food aid
EWG says U.S. farmers feed the (developed) world
A refrain among U.S. farmers and processors is that bountiful America helps feed a hungry world with a population forecast to increase by one-third, to 9.7 billion people, by mid-century. The actuality is that U.S. farm exports "go to countries that can afford to pay for them," and less than 1 percent go to the world's hungriest nations, says the Environmental Working Group.
More than one in seven Haitians need food aid after hurricane
Some 1.4 million people in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, require food assistance because of widespread damage by Hurricane Matthew to supplies and crops in large swaths of the country, according to a survey by UN and Haitian agencies. In Haiti's Department of Grande-Anse, "agriculture has been virtually wiped out," says the UN, and "losses of subsistence crops in the Department of Sud have been nearly total."
U.S. to send $20 million more to Malawi for food aid
As part of a visit to land-locked Malawi, Second Lady Jill Biden announced an additional $20 million in U.S. food assistance to offset the effects of drought that began in 2015 and was magnified by the El Niño weather pattern. An estimated 40 percent of the population of the country in southeastern Africa are in need of humanitarian aid.
Drought and displacement put Nigeria in crisis
Nigeria, Africa’s largest and most-populous country, needs help feeding refugees fleeing armed conflict in the northeastern corner of the country, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in a quarterly report on food insecurity around the world.
House Budget panel: Convert food stamps to State Flexibility Fund
Leaders of the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee proposed steep cuts in federal spending in order to balance the budget in 10 years.
Two dozen countries in Africa need food aid
Drought in southern Africa has "significantly dampened production prospects, with severe negative implications for food security in the sub-region," says the FAO's quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee approves food aid bill
Legislation intended to make U.S. food assistance programs more efficient was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill includes the first-ever authorization of the Feed the Future, an Obama administration initiative to improve local food production.
Drought may mean hunger for 14 million in southern Africa
With rainfall far below normal and the growing season advancing this year, southern Africa will increasingly deplete its food supplies and cash reserves to buy food, said the World Food Program.
Worst drought in 50 years sparks food emergency in Ethiopia
Millions of Ethiopians will need food aid through 2016 as a result of abnormally low rainfall during the main growing seasons this year, says a monitor funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Global food prices fall, Africa needs rise
Abundant supplies and the strong dollar pulled down the FAO's Food Price Index 1.6 percent in November. The UN agency said the index, which has trended downward since early 2014, was 18-percent lower than a year ago.
House ag leaders claim central role in food-aid reform
Any revisions to U.S. food-aid programs must be discussed with the agricultural community, said House Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway in a statement. The 2014 farm law allowed greater use of locally purchased food and cash assistance in hunger relief, but kept donation of U.S.-grown food as the major source of aid; many other nations donate cash rather than commodities.
AGree calls for conservation, nutrition and food aid reforms
The AGree project, a multiyear endeavor to reach consensus among food and farm leaders, released a package of four papers that call for substantial remodeling of U.S. conservation, public nutrition and food aid programs as well as comprehensive immigration reform.
Food-aid reform bill ends US origin, cargo preference rules
Two senators unveiled a bill that would remove two long-standing rules for U.S. food aid - that almost all the food be U.S.-grown and U.S.-flag vessels carry half of the donated food.
First decline in global food prices in a year
Sharply lower prices for vegetable oils, down nearly 10 percent in a month, contributed to the first decline in the Food Price Index since last May, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on Thursday. The index fell by 2.5 percent in June, although it was still about one-third higher than a year ago.