Marcela Rebelo and Juliana Andrade
Reporters - Agência Brasil

Brasília – The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will only reduce hunger through a land reform program, says the vice president of the National Farm Workers Confederation (Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura) (Contag), Alberto Ercílio Broch [Contag is a kind of labor union for farm workers in Brazil and was established more than 40 years ago].

"The FAO mission is to discuss the problem of hunger in the world. As a matter of fact, one of the goals of the organization is to reduce hunger by half in the next 20 years. They will not reach that goal, they cannot reach that goal, if they do not extend the discussion to include land, territory and water," said Broch.

Speaking to Agencia Brasil just before the opening of the 2nd International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development which begins next week in Porto Alegre, Broch said the conference is the first discussion of the subject of hunger since a 1979 Rome meeting. "This is an opportunity to mobilize people and put hunger and land reform on the international agenda. At the same time we know very well that this conference by itself is not going to resolve the problem," he declared.

Broch explained that when he talked about land reform he was referring to a broad concept. "Land reform is linked to food sovereignty, sustainable development processes and access to natural resources. It also involves public policy and market access," he said.

The Contag vice president said the organization recognizes that the Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva administration has made progress in land reform, especially in the quality of land reform settlements. "However, we think the government should have done much more in the area of land distribution," he concluded.

Translation: Allen Bennett