WASHINGTON -- United Nations World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran and her senior staff are urging G-8 leaders meeting in Japan the week of July 7 to consider endorsing an international grain reserve for humanitarian purposes.
President Bush and leaders of other big, industrialized countries are gathering in Japan and are expected to discuss high world food prices and their impact on the poor.
Nancy Roman, an American who is the WFP director of public policy and communication, said WFP is urging consideration of a grain reserve so that the agency "would not be caught behind the curve competing against every commercial (buyer) as it has been since commodity prices skyrocketed and some supplier countries have imposed export controls. WFP is the world's largest supplier of food aid in emergencies and to poor countries that cannot produce enough food for their people.
"We are hopeful that the G-8 (leaders) will embrace" the grain reserve idea and other WFP proposals at the meeting in Japan, Roman said. She added that WFP also is urging the G-8 leaders to oppose export controls on food to be used for humanitarian purposes, provide full funding for emergency needs, support school feeding for the 58 million children worldwide who do not have adequate nutrition and generally establish food security a top priority of government policy.
Setbacks
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Roman acknowledged that WFP faces several problems in proposing a grain reserve including the limited "shelf life" of grain and deciding where to store the grain to make it convenient for distribution. Roman said WFP is considering a combination of a small physical reserve and a "virtual" reserve through a fund that could be managed by an international body. The fund could be used to buy grain when WFP needs it, but large producer countries would have to agree in advance to make the grain available, Roman noted. "The global community has to think through the upsides and the downsides," she said. "We're not sure we know what the best form it might take."
The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, a World Bank affiliate, has published a paper proposing a small physical reserve and an internationally controlled virtual reserve. But John Schnittker, a California-based grains consultant who was a USDA official in the Kennedy administration, said giving control of national reserves to an international body always has generated political opposition.
Criticism
National grain reserves have existed in the past and still do exist in some countries, but they are not without controversy. While they provide food in emergencies, economists and some farm leaders have criticized them for pulling down market prices because buyers think governments may put the grain on the market.
The United States ended most its reserves in 1996 when the Freedom to Farm bill was passed. It does maintain the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, which was set up by Congress to provide emergency food, but the Bush administration depleted the trust this year to address the international food aid price crisis.
American Farm Bureau Federation economist Bob Young said July 1 that the Farm Bureau opposes domestic reserves and would have reservations about an international reserve. The American Agricultural Movement, the National Family Farm Coalition and other farm groups that believe in a strong role for government in agriculture policy favor reserves. Schnittker said that establishing a grain reserve in a period of short supply would be impractical, but should be discussed. Schnittker said getting rid of export controls would have more impact in the short run.
