Demand Changes in US Food Aid Policies
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Tell Congress: Improve Food Aid Policy
Each year, millions of tons of food are shipped around the world from the United States to respond to crises caused by droughts, conflicts and severe poverty. While there is little doubt that this food aid has saved countless lives, it is also clear that the US program is enormously inefficient. Find out how you can help bring about sensible and efficient food aid.
Each year, millions of tons of food are shipped around the world from the United States to respond to crises caused by droughts, conflicts and severe poverty. While there is little doubt that this food aid has saved countless lives, it is also clear that the US program is enormously inefficient. The system in which food is purchased, packaged and shipped by US agribusinesses was designed over 50 years ago when the US had abundant food surpluses to dispose of. A recent study by the US Government Accountability Office found that rising business and shipping costs have meant that the volume of food aid delivered over the last five years has fallen by more than 50 percent.
ActionAid sees this food aid system as a costly subsidy to US companies, and a significant disincentive to local production in poor countries. There is a better way to provide food aid. Deliveries of in-kind food aid can undercut local farmers’ crop sales, especially when they arrive late, after a new harvest. Changing the way that US food aid is purchased would make a huge difference for food aid recipients in countries around the world.
When foreign assistance dollars are used to purchase available food in the country experiencing a crisis, or in a nearby country, food aid providers can deliver more food, more quickly, to those who need it most. Local or regional purchase also means that recipient governments would not be compelled to accept genetically modified or culturally inappropriate foods. And over the long term, local or regional procurement encourages local farmers to build up production levels, and supports regional economic development as well. ActionAid supports the Bush Administration’s proposal that up to 25% of non-emergency food aid assistance should be used to purchase food in recipient or neighboring countries, not in the US. When this proposal did not get the support it needed in the House of Representatives, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) proposed a pilot program that allocates $25 million a year for four years to test local and regional purchases of food aid in the 2007 Farm Bill. Both ideas were supported by many US family-farm, religious and development organizations.
These reform measures face stiff opposition from the agribusiness lobby that profits from current food aid policies. But that doesn’t mean the issue is going away. ActionAid has shown when the European Union shifted its food aid to local and regional support, funding levels were maintained and the system became more efficient. We have brought together US family-farm, development and faith-based organizations to press for changes in food aid programs.
Now ActionAid needs you to add your voice to demand for sensible, efficient and productive reforms to US food aid policy. Contact Members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees before they negotiate the final compromise version of the Farm Bill to demand that they fully implement and monitor the pilot program for local and regional food aid purchase.
