Does US food aid cause hunger?
While food aid can put local farmers out of business in hungry countries, causing dependence and greater hunger, food aid in itself is not a major cause of hunger. But, US food aid policy does contribute to hunger insofar as it creates the impression that the US and should feed the world. This disguises a far greater cause of hunger: the US policy of promoting excess food production, driving down world prices, and forcing or dumping the US ‘surplus’ food in other countries. International politics of food aid Food aid, like other aid, often goes to places where donor countries have strategic interests: some countries where hunger is greatest get very little food aid – Congo, for instance. The use of food aid as a direct political weapon is becoming less common, as more of it is handled by international agencies, mainly the World Food Program (not that WFP is politics-free). The EU and some private aid agencies want to use WTO rules to restrict US food aid practices, but the WTO and ‘fre
