We recently received a reference question from a researcher who was trying to find information about the legacy left to FAO by Addeke Boerma, FAO's Director General from 1968- 1975.
Boerma was Director General during an interesting time for our organization, which was also a critical moment in the history of food security. He presided over FAO during the food crisis of the 1970s, as a response to which FAO hosted the first World Food Conference. The World Food Conference led to the founding of the World Food Council, and galvanized international attention on the subject of food security.
In his last public speech in the role of Director General, Boerma said that he was, "not satisfied with the progress being made on the food problem. But neither am I discouraged."
The library has a collection of all Director General speeches, amongst which are the following 3, that correspond to this researcher's question.
We also received assistance from our colleagues in the FAO archives, who supplied us with this "history card" of information pertaining to this director general:
We supplied this to the researcher, along with a scanned copy of FAO in the front line of development, which was written by subsequent Director General, Edouard Saouma (1976-1993).
