The purpose of this article is to shine a light on a very important matter called international food aid and why the “Food for Peace” program should be placed under the direction of the U,S. Department of Agriculture rather than the State Department.
It is true that the State Department has its own program to provide immediate food aid to a country in dire need. It is also true that the State Department is probably one of the first departments, if not the first, to hear of countries in imminent danger from some kind of peril, but once initial aid is provided, USDA should be called into action as it is best suited to cover and oversee situations that may develop into long term scenarios.
For many years I have had the pleasure to represent American farmers, specifically wheat farmers, with not only promoting wheat internationally but also promoting food aid to countries in need. I am on a U.S. Wheat committee for food aid and have met with both USDA and U.S. Agency for International Development, sometimes with both organizations together. When meeting with both organizations together the main conversation centered around “Food for Peace”, a USAID program, and “Food for Progress” and the McGovern-Dole program, both USDA programs.
The primary question about the programs was how they could work together more efficiently to promote food aid for needy countries. All programs create lists of countries in need, or of people displaced. Because of budget limitations, usually limits for transportation, some of the countries cannot be helped. Those countries at the bottom of the list are left out.
When speaking to USDA and USAID it became apparent that food aid could be no doubt handled more efficiently if the programs shared information and were handled by one entity together. It also became obvious that taxpayer monies could be better spent by purchasing U.S. commodities rather than providing funds to needy countries allowing them to purchase locally. This procedure under USAID opens the program up to corruption.
Food aid is necessary to help curb hunger in our world, but also to create more stable societies. The people of the United States are very generous and strive to try to alleviate hunger whenever possible. The goals of our people to curb hunger will have a better chance of being met if USAID is handled under the umbrella of USDA.
Ron Suppes is a wheat farmer from Dighton, Kansas.
