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"Nichts mehr davon, ich bitt euch. Zu essen gebt ihm, zu wohnen.
Habt ihr die Blöße bedeckt, gibt sich die Würde von selbst."
Friedrich Schiller
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for PEACE
FAO -- Italians Make a half "Bella Figura"Rome's Mayor Gianni Alemanno, a former Agriculture Minister in the Berlusconi government, gave a remarkable speech at the beginning of the FAO conference. He called for "a general review of policies so far implemented," not FAO policies, but {"often, trade negotiations have created delusory expectations.} For too long, agriculture and food production has been considered as a mere object of trade in international exchanges, neglecting its impact on the survival of human persons and on the planetary environment. [This] has not produced acceptable results. "Not many years have gone by, since when they wanted to convince developed countries too, to drop economic aids to agriculture.... Today, governments throughout Europe have been forced to drop set-asides because of the shortage of grains to allocate to the food cycle. {"The international community must renew its commitment in investing in rural development of all countries in the world.} "We need more financial and human resources to achieve food security, through food sovereignty and optimization of biodiversity.... Therefore it is necessary to oppose current tendencies towards monocultures and excessive industrialization." [Emphasis is in the original] Italian President Napolitano also attacked the free market. "We cannot, in order to overcome the food crisis and guarantee a perspective of real food security, rely on the balancing virtues of the market." Prime Minister Berlusconi proposed that EU member nations aid to poor countries for food development should be taken out of the deficit rules (Maastricht rules). Foreign Minister Frattini, was expected to call for a "Bretton Woods on Wheat," i.e. "a new international agreement on agriculture, a `Bretton Woods on wheat,' able to bring around a table all the countries, specialized agencies ... private ones (foundations, multinationals, civil society) to examine strategies for increasing investments in agriculture and to draft rules of intervention. The target of a `Bretton Woods on wheat' is not to create new structures or a new world fund for agriculture, but to use existing institutions and know-how in a more effective and coordinated way." Frattini also will call for a "Food Bank," using the same terminology used by the British one-worldists: "an international lender of last resort with the function of helping to stabilize prices and tackle speculation."
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