Biotech Updates

Obama Administration Strategizes to Improve Food Aid

May 7, 2010

Most food-aid donors offer cash or food vouchers to feed people in deprived countries, except for the U.S., the world's largest provider of food aid, which continues to ship food produced at home as aid. The reason behind this is the Farm Bill, which governs the American food-aid and was last updated in 2008. This system takes more time before it reaches the beneficiaries and also costs more than distributing cash vouchers due to shipping expenses of the in-kind aid.

Thus, the US administration is exploring ways to reform the Bill and continue to innovate ways on how to expand their food basket. One strategy is the "humanitarian tool kit"  under the government program Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative (GHFSI). The tool-kit includes voucher programs that enable vulnerable households to purchase food in local markets. Aside from this, the Obama administration also focuses on helping farmers in deprived countries to develop their production to beef up food security. 

For more information, visit http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89038.