A United Nations Food Conference ?
President Roosevelt made a statement of great importance to his Press Conference on Tuesday, when he spoke of the prospect of a United Nations conference to be held in the near future to con- sider, not merely short-term arrangements for the relief of Europe, but " the permanent food-supply of the world." Such an agenda requires considerable definition, but it involves clearly some control of primary products, securing a fair price to producers and the creation of reserves of essential foodstuffs, and possibly some raw materials, in times of surplus, to be released in times of shortage. No doubt also the principle of creating a demand by insisting on adequate standards of nutrition is included. This is clearly an undertaking of the first moment, and it is improbable that Mr. Roosevelt would have said as much as he did if the principle of the convocation of such a conference had not been virtually accepted. As it happened, for it appears to have been accident rather than design, the day after Mr. Roosevelt talked to the Press Mr. Herbert Morrison, in another of the speeches which he has lately been devoting to world affairs, dwelt in strikingly similar language on the need for beginning now to plan international co-operation in the economic field, specifying particularly " the elaboration of a health and nutrition policy, which, rightly developed, could itself be one of the most powerful of all forces in aid of an expanding world economy." If this formed the subject of the first general United Nations conference, and the discussions ended in con- structive agreement, an immense step would have been taken towards both the promotion of human welfare in all lands and the removal of one of the most potent causes of war.
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