Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on January 14, 2014

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti The idea that the delivery of American food aid needs an overhaul goes almost without question here in the capital of a nation still recovering from the devastating earthquake of four years ago.

Farmers in Haiti and many of their counterparts in the United States are joining foreign aid organizations calling on the United States to stop sending American crops to Haiti through what many critics say is the deeply flawed and wasteful strategy of the current, multi-billion-dollar US Department of Agriculture Food for Peace program.

"Unfortunately US policy doesnt consider first the political interests of farmers abroad, but of its own, said Camille Chalmers, director of a Haitian farmers association.

But now there is a chance to change that, he added.

A consensus has formed that something needs to be done to end the unintended consequence of food aid that actually ends up hurting some of the worlds most vulnerable people in developing nations like Haiti, where local farmers cant compete against less expensive US crops.

More from GlobalPost:New hospital encourages doctors to stay as Haiti continues to rebuild

The turning point in the debate over US food aid came when the US Agency for International Development (USAID)the entity that oversees foreign aidadmitted the program is flawed, urging Congress to permit the agency to send cash rather than food to nations in need. Agency officials believe they could feed 2 to 4 million more people per year if they were allowed to spend more of their budget on procuring food aid locally in the countries where it is needed (another study put the figure of additional beneficiaries even higher, at 4 to 10 million people).

In Washington, the proposed reforms have been gaining support among legislators on both sides of the aisle: Democrats who defend US foreign aid spending and want to see the money stretch further, and Republicans concerned foremost with fiscal responsibility want to tighten up a wasteful program. Several libertarian-leaning think tanks including The Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute and Taxpayers for Common Sense support cash over food because it gives individuals in developing nations the ability choose for themselves what sorts of food to buy.

Even American farmerswho ostensibly have the most to lose if the program were to cease purchasing US cropshave come out in favor of the reforms, led by a letter from the president of the National Farmers Union.

President Barack Obama proposed an even more radical reform: removing food aid from the Farm Bill altogether, placing it instead in the international disaster assistance budget and two other funds so as to avoid the Title II restrictions entirely.

More:
In Haiti, all eyes on US to reform 'unjustifiable' food aid program

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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