What People Are Saying
“Food was a primary reason people first took to the streets in Tunisia. Food and poverty were right at the top of the list in the squares of Egypt right next to the call for political freedom… This isn’t a question of charity. It’s an issue of national security, of what happens when desperate people can’t find or afford food, and the anger that comes from people who see no future for their children except poverty and death.”
Representative James McGovern (D-MA)
March 1, 2011
“Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world. The price hike is already pushing millions of people into poverty, and putting stress on the most vulnerable, who spend more than half of their income on food.”
Robert B. Zoellick, President, World Bank Group
February 15, 2011
“We know very well that hunger is a drain on economic development. It is a threat to the stability of governments and it certainly it deprives us of the talents and energy of nearly a billion people worldwide. Fighting hunger is a priority for us and it demands our highest levels of patience and commitment.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
October 6, 2010
“The U.S. should be working for peace in the world and to treat people like human beings. That’s what Food for Peace is all about; using our surplus to defeat hunger. I think hunger is the biggest problem in the world today.”
Former Presidential Candidate and Senator George McGovern,
April 23, 2010
“Food security is about economic, environmental, and national security for our individual homelands and the entire world.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
October 16, 2009
“Over the years, there have also been criticisms about the accountability, effectiveness, and transparency of U.S. foreign assistance. While some of these criticisms have merit, in the vast majority of cases our assistance is being used to help lift people out of poverty, combat food insecurity, and promote stability and good governance all over the world.”
Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA)
April 28, 2009
“Food for Peace is a crucial tool in fulfilling our nation’s commitment to foreign assistance and global food security. Even in the face of monumental challenges at home and abroad, we must remember those whose lives were already plagued by persistent poverty, hunger, and disease.”
Senator Tom Harkin, Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
March 20, 2009
“Fifty years ago President Eisenhower created the Food for Peace program to share our country’s rich harvests with those in need in postwar Europe and other countries. Since then, U.S. food has made a huge difference to so many people, assisting in times of crisis and showing that America’s generosity goes beyond all political boundaries. Hunger knows no nationality, and we Americans continue to send our wheat, corn, and other foods wherever they are needed to save lives.”
Andrew S. Natsios, Former USAID Administrator
“Indeed let there be no doubt that India has benefited immensely from the PL 480 Food Aid Program, first in feeding its millions in critical years of acute food shortage in the fifties and sixties. Secondly, when this period was over, thanks to the Green Revolution by the mid 70s, to monetize this assistance to help the creation of a number of important food-related activities and reach the goal of self-sufficiency in these areas; to create, through an innovative food for work programme, of a number of critically important agriculture-related infrastructure projects from small village level activities to pharonic works like the Rajasthan Canal. Finally, through schemes which continue even today, towards achieving important social objectives impacting on critical issues of child and women development services, helping create food security, and developing support to critical and marginalized peoples….”
“I am happy to say that India’s experience of US food Aid is a good example of creation of assets and opportunities that have enabled our emergence from a situation of dependence….”
“I refer to the “Operation Flood” for milk and the “Operation Golden Flow of Edible Oil” – both very significantly assisted by US Food Aid through PL 480. In both cases, Food Aid – in milk powder and edible oil respectively – was monetized for the creation of dairy and edible oil cooperative structures and development of production and markets. [M]ilk powder and butter oil worth almost $ 200 million were sold through the Indian National Dairy Development Board at local prices. The funds thus generated were invested in different parts of India’s dairy industry, including construction and expansion of dairy plants, storage and long-distance milk transport facilities, the organization of rural milk procurement along cooperative lines, livestock improvement, including the resettlement of city-kept milk cows, and forage and animal feed productivity…”
“Today – India, largely a vegetarian country, is awash with milk. In 2002-3 Operation Flood’s 55000 village level cooperatives involving almost 10 million farmers – many of them women – were supplying 18 million tones of milk a day, raising per capita consumption of milk from 107 grams per day in 1970 to over 220 grams per day now.”
“Similar is the story of edible oil, which constitutes an important source of calories in the Indian diet after food grains. In the late seventies, Indian oilseed production had stagnated and was so low that one million tons per year had to be imported. Inefficient processing and marketing was characterized by high profit margins and speculative practices that exploited growers. PL 480 came forward to duplicate the Operation Flood experience. ‘Operation Golden Flow’ began with $ 160 million worth of U.S. soya oil. The sales generated money to finance modern processing plants, for production and for support to oil seed producers, for research, development and extension services and for marketing again through a cooperative process – and all this in over 8000 villages. Not only did it create rural employment, but helped largely to reduce India’s dependence on imported oil – thus saving its limited resources for other fruitful activities in the social sector like health and education.”