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What's Cooking at the UN? Cookbooks, Food Programs and Policies of the United Nations

Last Updated: 24-Oct-2013

This topic guide supplements the UN Day 2013 Exhibit and Program at the Green Library.

On exhibit are materials from the Library's special and general collections highlight each of the major food programs of the United Nations: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); as well as items from these programs' precursor, the International Institute of Agriculture, founded by David Lubin.

The United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, when the Charter had been ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and by a majority of other signatories. United Nations Day is celebrated on 24 October each year.

World Food Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO) at the Organization's Twentieth General Conference in November 1979. The date chosen - 16 October - is the anniversary of FAO's founding in 1945.

Subject Librarians

Kris Kasianovitz
Government Information Librarian, State, Local and International Documents
Cecil H. Green Library
(650) 723-2851
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Elga Zalite
Bibliographic Assistant to the Curator for Slavic and Eastern European Collections
Cecil H. Green Library
(650) 724-2584

Subjects

International government organizations
International relations and politics
Public policy

Around Stanford

Stanford Center on Food Security and the Environment
Food Research Institute (History)
United Nations Association Film Festival

UN Day

On 31 October 1947, the UN General Assembly, adopted Resolution A/RES/168 (II), declaring October 24, the annivesary of the UN Charter, as UN Day.

UN Day Official Page
UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/168 (II)
UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/2782 (XXVI)
6 December 1971 UN Proclamation declaring UN Day an international holiday.
UN Charter

Bibliography and Overviews

Elga Zalite, Bibliographic Assistant for Government Information, researched and compiled the two overviews of the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program. They provide a history, a list of significant accomplishments, as well as some of the criticisms of the programs. 

The Bibliography contains citations to the materials in the Green Library Lobby cases; and were also consulted for the overviews.

UN Day 2013 Exhibit Bibliography
FAO Overview
WFP Overview

Four Freedoms

President Franklin Roosevelt introduced the world to the Four Freedoms  in his 6 January 1941 State of the Union Address -- Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.  These freedoms became the foundation for the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with Article 25 specifically stating, "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."


The titles listed below provide a sample of the titles in the Library's collections dealing with the Freedom from Want.

› See all 46 results
  1. Freedom from want

    Edward Gresser. 2007

  2. Freedom from want : the human right to adequate food

    George Kent ; foreword by Jean Ziegler. 2005

  3. Freedom from want : American liberalism and the idea of the consumer

    Kathleen G. Donohue. 2003

  4. Freedom from want : the remarkable success story of BRAC, the global grassroots organization that's winning the fight against poverty

    Ian Smillie. 2009

  5. Towards freedom from want

    Editors: Sar A. Levitan, Wilbur J. Cohen [and] Robert J. Lampman. 1968

IIA and David Lubin

The International Institute of Agriculture (IIA) was founded in Rome in 1905 by the King of Italy with the intent of creating a clearinghouse for collection of agricultural statistics.  It was created primarily due to the efforts of David Lubin. In 1930, the IIA published the first world agricultural census. After World War II, both its assets and mandate were handed over to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Institute_of_Agriculture)

David Lubin, considered the founder of the IIA, was a merchant and agriculturist who settled in the Sacramento area.  The Hoover Library and Archives has a collection of his papers, and the FAO Library in Rome is named the David Lubin Memorial Library in honor of him.

› See all 214 results
  1. David Lubin; a study in practical idealism

    by Olivia Rossetti Agresti. 1941

  2. David Lubin; a study in practical idealism

    by Olivia Rossetti Agresti. 1941

  3. David Lubin : a study in practical idealism

    by Olivia Rossetti Agresti. 1922

  4. David Lubin; a study in practical idealism

    by Olivia Rossetti Agresti. 1922

  5. David Lubin papers, 1899-1944
  6. Steadying the world's price of the staples. An international commerce commission on ocean freight rates

    Resolutions passed by the Congress of the United States, presented to the International Institute of Agriculture (February 27th, 1915). 1915

  7. International yearbook of agricultural statistics
  8. International institute of agriculture at Rome
  9. Les questions agricoles au point de vue international
  10. Notes presented to the second meeting of the Economic Consultative Committee of the League of nations (6 May 1929) : With 3 appendices (in French): (1) Documents relating to international agricultural credit; (2) Documentation on the International Diplomatic Convention for Plant Protection; (3) Legislation on the trade in plants in various countries

FAO

The FAO was founded 16 October 1945 in Quebec City, Canada. The FAO motto is fiat panis or "let there be bread". 

Their mandate "is to improve nutrition, increase agricultural productivity, raise the standard of living in rural populations and contribute to global economic growth." They accomplish this through a variety of programs, working relationships with other IGOs and NGOs, and through research and analysis to set policies and standards.

› See all 2500 results
  1. Annual forest products market review
  2. Development education exchange papers : DEEP
  3. Exports of cereals by source and destination = Exportations de céréales par provenace et destination = Exportaciones de cereales por origen y destino

    Basic Foodstuff Service, Commodities and Trade Division. 20th century

  4. FAO commodity review
  5. Fisheries biology technical papers
  6. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations : report of the New Zealand Delegation
  7. Food outlook
  8. Food outlook
  9. Forestry occasional paper
  10. Nature et faune : revue internationale pour la conservation de la nature en Afrique = Wildlife and nature : international journal on nature conservation in Africa

WFP

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food assistance branch of the UN, delivering food releif packages to areas struck by famine, drought, or other events that prevent people from producing or obtaining enought food for themselves and their families. WFP was established in 1961 as a three year experiment to "find a way to deliver food surpluses to food-deficient peoples of the United Nations system." UN Resolution A/RES/1714(XVI)  In 1965 the WFP was extended on a continuuing basis and is considered one of the world's largest humanitarian organizations addressing hunger.

› See all 81 results
  1. World Food Programme : [report].
  2. Annual report

    World Food Programme. 1993

  3. The World Food Programme's year in review
  4. Memoria anual
  5. Annual report

    WFP Afghanistan. 2000s

  6. Memoria

    Programa Mundial de Alimentos, Bolivia. 2000s

  7. Annual report

    World Food Programme. 1998

  8. Annual report
  9. Report on the World Food Program by the executive director
  10. Employment through food aid.

UN Cookbooks

Cookbooks from the United Nations, part of the Dawn Nicolosi Powell Collection of Regional and Ethnic American Cookbooks.

United Nations Women[']s Guild cook book : a collection of international recipes / divider ill., Maria Davelaar.
Kansas City, Mo. : Circulation Service ; [New York : distributed by United Nations Women's Guild], c1977.
SAL3 (off-campus storage) » Use restricted to Special Collections » TX725 .A1 U558 1977
The cookbook of the United Nations : 250 authentic recipes from 111 countries / comp. and edited by Barbara Kraus.
[New York] : United Nations Association of the United States of America, [1965]
SAL3 (off-campus storage) » Use restricted to Special Collections » TX725 .A1 K7383 1965
The cookbook of the United Nations : [350 recipes from the 126 member nations of the UN] / comp. Barbara Kraus.
Rev. and updated ed. New York : Simon and Schuster, [1970]
SAL3 (off-campus storage) » Use restricted to Special Collections » TX725 .A1 K7383 1970
United Nations Women's Guild cook book : a collection of international recipes / divider ill., Eliza Chrystie.
Rev. ed. Memphis, Tenn. : Wimmer Brothers ; New York : distributed by United Nations Women's Guild], c1992.
SAL3 (off-campus storage) » Use restricted to Special Collections » TX725 .A1 U545 1992
Could I have your recipe? : a cookbook of international recipes / collected for the benefit of and published by the the United Nations Nursery School, Geneva, Switzerland.
3rd. ed. Geneva : United Nations Nursery School, 1957.
SAL3 (off-campus storage) » Stacks » TX725 .A1 C6855 1957
Good food from far and wide / editors, Deirdre Stanforth ... [et al.] ; art by Tony Walton.
New York : United Nations International School, c1975.
SAL3 (off-campus storage) » Use restricted to Special Collections » TX725 .A1 G6644 1975
The potato around the world in 200 recipes : an international cookbook / recipes collected by Florence Lebras.
New York : United Nations, 2008.
SAL1&2 (on-campus shelving) » Stacks » TX803 .P8 P68 2008

UN Resources

In addition to the publications from the various UN Food Programs, the UN itself publishes materials on the issues of food security, hunger, sustainable agriculture, etc. Below are some of the major databases and references works on these topics.

Historical dictionary of the international food agencies : FAO, WFP, WFC, IFAD
Key resource that provides an overview of the four major food agencies; includes a chronology, brief history of each. This source was used heavily for the exhibit.
World Food Security: A History since 1945
Excellent source covering the history of the UN Food Programmes and food security in the context of food crises and international food conferences.
Yearbook of the United Nations
The best place to start your research no matter what the topic. The UN Yearbook contains thematic articles as well as discussuions of the UN Bodies' work for the year. Included are citations and often full reproductions of the official records and working documents (mastheads).  The SSRC Reading Room has a complete set in print in addition to the online and CD-ROM versions..
Access UN
A commerical index by Readex provides access to current and retrospective United Nations documents and publications. The Stanford library has a complete set of the Readex UN Microfiche located in the basement of Green.  The microfiche collection supplements the print collection of Official Records, located on W2 of Green.
UNBISnet: United Nations Bibliographic System
Catalogue of United Nations(UN) documents and publications indexed by the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library and the Library of the UN Office at Geneva. Also included are commercial publications and other non-UN sources held in the collection of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library.UNBISnet also provides instant access to a growing number of full text resources in the six official languages of the UN (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish), including resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Security Council from 1946 onward. Includes an index to speeches and UN Voting Records.
UN Official Document System (ODS)
The electronic repository for official documents published by the United Nations. Comprehensive, though not complete, coverage of all types of publicly-available UN documentation starting in the early to mid-1990s. Categories of documents included are: Resolutions going back to 1946 (Security Council, General Assembly, Economic and Social Council and Trusteeship Council); Selected Security Council and General Assembly documents going back to 1985; Meeting records; Daily journals; and bulletins. Not included in ODS: UN sales publications; UN public information materials; UN press releases and briefings; UN Treaty Series; and some documents that are not publicly released.
UN Library Research Guides and Resources
Compiled and written by the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library staff, these guides are the best resource for doing research on or about the UN and its bodies. Guides are arranged by topic, e.g. Human Rights, as well as by specific document types, e.g. Voting Records.