UN General Assembly
1980

95. For years the world community has ignored the questions of food production and market access which are central to New Zealand's economic well-being. The group system of negotiation has effectively blocked our efforts to have these issues given greater priority. Now, it seems, they are beginning to receive due attention. There is a new awareness that it is all too easy to undermine the confidence of rural communities. No one knows this better than the developing countries which, during the past decade, have changed from being exporters to importers of food. More and more countries are coming to see that the double standards governing the international food trade have got to go. Unless that happens it will be an uphill battle to restore and sustain the confidence of farmers, and they are the people we look to if we are to feed the hungry of this world.