Last week, we reported on the continuing calls to alter food aid policy so that 1/4 of the food could be purchased local to its distribution location (rather than shipping it all from the U.S.) Today, Reuters reports on a tide-changing shift toward that change.

Some excerpts:

President George W. Bush, taking a harder line in recent weeks, appears closer to victory in persuading Congress to accept a proposal to use some U.S. food-aid funds to buy crops overseas in the end game of a long-delayed agriculture law.

Giving poor countries the authority to buy food aid locally “seems like it’s becoming a requirement to get this farm bill passed,” said Rebecca Bratter, who follows trade at U.S. Wheat Associates, an industry group….

Although no final decisions have been made, according to one congressional aide, lawmakers are more likely than ever to set aside sharp agribusiness opposition and vote to allow up to a quarter of the largest food-aid program, run by the U.S. Agency for International Development, to buy crops overseas.

-Virginia Simmons

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 11:18 am and is filed under world food crisis, Food Aid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.