[AnnonUSA]

Soaring prices force US to cut food aid


Article from: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Washington
March 01, 2008 11:01pm

THE US will drastically reduce emergency food aid to some of the poorest countries this year due to soaring food prices, The Washington Post reports today.
Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was drafting plans to cut down the number of recipient nations and the amount of food provided to them.
A 41 per cent surge in prices of wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $US120 million ($126.5 million) budget shortfall that will force the USAID to reduce emergency operations, the report said.
That deficit is projected to rise to $US200 million ($211 million) by the end of the year.
The USAID is reviewing all of the agency's emergency programs, which target countries like Ethiopia, Iraq, Somalia, Honduras and Sudan's Darfur region.
"We're in the process now of going country by country and analyzing the commodity price increase on each country,'' The Post quotes Jeff Borns, director of USAID's Food for Peace program as saying.
"Then we're going to have to prioritise.''

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What generally happens when the US or any other government decides to help out with some manner of food aid? Tons of whatever food is sent to these starving countries is sent out only to be sold by some warlord because there is no oversight. Gotta love the honor system.