INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE. - Better known by the acronym F.A.O. (Food and Agriculture Organization), it is the organization established within the United Nations, intended to embrace on a worldwide scale all the problems of agriculture and food. It has a predecessor in the International Institute of Agriculture, founded in 1905, which for 35 years carried on an effort of study and collaboration among the various countries in the field of agriculture.

The foundations of the new organization were laid as early as 1943 (May 17-June 7) at Hot Springs in the United States, and the F.A.O. began its work in the first two sessions of the General Conference, held respectively at Quebec and Copenhagen in 1945 and 1946. Once its structure was completed, it currently comprises 58 States freely united, on equal terms for the carrying out of its statutory tasks, and has a central secretariat and a series of central and peripheral offices.

The national Committees of the F.A.O. in each member country constitute the connecting body between the governments and the international organization.

Countries such as Italy, which are not part of the United Nations, also belong to the F.A.O. on equal terms: all the Great Powers are members, except the U.S.S.R. The general purpose of the F.A.O. is to promote throughout the world a better-organized agriculture, a better distribution of available goods between producing and consuming countries, and better nutrition. Consequently its objective is to remedy the deprivations created by the instability of markets, by surpluses, by waste and the irrational exploitation of the land. The F.A.O. will thus also be one of the bodies that will have to administer the funds made available to the United Nations in order to spread among the less advanced countries the improved techniques and structures already proper to countries with an intensive economy, a program also known under the term Truman's Point IV.

On the basis of its objectives the F.A.O. formulates recommendations, which must then receive the approval of the member States. Its bodies are: the annual Conference of the member States, the Executive Committee, comprising from 9 to 15 members, and the offices. The permanent seat of the F.A.O. has been established in Rome, already the seat of the International Institute of Agriculture.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: cf. the numerous publications of the F.A.O.: Forestry and Forest Products. World Situation in 1937-46 (1946); World Fiber Survey (1947); Soil Conservation (1947); Annuaire de statistiques agricoles et alimentaires (1947); some monographs on products: Wheat, Livestock and Meat, Dairy Products etc. Among the journals published by the F.A.O., v.: Unasylva, Economic Review of Food and Agriculture etc. Cf. also: P. Vicinelli, La Food and Agriculture Organization, in Civitas, 1 (1950), pp. 76-80.

Pietro Palazzini

@incollection{ec9_organizzazione_internazionale, author = {Palazzini, Pietro}, title = {Organizzazione Internazionale Dell'Agricoltura}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {286--287}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/organizzazione-internazionale-dell-agricoltura} }

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