[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 109 (Friday, June 30, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1390-E1392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             WORLD FOOD DAY

                                 ______


                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 30, 1995
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, for 11 years the U.S. National Committee for 
World Food Day has offered a teleconference on critical food policy 
issues to colleges and universities in the United States and through 
the facilities of the U.S. Information Agency WorldNet service to 
embassies and institutions throughout the Western Hemisphere. In 1993 
and again in 1994, WorldNet also made it possible for the telecast to 
be received in Africa and Asia.
  The World Food Day program dealt with the increasing use of water and 
the decreasing quality of the supply in nearly all world regions. 
Abundance is giving way to public policy decisions on resource 
allotment and cost sharing. There is an urgent need for the 
international community, national governments and citizen organizations 
to make decisions relating to the competing uses of the environment, 
agriculture and human consumption needs.
  I want to thank the U.S. National Committee for World Food Day and 
the Committee's national coordinator, Ms. Patricia Young, for their 
efforts in bringing this important subject to public attention and in 
helping prepare for the international conference. I want to thank the 
U.S. Agency for International Development for their support and 
technical assistance in the organization of the World Food Day 
Teleconference. I also want to praise USIA WorldNet for a job well done 
in carrying the program throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and 
to additional sites in the rest of the world.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to read the exclusive summary of 
the World Food Day Teleconference, and I wish to insert it in the 
Record at this point.
                 1994 Teleconference Executive Summary

       The eleventh annual World Food Day Teleconference was 
     broadcast from the studios of George Washington University 
     Television in Washington, DC on October 14, 1994. It linked a 
     distinguished international panel of experts on food, water 
     and agriculture to more than 1,000 receive sites in the 
     United States and the Western Hemisphere. There were also a 
     number of passive sites in Asia and Africa. The theme for the 
     teleconference was ``Sharing Water: Farms, Cities and 
     Ecosystems.''
       After years of growth since the World Food Day 
     teleconference series began in 1984, the program is believed 
     to be the largest, single development education broadcast 
     ever organized in the U.S. The Spanish-language broadcast, 
     involving simultaneous interpretation from English, began in 
     1990 with a pilot project in Mexico through the cooperation 
     of the Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, which relayed the 
     broadcast in Spanish to its 26 national campuses. Outreach to 
     the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean was initiated in 
     1992 with the support of the UN Food and Agriculture 
     Organization and the U.S. Information Agency WorldNet system.
       World Food Day, held for the first time in 1981 and marking 
     the anniversary of the founding of FAO in 1945, has captured 
     the imagination of people throughout the world. In the U.S. 
     the day is observed in virtually every community in the 
     country, with especially strong support in schools, worship 
     centers and food banks. The U.S. National Committee for World 
     Food Day has grown in membership to more than 450 private 
     voluntary organizations and works directly at the grassroots 
     through more than 20,000 community organizers.
       Serving on the teleconference expert panel in 1993 were 
     Jose Felix Alfaro, international consultant on water resource 
     planning, Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy 
     Project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Rita Schmidt Sudman, 
     executive director of the Water Education Foundation in 
     Sacramento, California and Hans W. Wolter, chief of the Water 
     Resources Development and Management Service of the UN Food 
     and Agriculture Organization. The moderator was Alex Chadwick 
     of National Public Radio.


                       the Teleconference concept

       In the U.S. the World Food Day teleconference has become a 
     model for development education on global issues, in part 
     because of the enormous growth in interactive site 
     participation and the additional millions of viewers accessed 
     through collaborating networks and in part because of the 
     year-around use of the program's study materials and the 
     teleconference videotape itself in college-level courses in a 
     great variety of disciplines. The ``internationalization'' of 
     the program since 1990 has further increased its impact and 
     was broadly welcomed by participating colleges and 
     universities in the U.S. The main components of the 
     teleconference package are: (1) a Study/Action Packet of 
     print materials prepared by the non-governmental U.S. 
     National Committee for World Food Day and distributed to all 
     participating schools and other study centers (and 
     distributed in Spanish to the participating sites in Latin 
     America); (2) the three-hour satellite telecast on World Food 
     Day composed of three hour-long segments for expert panel 
     presentations, site consideration of the issues and a site-
     panel question and answer interchange; (3) publication of the 
     teleconference report including written responses by 
     panelists to questions that were not taken up on the air for 
     reasons of time; and (4) analysis by selected site organizers 
     after each year's program to make recommendations for the 
     year to follow. All of the main teleconference components are 
     designed as college-level curricular aids.
                        the study/action packet

       The Study/Action Packet is designed as an integral part of 
     the teleconference package, but also serves as a separate 
     study resource for groups planning World Food Day observances 
     but not participating in the telecast. More than 1,500 copies 
     of the packet were distributed on request in the months prior 
     to the broadcasts to colleges, other institutions, community 
     study groups, schools and individuals. All or part of the 
     packet materials were reproduced by many of the participating 
     sites.
       Again in 1994 the Study/Action Packet was translated into 
     Spanish and reprinted by the FAO Regional Office for Latin 
     America and the Caribbean and distributed throughout the 
     region by the network of FAO country representatives. Copies 
     of the English version were also distributed to U.S. 
     embassies on request.
       The 1994 packet was developed by the U.S. National 
     Committee for World Food Day with the cooperation of several 
     institutions and organizations which contributed material 
     from their own research and analysis. The teleconference 
     theme, exploring the growing scarcity of water and conflicts 
     over the division of available supply among agriculture, 
     industry, urban needs and the environment, was discussed by 
     panelists in a global context, but with special emphasis on 
     problems and needs of North and South America. Water issues 
     facing the western part of the United States were featured, 
     and for the fourth year one of the invited international 
     panelists came from Latin America.
       This Study/Action Packet is not intended to be a 
     comprehensive analysis of global water issues but as an 
     overview and introduction to the theme, special viewpoint 
     papers included in the packet and donated by their authors 
     came from Sandra Postel, author of the book ``The Last 
     Oasis,'' B. Delworth Gardner and Ray G. Huffaker from Brigham 
     Young University in Utah and the University of Tennessee, 
     Matias Preto-Celi of the FAO Regional Office for Latin 
     America an Professor Nnamdi Anosike of Rust College in 
     Mississippi. Also included was a special interview on western 
     water issues with Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.
       The packet also included a special 24-page Manual for 
     Community Action on Water Policies and Programs. This was the 
     eleventh study/action packet prepared in conjunction with the 
     teleconference series and the fifth to be undertaken directly 
     by the U.S. National Committee for World Food Day. Previous 
     packets were prepared by the Center for Advanced 
     International Studies at Michigan State University and by the 
     Office of International Agriculture at the University of 
     Illinois. Funding for the 1993 packet was partially provided 
     by the Agency for International Development. General funding 
     for the teleconference program was provided by the U.S. 
     National Committee for World Food Day, FAO and Covenant 
     Presbyterian Church of Scranton PA.


                        teleconference outreach

       The WFD teleconference has grown each year since it was 
     begun in 1984. Teleconference impact continued to grow in 
     1994 in at least three other ways. For the ninth year the 
     program was used by professional organizations for continuing 
     education credits. These credits (or professional development 
     units) were offered again in 1994 by the American Dietetic 
     Association, the American Home Economics Association and 
     through the Catholic University of America to clergy and 
     social service professionals. Beginning in 1989 there has 
     been a steady rise in teleconference participation by high 
     school students, initiated by both individual schools and 
     school systems. The audience of home television sets accessed 
     by cooperating networks is believed to be in the millions, 
     reached through the Catholic Telecommunications Network of 
     America, AgSat, Vision Interfaith Satellite Network, PBS 
     Adult Learning Satellite Service and individual PBS and cable 
     stations.
                  the teleconference broadcast summary

       The telecast opened with questions from the moderator to 
     each member of the panel in the area of their special 
     interest or expertise. Dr. Alfaro was asked to judge the 
     gravity of water problems in Latin America. He replied that 
     water concerns are very widespread in the region in large 
     part owing to the rapid human migration from rural areas into 
     cities and the consequent overwhelming of water services and 
     infrastructure. Professor Postel was asked her views on 
     problems of irrigation. She pointed out that while only 16% 
     of world cropland is irrigated this land produces more than a 
     third of all the world's food. Since population continues to 
     rise very quickly, she said, it is a cause of major concern 
     that the amount of irrigated land per capita has been slowly 
     declining for 

[[Page E1391]]
     the past decade. She also noted that much of current irrigation is 
     unsustainable over the long term because it is coming from 
     pumping groundwater (water from wells rather than river 
     diversion) faster than it is being replenished by nature.
       The moderator then noted that the state of California has a 
     special relevance in a discussion of water use because of its 
     enormous agricultural production in a semi-arid climate 
     through very large water diversion projects. Rita Sudman 
     noted that state's past achievements but said that a new 
     situation is evolving in which agriculture is under pressure 
     to relinquish part of its water supply in order to meet needs 
     of urban areas and the natural environment. California, she 
     added, could in a sense be a laboratory for much of the world 
     in its search for solutions to water sharing. Dr. Wolter was 
     asked, as an official of the UN Food and Agriculture 
     Organization, if water problems could slow the growth in food 
     production globally. He replied that there exists very 
     serious water problems regionally, and noted that about 230 
     million people live in countries with acute water shortage. 
     However, he added, water problems in most regions can be 
     solved by new supplies and/or improved management.
       The panel as a whole then took up the question of whether 
     water should be considered as a ``good'' in the economic 
     sense, with a unit market value. Dr. Wolter began the 
     discussion by noting that a) water is an economic commodity 
     in the sense that it serves production purposes, but that it 
     also has social and even cultural characteristics that make 
     it difficult to treat only as an economic good; and b) that 
     there are further characteristics of water that make it 
     different from other resources--that it is extremely bulky, 
     difficult to store and transport and, in the private sector, 
     difficult to establish property rights to it.
       Prof. Postal said there is not doubt that water is 
     undervalued as a resource because it has always seemed 
     plentiful and that market allocation in some ways can bring 
     efficiencies in water use. However, she noted, the market 
     cannot meet all the social needs for water and, in 
     particular, intervention in the market by governments will be 
     required to protect the natural environment.
       Furthering this point, using California as an example, Ms. 
     Sudman noted a) that while people like to say that water is 
     free it really isn't because in one way or another the public 
     pays the cost of infrastructure, distribution and purity 
     maintenance; and b) that the simple ability of cities to pay 
     for water does not answer the problems of rural communities. 
     The need now, she said, is to work out systems of sharing and 
     balance, but that this is not always easy or the solutions 
     clear.
       Dr. Alfaro noted that water marketing can be useful up to a 
     point, but that there would be very real political and equity 
     problems in a pure market system. In Latin America, he noted, 
     there are millions of small, subsistence farmers who do not 
     have the means to pay for the water they need for their 
     crops. Ms. Postel added that if water prices are disconnected 
     from crop prices this adds another destabilizing factor to 
     agriculture. However, she added, the high cost of pumping 
     water in areas of the U.S.--where water rights are not a 
     central issue--has brought about great improvements in 
     efficiency.
       Dr. Wolter noted that before markets can play a normal role 
     there has to be an allocation of water rights, and that this 
     does not exist in most countries where there is no clear 
     ownership and very
      few statistics on resource availability and use. FAO, he 
     added, is helping these countries to reform their policies 
     and institutions. Ms. Sudman noted that there is a further 
     complication because farmers can sell rights to surface 
     water and then meet their own needs by increased pumping 
     of groundwater which is not a solution over the long term. 
     Rights to groundwater, she added are much less well 
     established by law. Dr. Alfaro noted that the point of 
     irrigation is to increase production, but that more is 
     required than water and that poor farmers are not able to 
     take part in the productivity gains. There is, therefore, 
     the danger, he said, that water will be one more 
     production factor going to rich farmers but not to poor. 
     Dr. Wolter noted that this does not have to be the case, 
     that in Bangladesh, for example, the introduction of small 
     and cheap pumps to tap groundwater, which is plentiful 
     there, has led to competitive water marketing that is 
     serving the very small holders.
       The moderator then asked the panel to consider future 
     problems of water quantity and quality to meet human needs.
       Ms. Postel said her statistics and projections point to a 
     worsening situation in much of the world. She noted that 27 
     countries already live with severe water shortages, but that 
     this number could jump to 40 countries in the coming years 
     and this will mean more competition for water and then for 
     food. Dr. Wolter noted that most of the countries in water 
     scarcity exist around the Mediterranean Sea and that 
     generalizations may not be valid elsewhere. Africa, for 
     example, has a vast amount of unutilized water capacity and 
     there could be a period of intensive investment in water 
     diversion and dam construction ahead. Efficiency will be very 
     important, he said, but all options of supply and management 
     need to be considered.
       On the issue of water quality in food production, Dr. 
     Alfaro said that quantity and quality are part of the same 
     problem. Nearly 30% of all irrigated cropland is now affected 
     by waterlogging or salinization, he said. In part the 
     solutions to this are technical, such as better drainage, but 
     in part they can be cultural, for example where people go on 
     raising rice in very light soil more suitable to other crops. 
     Cultural, political and even religious regimes can complicate 
     introduction of technical solutions, he said.
       The panel then took up the situation of water for urban 
     systems and drinking water. Prof. Postel noted that only 
     about 8% of all water used is for cities, but that this 8% is 
     difficult to supply, store, treat for contaminants and 
     distribute. It is also difficult and expensive to collect and 
     treat waste water before it is returned to the environment. 
     With populations growing and big cities growing even faster, 
     she said, all these problems are multiplying. And, she noted, 
     according to UN estimates there still are more than a billion 
     people who don't have access to safe drinking water.
       Dr. Wolter noted that the International Decade on Safe 
     Drinking Water and Sanitation has yielded some interesting 
     results. Conditions in rural areas have improved very 
     rapidly, but not the situation in the cities where 
     infrastructures have not kept pace. Planners and governments 
     need to take a more integrated approach and be more aware of 
     the ramifications of water intervention both upstream and 
     downstream. However, he added, these are policies of 
     governments and the UN agencies can only offer advice when 
     asked.
       The moderator then asked the panel to consider which 
     sectors of the population might be most affected by new water 
     policies. Ms. Sudman noted that in California there is no 
     doubt that agriculture will be the sector most affected since 
     the farmers have control of about 80% of all water taken for 
     human use. The great water projects were built in the 1930s 
     and 1940s primarily to improve agriculture, and the farmers 
     signed contracts for 40 years of water supply. Now that these 
     contracts are running out, society's values have changed and 
     people are saying we need to give less to farmers and more to 
     protect fish and birds. About 12% of formerly agricultural 
     water is now being diverted back into rivers and streams to 
     protect the environment. That has hurt farmers, she said. But 
     most people think it is the right thing to do.
       Prof. Postel described the need for a ``water ethic.'' In 
     the past, she said, we simply projected demand and tried to 
     ensure that the supply could be there for human purposes. A 
     ``water ethic'' implies a recognition of water ecosystems 
     which are vital in themselves as well as to human needs and 
     would be protected as a first priority. Ms. Sudman added that 
     while this is what California is now trying to accomplish 
     there is a gap in knowledge of exactly how much water is 
     needed to achieve each purpose. If the goal is to double the 
     fish population, can that be done by just adding more water 
     to stream flow and how much more? We don't yet know, she 
     said.
       Dr. Alfaro, speaking as a devil's advocate, noted that the 
     U.S. is a very rich country, but that such care of the 
     environment may not be a logical priority of a poor society. 
     There, he said, where there are no food stamps, the top 
     priority for the poor is food to eat. Prof. Postel said that 
     countries could not wait for environmental protection until 
     poverty problems are solved and a certain level of 
     development achieved because unchecked destruction of the 
     environmental systems lead to the loss of resources on which 
     jobs for people depend. Dr. Walter suggested that there are, 
     in fact, conflicts between development and environmental 
     protection and answers will be complicated. Different 
     countries face different problems and difficult choices, he 
     said, and we can't impose our values on them from the 
     outside.
       At the close of the first hour, the moderator asked Prof. 
     Postel whether the world would have ample water resources if 
     they are managed sustainably. She replied that a part of the 
     problem today is that an important share of our food 
     production and water use is not sustainable over the long 
     term. For example, groundwater is being pumped out far faster 
     than it is replenished by nature. First, as water becomes 
     scarce it grows more expensive to pump so food becomes more 
     expensive too, and second, the reduced supply in the ground 
     will become salty. At this point in time, she said, we need 
     to be much more concerned with managing our water demand 
     rather than increasing our supply--learning to do more with 
     less.


                    third hour questions and answers

       As in previous years, the third hour of the teleconference 
     program was devoted to questions directed to the panelists by 
     the participating sites. All questions received were answered 
     either on the air during the third hour segment or by the 
     panel members in writing afterward. These written answers are 
     part of the teleconference report. Questions were received 
     from Canada, the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean. 
     Subjects in which there tends to be the greatest interest 
     among the participating sites included: how water marketing 
     might affect poor farmers and poor countries; what kind of 
     system could be devised that would adequately maintain the 
     natural environment and still leave water for human needs; 
     how is sustainable water used possible if population 
     continues to increase; what kind of incentives are there to 
     encourage efficiency in water use; what are the trade-offs in 
     poor countries between environmental protection and 
     industrialization and is it possible to avoid the conflict; 
     and, who should manage water markets, governments or private 
     institutions. 

[[Page E1392]]
     Panel responses to all these questions varied, sometimes fundamentally, 
     but there was general agreement on three points: (1) that 
     governments and the international support community now 
     recognize the seriousness of water problems; (2) that answers 
     are necessarily complex both because of the nature of the 
     resource and the conflicting user demands; and (3) that there 
     is still time for most countries and regions to adjust and 
     modernize their water policies before a crisis occurs, but 
     that action is necessary.
     

                          ____________________