HULL, Que. (Staff) – Farmers should become more active advocates of food aid if they believe they have an obligation to feed the world, the head of the United Nations food aid agency said last week.
Catherine Bertini, executive director of the World Food Program, suggested farmers should pressure the Canadian government to spend more money on aid programs, rather than less.
During an Oct. 26 news conference, she reacted to a suggestion that farmers insist they can expand production to feed the world if a way can be found to get the food to those who need it.
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“If the farm community says that, then what is the farm community doing about it?” she said during her most impassioned comments.
Farm influence
“Where is the farm community in Canada in terms of influencing the debate about how much food assistance ought to be bought from the farmers in order to go to developing countries?”
Bertini was in Hull meeting with officials from the Canadian International Development Agency to talk about Canada’s diminishing financial support for food aid.
Budget cuts have taken tens of millions of dollars from the commitment this year.
She said Canada’s farmers should be speaking loudly about the need for the government to spend more to buy their products for delivery to those in the world who cannot afford to shop in increasingly costly world markets.
“It’s nice to sit back and talk about it but if the farm community believes that, then it ought to stand up and say so and say it loudly,” she said.
