Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 99 Part 2.djvu/993

 PROCLAMATION 5393—OCT. 16, 1985 During the holiday season, I call upon all Americans to join in partnership with others to help provide food for those who are in need. The agriculture and food industries, churches, civic and fraternal organizations, corporations, and nonprofit groups can each play a vital role in reaching out to their fellow Americans. Let the caring and sharing that stems from private sector initiatives reach out across this great land of ours like the warming rays of dawn and bring to all the blessings of compassion and goodwill, to those who give as much as to those who receive. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the forthcoming holiday season to be a time in which partnerships are forged under OPERATION: Care and Share. Further, I proclaim that November 25, 1985, should be a day upon which each of us should focus upon our fellow citizens and collect and distribute food to those in need. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and tenth. RONALD REAGAN

Proclamation 5393 of October 16, 1985

World Food Day, 1985 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation One of the most encouraging results of World Food Day, which the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO] of the United Nations inaugurated in 1980, has been the rising tempo of public interest in the world food situation. Last year in the United States alone, millions of people in more than 3,000 communities participated in a wide variety of World Food Day activities. Yet even this great outpouring paled before the American response to the terrible famine in Africa, especially in Ethiopia and Sudan. For many years, the United States has shared its agricultural abundance and technical expertise with nations in need. We have led the effort to alleviate world hunger. Yet it is clear that charitable assistance in the form of emergency food deliveries, no matter how extensive, treats only the symptoms of malnourishment, not the causes. The persistent problem of underfed people has deep roots that unfortunately are too often nourished by government policies that discourage economic growth and progress, put obstacles in the way of international trade, and inhibit a free market system. Governments dictate urban food prices at the expense of farmer income, and the farmer's judgement on the type of crops to plant and harvest is ignored. Although some American farmers have recently suffered economic reverses, this Nation has not wavered in its commitment to aid the developing nations of the world to improve their agricultural methods and to provide food relief during emergencies. Our assistance has paid dividends to the recipient countries. Since 1954, when the Eisenhower Food For Peace program

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Part 2

99 STAT. 2103

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