GCE Food Aid (1988F513)

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that The United Church of Canada:

1.  
   1. support food aid for emergency needs but remain very cautious about supporting the use of food aid for other purposes, relying upon the wisdom of our partners in such instances, insuring that the root causes of under-development will be addressed and that the food aid will not have adverse consequences for long-term agricultural productivity;
   2. support programs/activities of education and advocacy which, when implemented, may help to achieve food self-sufficiency in the less advantaged areas of our world;
   3. support governmental and NGO development programs, both bilateral and multilateral, which respect the national integrity and the basic needs and rights of populations working to achieve food self-sufficiency, and sustainable nationally-directed development; this will involve, in the case of NGOs, working with the national political leadership in some countries;
   4. support and improve church, NGO and government programs of development assistance which may serve as alternatives to current uses of non-emergency food aid, e.g. fairer terms of trade (pricing policies), instead of the provision of food aid as a means of assisting a country with its balance of payments deficit;
   5. support the Canadian government's programs of development assistance directed toward international agricultural research, follow-up extension, improved land use and tenure (reform), infrastructural improvement and regionally-based food storage facilities, and other similar programs that would expand and sustain food production.

Furthermore, The United Church of Canada calls upon the federal government:

2.  
   1. to undertake an evaluation of the total impact of food aid (both bilateral and multilateral), indicating our concern that certain forms of food aid discourage local production, encourage unrealistic food preferences, perpetuate food-for-work payments at poverty levels and are not the most effective means of assisting a country with its balance of payments deficits;
   2. to increase the provision for untied food aid so that, where possible, food needs can be met regionally;
   3. to emphasize the need for systems of conservation farming in order to realize sustained production;
   4. to continue supporting the reduction of conflict and efforts to achieve peace so that situations of food insecurity can be minimized.

Executive Minutes, Nov. 1988, pp. 51-52