of our food supply, environment, public health, and rural communities. A new U.S. farm bill and international trade agreements must reverse the current policy that uses taxpayer dollars as a substitute for income not provided to farmers through the low prices paid by multinational corporations for products from our nation’s farms and ranches. Family farms must help prevent global warming and be an essential source of renewable energy with respect for local control. Low commodity prices and high taxpayer expenses combine to exacerbate the nation’s budget and trade deficit, create cheap feed that encourages destructive industrial production of livestock, and spread the curses of unhealthy diet and low farm income abroad while destroying economic opportunity on family farms and in rural communities here at home.

In 2007, Congress will renew the Farm Bill. Unfortunately for California, we have never received our fair share of Farm Bill benefits. Historically, Farm Bill subsidies have flowed disproportionately to very large farms growing a handful of commodity crops in a few regions of the country. Much less support has gone to diversified farming regions like California that grow fruit and vegetable crops. Far too little funding has gone to support sustainable farming practices that deliver maximum environmental benefits and healthy food.

Presented to the People and to the Congress of the United States of America
Hank Herrera, March 18, 2007

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

That the American People deserve access to fresh, whole, nutritious, affordable real food from American Farmers on a daily basis;

That the current use of American farmland and the predominant practices of American agriculture fail to achieve this purpose;

That the physical, social, cultural and spiritual health of the American People absolutely depends on healthy soil, healthy water, healthy plants and healthy animals living in diverse splendor upon the land and in the waters of this planet; and

The united organizations of the National Union of Autonomous Regional Campesino Organizations (UNORCA), collaborating at the national summit, “Corn, Tortillas and Food Sovereignty” on January 26th in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico declare that:

We oppose the rise in prices resulting from the speculative and monopolistic practices of the big commercial businesses that control the Mexican corn market. We demand that the government implement a policy that encourages domestic production, as well as adequately regulate both supply and prices of staple crops and staple foods.

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