Founded in 1945, the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) plays a key role in global efforts to
alleviate poverty and hunger by promoting agricultural
development, improved nutrition, and the pursuit of food
security—defined as "the access of all people at all times to
the food they need for an active and healthy life."
The FAO is one of the largest UN agencies, with 180 member
countries. It lists as a key element in its efforts
"encouraging sustainable agriculture and rural development, a
long-term strategy for increasing food production and food
security while conserving and managing natural resources."
In recent years, however, the Japanese government has used
the FAO's good name as a backdoor means of trying to garner
support for the resumption of commercial whaling. In 1995, for
example, Japan used the FAO's International Conference on
Sustainable Contributions of Fisheries to Food Security to
promote the resumption of commercial whaling. Japan claimed
that all FAO members would be eligible to participate, but then
rejected the credentials of a nongovernmental organization with
valid FAO status because it was opposed to whaling.
What's more, the Japanese government pushed through approval
of an FAO study to examine the interaction between whales and
fish. The study's stated goal: to prove that whales are the
cause of fishery depletion problems and that commercial whaling
should resume.
