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International Food Aid Assistance Approved by House Committee

On June 26, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved, 38-9, legislation (H.R. 2844) to reauthorize the international food programs of the Agriculture Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 (P.L. 83-480). The bill’s provisions will be added to this year’s farm bill (H.R. 2419).

Sponsored by Chair Tom Lantos (D-CA), H.R. 2844 would authorize $2.5 billion annually for international food assistance programs for FY2008-FY2012. Of that amount, at least $600 million each year would be authorized for development food aid. The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, which supports international nutritional and educational programs, would be funded at $140 million for FY2008, with a $40 million annual increase until FY2012. Famine prevention and relief would be authorized at not less than $40 million each year from FY2008-2012.

The committee adopted, by voice vote, en bloc amendments by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) clarifying that the bill is intended to meet the nutritional needs of all community members, especially children, to prevent hunger-related emergencies, and to ensure that assistance is coordinated with other organizations.

The bill makes a number of findings, including:

  • the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization reports, that in 2006, an estimated 850 million people in the world, with 824 million in developing countries, were chronically hungry;
  • the number of food and humanitarian emergencies has doubled from an average of about 15 per year in the 1980s to more than 30 per year since 2000, due in large part to increasing conflicts, poverty, and natural disasters around the world;
  • in 2006, the United States contributed $1.125 billion or about 40 percent of total donor contributions to the World Food Program; and
  • women play an essential role in promoting food security and production throughout the world. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, rural women are responsible for half of the world’s food production and produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries.