Food for Peace
[4] America's food assistance programs began in 1812 when James Madison sent emergency aid to earthquake victims in Venezuela.
In 1948, the United States launched the Marshall Plan, which provided dollars for Europeans to purchase American food exports.
The Marshall Plan helped rejuvenate and unite Europe while laying the foundations for a permanent U.S. food assistance program.
Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey, a leading liberal Democrat, promoted a food for peace program that would give away surplus crops owned by the U.S. government as an instrument of foreign policy in the Cold War.
By signing this legislation, the President laid "the basis for a permanent expansion of our exports of agricultural products with lasting benefits to ourselves and peoples of other lands."
"[8][9][10][11][12][13] The law was originally drafted by future Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) administrator Gwynn Garnett after returning from a trip to India in 1950.
The bill is unusual in that it gave the FAS the ability to conclude agreements with foreign governments without the approval of the United States Senate.
"[18] Through new amendments, the law switched its focus from disposing of surplus agricultural commodities to addressing humanitarian needs and responding to growing food crisis demands.
[22] McGovern worked with deputy director James W. Symington and Kennedy advisor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. in visiting South America to discuss surplus grain distribution, and attended meetings of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.
[19] By the close of 1961, the Food for Peace program was operating in a dozen countries,[19] and 10 million more people had been fed with American surplus than the year before.
[23] In February 1962, McGovern visited India and oversaw a greatly expanded school lunch program thanks to Food for Peace; subsequently one in five Indian schoolchildren would be fed from it,[23] and by mid-1962, 35 million children around the world.
[19][20] Kennedy said that under McGovern, the program had "become a vital force in the world", improving living conditions and economies of allies and creating "a powerful barrier to the spread of Communism".
The policy statement shifted from surplus disposal to planned production for export to meet world food needs.
The primary objective of the concessional sales component is to provide food assistance to targeted developing countries to promote economic growth.
Since fiscal year 2006, new funding has not been requested because demand for food assistance using credit financing has fallen or grant programs have been a more appropriate tool.
These commodities are sold on the domestic market and the revenue generated from their sale is used to support and implement economic development and food security programs.
Title IV of the Food for Peace Act authorizes active participation of the private sector in storage, marketing, transport and distribution.
The Farmer-to-Farmer Program provides voluntary technical assistance to farmers, farm groups and agribusinesses in developing and transitional countries to promote sustainable improvements in food processing, production and marketing.
It links Food for Peace and AID debt owed to the United States to the promulgation of structural adjustment and open investment policies.
Emergency programs authorized under Title II of the Food for Peace Act provide in-kind commodities and associated costs.
