Hunger in the World

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 6:42 pm on 9 May 1983.

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Photo of Sir Brandon Rhys Williams Sir Brandon Rhys Williams , Kensington and Chelsea Kensington 6:42, 9 May 1983

We are one of the countries that are increasing their milk production. That is an embarrassing fact when we criticise the surplus of dairy products in the Common Market. Britain has not solved its problems any better than have other countries. I do not think that farmers in Derbyshire would resist the idea of producing timber if they thought that it would provide satisfactory support for their families in the long run. If one must persuade people to go into timber, one must show them that they can depend on 50 or 60 years of consistent price support so that they do not discover halfway through that they are stranded without means of financial support from their land.

We import large volumes of timber into the Community. When it comes to the disposal of the dairy surplus, we simply do not know how to dump the byproducts of milk production without embarrassing our friends. We must therefore take a long look at problems in the Community and put them in the context of world demand for food in the long run. We must make long-term plans for agriculture. Trying to deal on an ad hoc basis from year to year in the context of the annual budget in the European Community is not producing results. I hope that the Government will seek to make serious contributions to long-term thinking about European agriculture in the context of world demand. When I say long-term I do not speak of five or 10-year programmes. We must make projections of supply and demand over half a century if we are to make useful reforms in our agricultural system that will not ultimately prove to have been a waste of money.

I shall say a few words about the food shortage in developing countries, because it is an emotive subject. Many people in Kensington are deeply concerned about it and feel that it is against their normal principles to enjoy the benefits of ample supplies of food when they know from television, the press and their own examination of the world scene how many people are destitute or even dying of hunger every day. The world produces about 200,000 more people every day. I suppose that it is better to have a surplus of food in Europe than a shortage. If one projects that expansion in the size of population over a few years, it might seem that we shall soon need every ounce of grain and pint of milk that we can produce. But as the standard of living in developing countries increases, their inhabitants tend to have smaller families and their productivity increases, and therefore those countries which are now so desperately short of food—in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere — may in time reach a balance through the natural forces in their economies. However, we should be seen to be helping them in every possible way.

The Lomé convention is one of the best measures introduced in the European Community since Britain joined, but it has its deficiencies. It could give better value for money and improve in several ways Europe's contribution to the solution of the problems of the developing countries. First, it should be extended, and now is the right time to do that. We should not concentrate only on the major former dependencies of France and Britain, but we should look ahead to that time—I hope that it will come soon—when Spain and Portugal join the Community. They, too, have links with Spanish and Portugese-speaking areas in Latin America, Africa and the far east.

We should prepare a second Lomé convention that will embody in treaty form the relationship that we eventually want to strike up between the European Community and the Spanish and Portugese-speaking countries. We must make a long-term commitment to the Lomé convention. I do not necessarily suggest that we increase our payments under the Lomé convention, but we should enable those who plan its expenditure to think about programmes that will last 10, 15 or 20 years. Capitalism depends on the ability to make long-term plans with the reasonable certainty that they will bear fruit and prove to be right. Continuity of policy is therefore essential if our contribution to the Lomé convention is to be well spent.

To use the formula that many hon. Members use in speeches on the subject of food aid, "When a man is hungry it is better to teach him how to fish than to give him a fish". I would like to advocate once again my recommendation, which I have argued with Mr. Pisani in the Commission and with Ministers of the British Government, of the concept of the world university of the air. The opportunities for the transmission of ideas by satellite will soon be so numerous and widely spread that there will be a shortage of useful programmes to occupy the time available for sending out sound and sight messages by satellite all over the world. Europe must not be behind in coming forward with programmes that can be transmitted by satellite, and received all over the world, and that will be of real use to those who receive them.

I do not know how long it will be before millions of people will have acquired cheap facilities to receive sound and television broadcasts from satellites. When one considers the speed with which the Japanese develop new products, make them cheaper, market them and get them absorbed all over the world, we realise that even during the 1980s facilities will be available to establish a world university of the air.

That objective should be adopted by the Lomé convention, and would be in the long term a much more fruitful use of the money that Mr. Pisani is recommending the European Parliament and member states to spend on food aid. It would teach people how to make the best of their opportunities instead of becoming increasingly dependent on gifts of food and programmes introduced on a year-to-year basis from countries that remain technologically far superior.

Large cadres of people in the developing countries should be trained in the technology that will enable them to help themselves. We should prepare simple programmes in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and other languages for regular transmission by satellite, and we should prepare tutorials to be used by the training establishments, schools and universities of the developing countries to allow students to make better use of the tapes.

The BBC language services are already being followed by millions of people, and we already have a successful Open university in Britain. It could be said that we have mastered the technique of tuition through radio transmission. Europe should seize that idea and use it for the benefit of the developing world.

Those are my recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the money that we spend through the Lomé convention. The proposal before us is modest and it would be churlish to criticise it. The House should approve the Commission's proposal, but it should return to the subject again and again.