Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Catholic News

Home

Home
Catholic
Religion News
Catholic agency hopes for lasting food aid reform

Catholic agency hopes for lasting food aid reform

Last updated on: April 21, 2013 at 10:06 pm by CNA Daily News

Catholic agency hopes for lasting food aid reform 2013-04-21T22:06:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Baltimore, Md., Apr 21, 2013 / 04:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic Relief Services is supportive of a proposal to make changes in the way that government food aid is delivered internationally, provided that it has long-term provisions that will not be subject to annual budget debates.

Recently, the Obama administration proposed shifting the model for international food aid. Under the current model, money is used to purchase food produced in the U.S. and ship it overseas. The new proposal would rely more heavily on purchasing food locally in impoverished and disaster-stricken nations.

“This set of reforms offers a great deal of flexibility and ways to make food programming more efficient and to enable us to use our local purchase mechanism to support the local farmer and the household which needs food,” said Lisa Kuennen-Asfaw, Catholic Relief Service's public donor group director.

“But the concern we are raising is that there's got to be an authorizing framework in place to make sure that it's a consistent program available year upon year….that the vehicle for this funding stays in place,” she told CNA on April 18.

The president's recent budget proposal suggests shifting funds from the Food for Peace Act to USAID, a government agency responsible for administering foreign aid. This would allow greater freedom in how the funds are utilized than at present.

A 2011 USAID report estimated that cash-based programs such as local purchasing could save 25-50 percent in food aid costs, and do so much more quickly.

“Buying food locally, instead of in the United States, costs much less,” Rajiv Shah, director of USAID, said at an April 10 meeting of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “That’s because the average prices of buying and delivering American food across an ocean has increased from $390 per metric ton in 2001 to $1,180 today.”

“We agree with the goals of the president's proposal,” said Kuennen-Asfaw. “We've been working for quite a few of these reforms over a long period of time, and we feel that the reforms being proposed would be very helpful as long as they are enshrined in some sort of a legislative authorizing mechanism.”

Without an authorizing framework giving “substantial long-term support to those programs,” she explained, the proposal would be “subject to the whims of every single budget year.”

“Presidential initiatives come and go, and support for specific budget lines may come and go. But the needs of the poor and vulnerable are ongoing.”

Catholic Relief Services says the flexibility of the new proposal is of the utmost importance. The kind of aid that will be most helpful in any particular situation is “very context-specific” and shouldn't be hampered by red tape.

The Catholic agency provides food aid using both food procured in the U.S. and local purchase programs.

Currently, much of U.S. government food aid is done by purchasing food from American producers and paying to have it shipped internationally. That system is perceived to be grossly inefficient in many sectors.

“Where there is the appropriate food available in the local market, it supports local agriculture and processing,” explained Kuennen-Asfaw. “The whole value chain for local development can be supported by providing cash instead of bringing food in.”

But when there isn't sufficient food available, as in an acute crisis situation, it can be better to avoid large-scale local purchasing lest aid agencies push food prices “above the reach of those who previously were able to afford it,” she remarked.

Typically, though, “we would be able to incorporate fresh fruit and vegetables and perhaps some animal proteins with a local purchase program, whereas it’s hard to do that kind of thing when we have something procured in the U.S. and shipped around the world,” said Kuennen-Asfaw.

“We would be able to utilize foods appropriate for local tastes and consumption habits, so when we build our nutrition messages around the program, we're talking about things people use on a daily basis instead of something foreign. So it's those kinds of considerations that have encouraged us … to procure food locally, where it's appropriate and feasible for us to do so.”

Catholic Relief Services makes a point of doing market analysis before and during food aid interventions, to protect against doing harm to local agricultural economies.

When doing food purchasing programs, the organization can provide vouchers to needy families so that they can purchase food from vendors whose food safety and quality has been verified.

Obama's proposal is supported by the head of USAID, but it has met with resistance on Capitol Hill. Both the shipping and domestic agricultural industries benefit from the Food for Peace Act.

To allay the fears of those groups, the proposal ensures that at least 55 percent of funding for emergency food assistance will continue to be used for providing goods produced in the U.S.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 21, 2013

Minister with constant joy, Pope Francis counsels new priests

Next Post

April 22, 2013 Being Christian means risking following Jesus, Pope teaches

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: 1 John teaches that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE