The Hot Springs Conference, also referred to as the Food and Agriculture Conference and officially known as the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture, was held from 18 May to 3 June 1943, in

Hot Springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

, Virginia, in the United States. Its primary function was the creation of the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...

, the first functional organization of what would later become the United Nations.

History

The primary mover of progress towards and at the conference was Frank L. McDougall, economic advisor to the Australian High Commission and previously a long-time activist for agricultural and nutritional issues at the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

. Attached to the Australian legation in Washington, McDougall managed to approach US Vice President Henry A. Wallace and subsequently the President and First Lady, Franklin and

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...

, about the advantages of his ideas in regards to postwar agricultural issues. The conference opened on 18 May 1943. All countries that were then members of the United Nations (established through the

Declaration by United Nations The Declaration by United Nations was the main treaty that formalized the Allies of World War II and was signed by 47 national governments between 1942 and 1945. On 1 January 1942, during the Arcadia Conference in Washington D.C., the Allied " B ...

, 1 January 1942), plus an observer from

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, were in attendance. The conference set the outlines for what would become the

(FAO), which was subsequently inaugurated on 16 October 1945, and took up its headquarters in the office of the International Institute for Agriculture (IIA) in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Members of the

Axis powers The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...

were not invited;

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

's state newspaper, the '' Völkischer Beobachter'', reported on 21 May 1943, that the Hot Springs Conference was an Allied ploy to place global food supplies under the control of the major Allied states, making the Hot Springs Conference, in Nazi parlance, an attempted "anchoring of the political dictatorship of Wall Street Jews all over the world". The ''Völkischer Beobachter'' repeated its attacks (always paired with antisemitic rhetoric) on the Hot Springs Conference over several articles and into June 1943. The Hot Springs Conference stands in a greater context of Allied and United Nations conferences about the establishment of postwar infrastructure; other such meetings were held at Geneva in 1947 to establish the

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its p ...

(GATT) and at Havana in 1948 to establish the Havana Charter. The Hot Springs Conference's focus on postwar humanitarian relief preparations is also reflected in the preparations, starting in 1943, for the establishment of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA).

References

Literature

* {{Cite journal , last=Evang , first=K. , date=September 1944 , title=The United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture, Hot Springs, Virginia, 18th May–3rd June, 1943 , journal=Proceedings of the Nutrition Society , volume=2 , issue=3–4 , pages=163–176 , doi=10.1079/PNS19440010, doi-access=free World War II conferences Food and Agriculture Organization 1940s in food 1943 conferences 1943 in international relations 1943 in Virginia