This article gives an historical account of the negotiations and fèatures of the three Food Aid Conventions of 1967, 1971 and 1980, which are milestones in international cooperation on food aid. The need for a Food Aid Convention arose in the early 1960s, a time of steep price rises and reduced availability of wheat, and the United States and Canada called for the increasing burden of food aid to be shared by other industrialised nations. The years covered by the second (1971) Convention saw the ‘world food crisis’, with falling stocks and rising prices. This experience, and new thinking during the 1970s on the role of food aid and world food security, were reflected in the third (1980) Convention, which set a higher target and tighter guidelines for donors.