50% Drop in U.S. World Food Aid Over 5 Years; Now "Biofuels "Shock" Is Hitting

May 25 (LPAC)--From 2001 to 2006, there has been a 52% drop in the average tonnage of international food aid delivered by the United States, which is the largest donor worldwide, accounting for nearly half of all aid. Also, over the same time period, the Bush/Cheney Administration has shifted U.S. aid from being general, long-term help--the traditional mission of Food for Peace since 1954, to being predominately emergency-use food relief. This has contributed to the incidence of severe, localized food shortages in Africa and elsewhere. These changes are part of the overall worsening of malnourishment and hunger, in which an estimated 820 to 850 million people worldwide are in this condition, up from 819 million over 10 years ago, when the U.S. World Food Summit pledged to reduce these numbers. The extent of AIDS in Southern Africa now, is itself constituting a food security crisis.

These food relief problems were the underlying reasons for the May 24 House of Representatives hearing titled, "International Food Aid Programs: Options to Enhance Effectiveness," held by the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Ranking Minority Member Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) said that there are situations in Africa where HIV patients are well supplied with anti-retroviral medications, but are short of food. They are being told "to wait" for weeks or even months, until food will arrive.

Now, the biofuels craze is poised to cause a phase shift to far worse food shortages, as grain and oil crops are being extensively diverted to ethanol and biodiesel in leading farm regions around the globe, including the corn belt of South Africa. This comes on top of the fact that world stocks (reserves, or "carryover" from harvest to harvest), are sinking way below danger levels. Grain stocks will be down 20 percent at the end of the current crop cycle, compared with three years ago, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture projection (May 11 report).

Passing reference to the "biofuels effect" was made at the hearing by Subcommittee Chairman Donald Payne (D-N.J.), when he said in his opening remarks that, the increased ethanol production is occasioning a rise in the "cost of corn," which in turn, is creating problems. He cited the increased costs for livestock feed, and the "decreased land for other crops." He drew out the point that any increase in U.S. funding for food aid will not necessarily cover the increasing costs of obtaining the food. However, after Payne's opening statement, the biofuels topic was conspicuously absent for the rest of the hearing. Moreover, Rep. Payne is continuing his series of hearings on Africa--earlier in May, he chaired one on water supply problems--with a hearing in June on the impact of climate change on the continent. Thus, he is so far towing the line with the Felix Rohatyn and related financial interests demanding the Democratic Party stick with global warming and renewable fuels biofoolery.

On the Senate side, a 100-page report was released to Congress in April by the Government Accountability Office, commissioned by the Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman, Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), titled, "Foreign Assistance; Various Challenges Impede the Efficiency and Effectiveness of U.S. Food Aid."

The principal author of this report, Thomas Melito, at the GAO, along with the Director of Food for Peace of the State Department's Agency for International Development, William P. Hammink, were the two witnesses to the May 24 House hearing. Hammink brought out the point that the way that AIDS has increased in just the past few years in Southern Africa, has now constituted an urgent "food security" problem.