User:Wombatsaregreat/Food and Agriculture Organization

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Criticism

Italics = not my writing, just editing

''In 2015, the FAO was criticized by The Economist for giving a diploma to Venezuela for being one of 72 countries that had "reached the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving the percentage of their populations suffering from hunger". It argued that the positive conclusion reached by FAO about the performance of a country experiencing major economic difficulties was based on false statistics and that the percentage of the Venezuelan population suffering from hunger had actually increased. It quoted FAO as saying that it had no reason to doubt the Venezuelan statistics.''

''In 2016/17 FAO was heavily criticized for recruiting Nadine Heredia Alarcón de Humala, wife of the former president of Peru, Ollanta Humala, to a senior position, at a time when she was being investigated by Peru following corruption allegations. Critics included Transparency International.''

''At the end of April 2017, FAO staff unions addressed the organization's Governing Council to complain about the practice of issuing short-term contracts that "exploit employees without providing job security, social security and paid leave". Other complaints included the increasing centralization of management processes, despite claims that FAO was being decentralized, and the failure to follow United Nations recommendations regarding increasing the retirement age. The staff representative also complained about the high percentage of unfilled positions, increasing the workload for others who were under pressure to deliver more with less. She also noted that contacts between Management and the staff bodies were becoming less and less frequent.''

2010s

In 2011, the FAO garnered criticism for its endorsement of agricultural biotechnology as "the key to achieving food security" in "developing countries" in a report published through the Research and Extension Branch, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). The report came after a 2010 conference, Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC-10), in Guadalajara, Mexico, co-sponsored by International Fund for Agricultural Development, and partnered by the CGIAR, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research, the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and the World Bank. With critics arguing the report had the capacity to affect the economic and cultural livelihoods of millions, the committee also garnered criticism for its makeup of stakeholders for agricultural biotechnology companies and privately owned firms, and a perceived lack of participation parity from small farmers discussed in the report. The report focuses on increasing farmers' maximal productivity through emphasis on GDP growth, diversifying livestock and crops through genetic modification in an effort to "use pro-poor agricultural biotechnologies for the benefit of the food insecure in their countries".

Further publications and statements, such as the FAO's 2011 "Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture" emphasize the need for genetically modified crops, integrating the global supply chain into calls for food security. However, critics say these transnational agrarian actions "tend to ignore local peasant understandings, needs, and organisations [sic] at their own peril."

2020s