Toward a Global Food
and Agriculture Policy

Overarching Objectives

Agriculture has been one of the greatest success stories in the history of the human family. From several centuries of subsistence living, and persistent and continuing concerns about the adequacy of the food supply, agriculture has moved into an era of abundant foodstuffs for those who can afford to be fed, and concerns about overproduction. But that success story, impressive as it is, cannot be told without mention of the concerns voiced in several quarters about the functioning of the agricultural sector. This report focuses on the perceived shortcomings of the food and fiber production systems and provides suggestions for fine tuning of agriculture from a new and different perspective.

I. Overarching Objectives

Any policy intervention effort should be at least consistent with, if not in furtherance of, objectives for which there is widespread and enthusiastic support. While different individuals and groups may value the objectives differently, and some may view the problems of food production and distribution so differently as to encourage pursuit of different objectives altogether, the overarching objectives identified below enjoy substantial support worldwide.

• First and foremost, the food production and distribution systems should work toward a state where an adequate and safe diet is accessible by everyone. Starvation and malnutrition because of inability to obtain food supplies should not characterize the planet in the decades ahead. As discussed below, the greatest single barrier to an adequate diet, in a world characterized by allocation of foodstuffs by market principles, is income, not the level of food production.
   

• Second, the production of food and fiber should be carried on in an environmentally sustainable fashion, both in terms of maintaining productive capacity and with respect to minimizing cost externalities relating to groundwater and stream pollution as well as air pollution.
   

• Third, food and fiber production and distribution should be characterized by manageable costs with appropriate attention to possible efficiencies, taking into account the objective of the food and fiber production systems bearing all costs reasonably related to those functions, including costs external to the firms involved in the production and distribution processes.
   

• Fourth, the systems for the production of food and fiber should embrace opportunities for independent entrepreneurship, making possible a meaningful and rewarding life, consistent with the long tradition of independent entrepreneurship in agriculture.
   

• Finally, food and fiber production in the coming decades should feature rationality in the shared use of the earth's scarce resources including land, water, air, fossil fuels and germ plasm.