In the constant wheeling and dealing of the US Congress, recent long-overdue reforms to U.S. food aid are under threat from an unlikely source—a bill to modernize the U.S. Coast Guard.
Earlier this year, I wrote about some significant positive changes made in the world’s largest food aid program, USAID. A key part of these changes was the increased ability to purchase food locally or regionally, rather than sending it from the U.S.—a lengthy and expensive operation.
Despite these positive changes, a substantial part of the U.S. food aid program is still based on sending food from the U.S.
Furthermore, half of this food aid still had to be shipped in private U.S.-owned and -staffed ships, at a cost well above international rates.
Now, as part of a bill to modernize the U.S. Coast Guard, these same ship owners have inserted a provision into the bill that now 75%–not 50%, as before–of U.S.-sourced food aid must be shipped in these vessels.
The impact of this is huge – an additional US$75 million in freight costs. That’s approximately twice the value of the entire annual Foodgrains Bank food aid program.
This is really a double whammy. Two years ago Congress removed a provision that these extra freight costs would be covered by the Maritime Administration – meaning that the aid program would have to cut back to cover them.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is campaigning to have this change defeated. It is being joined in this effort by Bread for the World, a highly respected American inter-church organization which, like the Foodgrains Bank, advocates for the ending of hunger.
Bread for the World is making U.S. food aid reform the focus of their 2014 Harvest of Letters.
