2006.10.19: October 19, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Peru: Economics: Food Aid: DesMoinesRegister.com: Peter McPherson says: Budget deficits will mean the next U.S. farm bill could have less money for food assistance programs to Africa
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2006.10.19: October 19, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Peru: Economics: Food Aid: DesMoinesRegister.com: Peter McPherson says: Budget deficits will mean the next U.S. farm bill could have less money for food assistance programs to Africa
Peter McPherson says: Budget deficits will mean the next U.S. farm bill could have less money for food assistance programs to Africa
McPherson said there hasn't been much discussion about the amount of food aid needed in the farm bill, but the debate will begin in earnest next year when the 2007 farm law is written. It has long been a goal of U.S. food assistance to reduce poverty and hunger, McPherson said, but the program also has a goal of reducing U.S. crop surpluses, among other goals. "Iowa farmers have an interest in the debate because it will concern how their commodities are used" for food assistance, said McPherson, the former president of Michigan State University who was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru in the 1960s.
Peter McPherson says: Budget deficits will mean the next U.S. farm bill could have less money for food assistance programs to Africa
Food aid money for poor in Africa may dip
Panel in Des Moines hears about likely budget deficits in the U.S. farm bill.
By JERRY PERKINS
REGISTER FARM EDITOR
October 19, 2006
Budget deficits will mean the next U.S. farm bill could have less money for food assistance programs to Africa, Peter McPherson, who co-chairs the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, said Wednesday.
"There's a need for more money, but unless we look at the efficiencies of how it is spent, it will be difficult to get that money out of Washington," McPherson said at a panel discussion on hunger and poverty in Africa that was held at the Marriott Hotel in conjunction with World Food Prize activities.
McPherson said there hasn't been much discussion about the amount of food aid needed in the farm bill, but the debate will begin in earnest next year when the 2007 farm law is written.
It has long been a goal of U.S. food assistance to reduce poverty and hunger, McPherson said, but the program also has a goal of reducing U.S. crop surpluses, among other goals.
"Iowa farmers have an interest in the debate because it will concern how their commodities are used" for food assistance, said McPherson, the former president of Michigan State University who was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru in the 1960s.
"Iowa farmers have always been proud of their contribution to reducing world hunger," he said. "Farmers feel that they have an occupation, but they also feel that they have a mission, to feed the world."
Spending on food assistance programs in the current farm bill has been stagnant or declining, said Emmy Simmons, co-chairwoman of the partnership.
The 2002 farm bill's emergency and development assistance title has spent between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion a year on food assistance, she said, about the same amount as what is spent on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's breakfast program for children.
Simmons said the United States provided food aid to Europe after World War II using surplus U.S. crops.
After Europe regained its feet economically, U.S. food surpluses were directed to Asia and South America, she said.
In recent years, more assistance has been sent to poor African countries where civil strife, drought, infertile soils and political upheaval have crippled food production.
In the 1950s, food aid represented 20 percent of U.S. exports, Simmons said. Today, it makes up about 4 percent of U.S. exports.
Ousmane Badiane of the International Food Policy Research Institute said African food production has increased in recent years but still lags the peak hit in the 1960s.
More food production is needed, said Badiane, a native of Senegal. Thirty percent of the children in sub-Saharan Africa remain malnourished.
Food aid should be used to boost economic growth, he said, so African countries can have the same type of economic development that made food aid to Europe, Asia and South America unnecessary.
Pedro Sanchez, World Food Prize laureate in 2002 for his work in African agriculture, said more money needs to be spent on agricultural development projects in Africa.
It costs $400 in imported food to sustain a poor African farmer and his family, he said. It costs $40 to give that farmer the basic inputs he needs to produce enough food to feed himself and his family.
"Our job is to see that food aid is made obsolete," said Sanchez, director of tropical agriculture at the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
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Story Source: DesMoinesRegister.com
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Peru; Economics; Food Aid
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