The US Presidential World Food and Nutrition Study and Commission on World Hunger: Lessons for the United States and other Countries

In this paper I will first examine the results of the World Food and Nutrition Study (WFNS) established by President Ford and delivered to President Carter (WFNS, 1977) and of the Commission on World Hunger (CWH) which was commissioned by President Carter and delivered to him (CWH, 1980). I also consider an educational effort to make American academic and religious circles more aware of problems associated with food, agriculture, and world hunger. In the second main section of the paper, I examine a fundamental underlying difficulty encountered in these efforts. In the second section, I will also present reasons for hope concerning American information systems and decision processes with respect to food, agricultural development and trade. The third main section deals with current issues about the American role in international food aid and the promotion of development. The fourth and last section deals with the methodological lessons from the first three sections for the research work which agricultural economists do on food, nutrition and agriculture in countries around the world.