Message-ID: <ade3521300021004d112@[132.203.21.30]> Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1996 13:02:43 -0500 From: Jean-Charles Le Vallee <mailto:aaa183@AGORA.ULAVAL.CA> Subject: World Food Summit discussion group To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
NORTH AMERICAN FORUM - PREPARATION FOR THE WORLD FOOD SUMMIT
To subscribe to the internet discussion group, write to mailto:fao50@grr.ulaval.ca
This message has been cross-posted to multiple discussion lists. We
apologize to readers who have seen it more than once. Feel free to cross
this message to RELEVANT lists (please let me know about other lists of
interest). Si vous avez des questions, n'hesitez pas a m'ecrire! Si tienen
preguntas, no duden en comunicar conmigo!
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
how to receive 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 11th 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. This electronic forum is a joint
undertaking of the Departement d'Economie Rurale, Universite Laval (Quebec)
and the Department
of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University. With internet
capabilities, you may subscribe to this electronic discussion group by
sending a email to mailto:fao50@grr.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 Laval University's website
(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
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: (800-432-4417)
-- via Internet at: mailto:agecfs1@pilot.msu.edu
Websites
Information on the 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 not have Word Perfect so long
as you have Windows) you can access the joint North American
paper on 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) internet forum on food security:
This is where the Departement d'Economie Rurale (Agricultural Economics
Department) at Universite Laval will be operating a webpage discussion
group wherein the joint Canadian and US positions will be summarized, put
on the webpage, 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 (english
version) (106 Kbytes) or the Publication Conjointe Canada-Etats-Unis
(french version) (127 Kbytes) 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. (Note: These
documents are presented in Adobe Acrobat format, and you must have the
Adobe Acrobat Reader software in order to view or print them. This
software is available free of charge; you can download it from the Adobe
Web Site. Be sure to read the brief installation instructions on their
download page, or, if you need more detailed instructions, look for their
link to "About Adobe Acrobat Reader", also on the download page. Finally,
if you need help setting up Acrobat to work with your Web browser, see
Adobe's instructions about configuring helper applications.)
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.
--
Jean-Charles Le Vallee <mailto:aaa183@agora.ulaval.ca>
Internet Forum on Food Security Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada
Http://fao50.fsaa.ulaval.ca/ Website Editor
To subscribe to the forum, write to: mailto:fao50@grr.ulaval.ca
International Association of Food and Agribusiness Economy
(Association Internationale d'Economie Alimentaire et Agro-Industrielle,AIEA2)
Http://fao50.fsaa.ulaval.ca/aiea2/ Website Editor
ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-ÿ-