>***** Food is not a human right
>
>...[I]n 1982 and 1983, the US was alone in voting against a
>declaration that education, work, health care, proper nourishment
>and national development are human rights. It would appear that
>even 13 years later, official American attitudes had not "softened".
>In 1996, at a United Nations-sponsored World Food Summit, the US
>took issue with an affirmation by the summit of the "right of
>everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food". The United
>States insisted that it does not recognize a "right to food".
>Washington instead championed free trade as the key to ending the
>poverty at the root of hunger, and expressed fears that recognition
>of a "right to food" could lead to lawsuits from poor nations
>seeking aid and special trade provisions. [2]
>
>[2] _Washington Post_, November 18, 1996
>
>(William Blum, _Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only
>Superpower_, Monroe, Maine, Common Courage Press, 2000, p. 198)
>*****
>--
>Yoshie
>
-- Marta Russell Los Angeles, CA www.disweb.org