Having a safer food supply and being able to buy food
products that are safer to use and not harmful to human health.
By: James G. Apple,
Editor-in-Chief, International
Judicial Monitor, and President, International Judicial Academy
(In celebration of the 100th anniversary of
the founding of the American Society of International Law in 2006, the Society
published a pamphlet titled International
Law: One Hundred Ways It Shapes Our Lives. The Introduction gives
an explanation for its conception: an affirmation that “international law not
only exists, but also penetrates much more deeply and broadly into everyday
life than the people it affects may generally appreciate.” This column seeks to
elucidate and elaborate on many of the 100 ways briefly presented in the ASIL
pamphlet.)
The globalization of the world’s many nations (now totaling
196 – by some counts the number is over 200) which has occurred since the end
of World War II in 1945 has affected many different sectors of civilization
and the world community: international politics, peace and security, war, law
and justice, transportation and travel, health, labor wages and conditions of
employment, finance and banking, trade, communications, the media and even the
weather. Activities in these many areas appear often in newspapers and
magazines and on television and radio. One sector that has not drawn much
attention or scrutiny – local, national, and international - relates to two of
the basic activities necessary for life on the planet: food production and
eating. International law is not a topic that is thought very often to be
related to food and dining. Yet there is a strong connection now between food
production and distribution and eating and international law, and has been
since the end of World War II.
The global regime that has been established to protect the
health of consumers throughout the world from adulterated, unsafe food products
has three pillars: the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
(FAO) created in 1945, supplemented by a subsidiary body, the Codex
Alimentarius Commission, established in1961; (2) the International Plant Protection
Convention, a multilateral treaty created in 1951 “to prevent and to control
the introduction and spread of pests of plants and plant products;” and (3) the
Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the “SPS
Agreement”), which was entered into force with the establishment of the World
Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The SPS Agreement “sets out the basic rules
for food safety and animal and plant health standards.”
The Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations and the
Codex Alimentarius
Around the world, until the 20th Century “food
was mainly produced, sold and consumed locally.” Whatever laws, rules and
regulations applicable to foods, plants and animals that existed were written, adopted
and enforced by local government institutions. That situation changed in the 20th Century, when the international food trade expanded exponentially, creating
issues and problems relating to the quality and variety of foods transmitted by
one nation to other nations. The value of the international food trade is now
estimated to be 200 billion (U.S.) dollars.
The dramatic changes in the distribution and consumption of
food, and the perceived growth in the world population after World War II led
to the creation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations. The FAO was created in October, 1945 in Quebec, Canada. The idea for
an international organization that would focus on food and agricultural issues
was promoted much earlier by an American agricultural expert, David Lubin. His
efforts and those of others led to two distinct developments, an international
agricultural conference in Rome, Italy in 1905, and the subsequent creation of
the International Institute of Agriculture.
Surprisingly, during World War II, possibly in anticipation
of food and agricultural problems at war’s end, U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt called for the creation of an organization like the FAO. This call
resulted in a second international conference on agriculture and food held in
the U.S. state of Virginia in the spring of 1943 with representatives of 44
countries in attendance. Out of this conference came the FAO Constitution and
a first meeting of the organization in Canada in the fall of 1945. The FAO
absorbed the International Institute of Agriculture in 1948.
The FAO, despite its full name, is not technically a part of
the United Nations system, although it works closely with UN Organizations
(such as the World Health Organization – see below).
The FAO currently has a membership of 197 members, comprised
of 194 member countries, one member organization (EU) and two associate
members. Its headquarters are in Rome, Italy. It has five regional offices in
different parts of the world. The annual budget of the FAO is approximately one
billion dollars with operating funds being provided by member nations. The
first director general of the FAO was John Boyd Orr of the United Kingdom. Its
current director general is Jose Gaziano de Silva of Brazil, whose current term
three years ends in July of this year.
The governing body of the FAO is a conference and a group of
regional conferences, supported by a Council Committee, a Technical Committee,
and a Committee on World Food Security. The FAO has five strategic objectives
as follows:
- Help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition
- Make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and
sustainable
International
Judicial Monitor