Is Food Aid for Africa Working?
A Wall Street Journal reporter asks if western food aid policies are truly providing aid.
Facebook
Twitter
Tumblr
Blogger
StumbleUpon
Digg
Delicious
Reddit
Google(Page 2 of 2)
Reason: You also point the finger at an aspect of American energy policy in hurting the world's hungry: our ethanol subsidies.
Kilman: The ethanol program creates a subsidy for demand on corn, which has a ripple effect on other crops. Farmers plant more corn, and plant less of something else. And what's happened, I think unintentionally, is by creating a mandate for ethanol you tied the price of corn and indirectly the cost of a bunch of our food to the cost of oil.
Now one third of America's biggest crop is used to make fuel, and that's happened very rapidly. If you look at the price of corn today, it's at a new plateau. Corn in the ‘90s and first half of this decade was usually $2 a bushel. Now a few weeks ago it was $4 a bushel, and now around $3.50, but it's settling at a higher plateau. Soybeans have also settled at higher prices which means it's more expensive to keep buying the same amount for food aid programs.
I was in Africa in 2007 when the price of corn first started going up. You are seeing food riots in the developing world, but I think it's complicated. That run up in corn filters through other commodities, and what happens with the ethanol program and biofuel mandates is they have fed into a general environment where traders are willing to bid up prices. But in addition to ethanol, the developing middle class in emerging nations are eating better, want to eat more meat, and you need more grain to produce more meat.
There were many things going on in world food markets, I hate the cliché of "perfect storm" but it fits—a lot of bad things were coming together, and one was ethanol. I don't blame ethanol solely for food riots. But demand for grain started rising faster than our ability to produce grain in this decade, and ethanol biofuels was one of the reasons.
Senior Editor Brian Doherty is author of This is Burning Man (BenBella), Radicals for Capitalism (PublicAffairs) and Gun Control on Trial (Cato Institute).
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
-
LOL, ignorance is bliss!
RT
www.anonymize.tk -
By the looks of his chins the Kilman Food Aid Policy is an overwhelming success.
-
We argue we should spend some of our food aid budget closer to the disaster.
Or maybe just stop spending tens of trillions of dollars on extra-domestic welfare.
Oh, I'm sorry. That would engender envy, which is a Humanistic Sin. Unequal outcomes bring envy, and envy makes me feel bad, and feelings are all that I know are real. -
Hey Mr. Anonymous, read the book first and find out why exactly the outcomes are unequal, and how much meddling has been done to make them so, by who, and who benefits therefrom, before you start talking about 'extra-domestic welfare.' Why for example Ethiopians aren't allowed to use the water from their own rivers to irrigate their land. You asshole.
-
lbk, fuck you if you can't argue a point.
I have everything to do with negros' water, so obviously I have to be taxed for my crimes. -
nice post...
___________________
Britney
Entertainment at one stop -
Of course African food aid program is working, it is accomplishing all of its goals.
It gives lots of Western politicians and uninformed do-gooders a warm fuzzy feeling that they are helping even if they know nothing about Africa or farming
It is employing lots of bureaucrats.
It gives politically connected businesses and NGO's lots of money.
It gives African politicians money they can use to stay in power.
It destroys local African food production so the land can be bought up cheaply when the Doha round of trade talks is finally passed. International corporations can then use that land to create plantations so they can undercut farmers around the world and make big profits. All done flying the banners of "Helping the Poor" and "Free Trade". -
Why should Africans work at growing crops when they can sit in the camps fed, watered, clothed and cared for by well meaning but naive people?
What you have done is stolen the humanity of those you sought to save and turned them into pets to be cared for by their owners.
It is the struggle; to grow food, to educate their own children and care for each other, which will free the people of Africa from bondage far worse than slavery.
For a slave had value but aid has stripped the people of Africa of all self-worth. -
dis is bs how dey aint got nun
-
is good
