Message-ID: <199606101541315591.webermi@pilot.msu.edu> Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 15:41:18 -0600 From: "Michael T. Weber" <mailto:webermi@PILOT.MSU.EDU> Subject: Flash-Notice of Policy Forum-Please Post This Message To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Hi.Could you please distibute the message below to those in your office, or anyone else that might be interested in participating in this important food security policy making process. Given the importance of the issues and the desirability of gaining a field perspective to enlighten the debate, we hope that you will have time to participate in this, and that you can use electronic mail capabilities to facilitate the process. Cheers, Mike Weber
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- NORTH AMERICAN FORUM - PREPARATION FOR THE WORLD FOOD SUMMIT
As preparation for the upcoming World Food Summit, we would like to call to your attention a real-time forum and an internet discussion group to review and elicit public input to a draft North American technical paper on food security issues to be contributed by the United States and Canada to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) World Food Summit in Rome in November. The World Food Summit, scheduled for Nov. 13-17 in Rome, will address the global effects of chronic hunger and malnutrition and recommit world leaders to achieving food security for all people. The summit will address short- and long-term measures to increase food availability and ensure access to food by all people of the world in an era of rapid population growth, periodic natural and human-made crises, and the need to protect the environment.
The real-time North American forum, a joint effort of U.S. and Canadian federal governments, will be held June 24 and 25, 1996, in the Michigan State University (MSU) Union Ballroom. In attendance will be officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development and their Canadian counterparts.
The public is welcome to attend. Likewise, electronic media will permit world-wide participation in this forum. Instructions are given below on where to obtain the position paper via the WWW, as well as how to obtain telephone, WWW and internet contacts for contributing your ideas to this forum.
At the MSU forum, invited panel members from Canada and the US who are experienced in food security studies and programs will critique five sections of the draft North American document. Topics to be discussed include:
- developing a political, social and economic environment that enhances food security; - fostering sustainable domestic food system capacity; - implementing freer international trade; - improving food access to poor and vulnerable groups; - and mobilizing international efforts for monitoring and improving the food situation in low-income countries.
Public comment and questions from those in the audience at MSU and others watching satellite broadcasts (information on the coordinates of the satellite broadcast will be distributed later) of the forum are welcomed. MSU President Peter McPherson is scheduled to open the forum, which runs from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. June 24 and 8:30 to 12:30 p.m. June 25.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Preceding the MSU forum, from the 10th to the 21st of June, you are invited to participate in an electronic discussion group on the North- American proposal to be conducted via internet. With internet capabilities, you may subscribe to this electronic discussion group by completing the following:
Send an e-mail message consisting of the following single line:
Send This Message To: mailto:listserv@listes.ulaval.ca
You should subscribe to this internet group if you wish to receive mail and participate in the discussions by sending in your ideas and comments to the group. If you also have World Wide Web capabilities, you may simply navigate through the WWW and visit the website at http://fao50.fsaa.ulaval.ca/, and contribute to the discussions by filling out the available forms there. At the site, you will also be able to read what the others have sent in. A summary of the discussions on the internet will be presented at the real-time forum at MSU. Discussants may submit their comments in English, French, or Spanish.
During the real-time forum at MSU on the 24th and 25th, comments and questions can be submitted directly
via telephone at: (1-800-432-4417) via internet at: mailto:agecfs1@pilot.msu.edu
WEBSITES
Information on the MSU forum will also be available on various web sites.
1.USDA World Food Summit Page :
http://ffas.usda.gov//ffas//food_summit/summit.html
This is where the U.S. position paper can be found and where the joint North American paper, to be discussed at MSU, will be posted sometime after June 11. Note that it will be available here for downloading in Word Perfect 6.0/6.1 for Windows format. If you prefer Adobe Acrobat format (which allows you to view and print the document even if you do have Word Perfect so long as you have Windows) visit the MSU Food Security II project home page below.
2.FAO World Food Summit Page :
http://www.fao.org/WFS/AAASTART.HTM
This site provides background material on the World Food Summit as well as background technical papers prepared by FAO staff.
3.Universite Laval (Quebec) website on food security :
This is where the Departement d'Economie Rurale (Agricultural Economics Department) at Universite Laval will be operating a webpage and the discussion group wherein the joint Canadian and US positions will be summarized, put on the www, and later presented at the MSU Forum. If you have access to the WWW and wish to take part in this electronic discussion group before the deliberations on June 24 and 25, contact Laval at the above WWW address. Contributions can be made in English, French, or Spanish.
4.MSU Food Security II Home Page :
http://www.aec.msu.edu/agecon/fs2index.htm
This is where you can obtain the North American Position Paper in Adobe Acrobat format as well as obtain information about USAID- funded food security policy success stories under the MSU/USAID Food Security II Cooperative Agreement.
ATTENDING THE MSU FORUM
For specific information on attending the real-time MSU forum, contact Don Isleib, director of the Institute of International Agriculture, 324 Agriculture Hall, telephone (517) 355-0174.
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ease note new email address below!˙˙˙Michael T. Weber Phone: (517) 353-8639 Professor and Director, Food Fax: (517) 336-1800 Security II Cooperative Agreement Email: mailto:webermi@pilot.msu.edu Dept. Ag. Economics, Rm. 216 Ag. Hall Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙