United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

• DATE: Established 1945

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that spearheads international efforts against hunger. The FAO serves as an informational network, shares policy expertise among member nations, provides a neutral forum for negotiations, and oversees field projects that help developing countries modernize and improve agriculture, forestry, and fishery practices.

Background

In 1943, at the behest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, representatives from forty-four governments met in Hot Springs, Virginia, to discuss the formation of a permanent international organization to deal with world problems of food and agriculture. World War II not only had disrupted trade in agricultural products and damaged agriculturally productive areas, but also had diverted fertilizer, pesticide, and farm-machinery factories to wartime uses or destroyed them outright. The Hot Springs meeting led to the First Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization Conference, held in Quebec City, Canada, in the fall of 1945. During the conference, on October 16, 1945—six weeks after the formal surrender of Japan and eight days before the UN charter entered into force—the FAO was established in Washington, DC. In 1951, the organization moved its headquarters to Rome, Italy.

Impact on Resource Use

In its early years, the FAO focused on addressing postwar food shortages. It also collected and published food-related statistics and supplied its members with technical assistance, such as literature, seeds, equipment, and localized training facilities. In the early 1960s, as an influx of newly independent nations changed the face of the FAO, the organization channeled a greater portion of its financial resources into field programs that benefited developing countries.

In 1960, the FAO launched its Freedom from Hunger campaign, which sought to raise awareness of world hunger and malnutrition. The campaign was an unprecedented mobilization of UN agencies, governments, nongovernmental organizations, other groups, private industry, and individuals to respond to the problem of hunger on a nation-by-nation basis.

In 1961, the FAO teamed up with the United Nations to establish the World Food Programme (WFP) for distributing surplus food to needy populations. Although the WFP was not scheduled to begin operations until early 1963, food crises brought on by an earthquake in Iran, a hurricane in Thailand, and a deluge of refugees returning to a newly independent Algeria spurred the fledgling program to provide its first food assistance in the fall of 1962.

In 1986, the FAO launched AGROSTAT, a comprehensive source of international agricultural statistics. Afterward, AGROSTAT evolved into FAOSTAT, a multilingual computer database that includes statistical information on agricultural resources, forestry, fisheries, food prices, food consumption, agricultural production, and trade.

In 1994, the FAO established its Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases. EMPRES was created to contain highly contagious animal diseases and agricultural pests at an early stage, before widespread losses could result.

The FAO Conference of 2001 adopted the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, an agreement supporting sustainable agriculture through the equitable sharing of plant genetic material among farmers, plant breeders, and research institutions. The treaty entered into force in 2004 and, by the mid-2020s, had been ratified by more than 150 parties.

Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, the FAO continued to address global food insecurity amid challenges such as climate change, armed conflict, economic disruption, and population growth. In addition to responding to acute food shortages, the organization emphasized reducing rural poverty, strengthening resilient agricultural systems, and promoting sustainable land and water management. FAO initiatives during this period increasingly aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to zero hunger, climate action, and sustainable development, while encouraging governments to invest in long-term food system resilience.

In the early 2020s, the FAO also adopted its Strategic Framework 2022–31, which aligned the organization’s work with the United Nations 2030 Agenda and emphasized the transformation of agrifood systems to improve efficiency, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability.

Bibliography

"About FAO." United Nations, 2024, www.fao.org/about/about-fao/en/. Accessed 29 Dec. 2024.

"Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)." United Nations, July 2023, sdgs.un.org/un-system-sdg-implementation/food-and-agriculture-organization-fao-54096. Accessed 19 Dec. 2025.

"Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)." IISD, enb.iisd.org/organisations/food-and-agriculture-organization-un-fao. Accessed 29 Dec. 2024.

"UN System Documentation." United Nations, 2024, research.un.org/en/docs/unsystem/fao. Accessed 29 Dec. 2024.