American soy beans, staple of Indonesian poor, priced out of reach

This is a story I saw in the Chicago trib from the AP that makes me want to just throw up my hands not knowing even exactly what to ask for or lobby for.

American soy beans, staple of Indonesian poor, priced out of reach

If anyone has opinions for solutions, I'd like to hear them. This story is another case of an impoverished nation with people suffering because of prices of American commodities. Usually, I'm advocating against American subsidies making cheap products that underprice local foods so that poor countries can't even sell their own goods in their own country. In this case, we have gone corn crazy...planting so much corn that we've created a shortage of soy beans...making soy beans too expensive for Indonesians to buy.

A quote from the article:
"A number of years ago, the farmer got blamed because corn and bean prices were too cheap and farmers overseas were going broke," said Henning, 50. "Now, they are saying the prices are too high and people can't afford to buy the food. So, we kind of feel we are in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation."

I feel like I just don't know enough about economics to know how in the world you regulate this stuff so people aren't starving!

Chicago area food pantries on CBS2

Yesterday, CBS2 ran a story about the rising need at Chicago area pantries. Kate Maehr, exec director of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, gave a statement. AAANNNDDD...the Niles Township Food Pantry was highlighted. Our own Cynthia Carranza, the director, gave them a tour and showed them the bare shelves at our local food pantry. The written portion below was strangely edited on the quotes, but it gives you an idea of what is on the video.

Great job, Cynthia and Kate!

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CHICAGO (CBS) ― Making ends meet is becoming a struggle for more and more people everyday. Unemployment is up and it seems new layoffs are announced almost every day.

CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports that it has more people than ever before turning to food pantries for help, but at the same time, the pantries themselves are having a hard time keeping the shelves stocked.

At a Southwest Side church, hundreds of people lined up for food on Wednesday.

Chicagoan Alfredo Velazco said, "I come here every Wednesday and I'm very grateful."

Carla Munoz said, "It is really good...don't have jobs...it's good."

Elizabeth Arreola, the food pantry's longtime director, said demand is so great that she can barely keep up.

"There are so many...won't have enough...and their children," Arreola said. Almost 4,500 people came to the food pantry for bags of food in July, up from 3,200 people in June. She and others said it's a direct result of the sinking economy.

Kate Maehr, Executive Director of the Chicago Food Depository, said, "For so many people...gas in their tank...or at a pantry."

But food demand hasn't increased only in Chicago; at the Niles Township Food Pantry, demand has risen 25 percent in the last couple of months.

"This is totally bare...full. To the max."

Cynthia Carranza's pantry serves all or part of six northern suburbs. For the first time in years, she'll have to restock before the month is out.

"I have people coming to me with masters degrees...they can't make ends meet," Carranza said.

It's a harsh reminder that no one is immune from these tough times. While demand is up, donations to many pantries are down, making it harder for them to help those in need.

"Overfed and Undernourished" on Worldview today

From Worldview , a WBEZ Chicago Radio program, with Jerome McDonnell...wow! his guest was extremely well spoken! The talk ranged from food crisis, to local produce, the global food system in general, energy, democracy, extreme poverty, etc. An incredible interview!
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Even though we're in the middle of a global food shortage, a billion people are overweight. We’ll spend most of the hour discussing this paradox in the world food system.

850 million people go hungry in the world. That number is expected to increase as food prices continue to rise. Staples such as rice and wheat have more than doubled in cost in the last year. High prices have led to riots in more than a dozen countries.

The Director General of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization calls the current food crisis “a risk for peace and stability around the world.” Despite the escalating food shortage, one billion people are overweight worldwide.

We’ll spend the rest of the hour today discussing this apparent contradiction in the world food system. Raj Patel is a former policy analyst for Food First. He is currently a visiting scholar at the U.C. Berkeley center for African Studies. He is the author of “Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.”

Overfed and Undernourished Link

Senator Durbin on the Food Crisis

This is Durbin's response to my letter to him about the food crisis. My apologies for typos as I typed this in from a hard copy!
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Thank you for contacting me about the importance of addressing the global food crisis. I appreciate haring from you and share your concerns.

More than 800 million people around the world do not have enough food to eat. Many of them have resorted to extreme measures in an attempt to combat their hunger. Many Haitians, for instance, are forced to eat cakes made of mud mixed with a little bit of oil and flour. The lack of access to food has already led to riots in more than 30 countries, including Bangladesh, Egypt and Haiti.

Over the last few years, prices for staples such as wheat, corn, and rice have doubled or tripled. The largest increases have taken place in the last few months. Rising food prices have cause the World Food Program to announce that without emergency funding it will be forced to reduce the amount of food it provides an also end some of its programs.

There is an urgent need for action. On April 15, 2008, I wrote a letter to President Bush which was cosigned by Senators Joe Biden of Delaware and John Kerry of Massachusetts urging the President to request additional funds to address the looming international food crisis. In May 2008, I supported a Senate measure to increase our nation's food assistance funding to a total of $1.245 billion, which is $500 million more than the President requested.

I will continue to work to address the dramatically escalating food prices that threaten to cause widespread hunger and social unrest around the world. I appreciate your support in this effort.

Thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to stay in touch.

Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

An email from Obama

An email from Barack Obama regarding a recent letter I wrote to him regarding poverty and the food crisis. -ccyl
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Thank you for taking the time to write about hunger and poverty throughout the world. I completely agree that we can and must do more to address the global food crisis.

The rising price of food is causing immense hardship for the world's poorest people. According to the World Bank, an estimated 100 million people may be pushed into deeper poverty and hunger because of soaring food prices. Press reports have described the crippling effects of the high prices and the suffering of those who are most vulnerable, especially young children. The risk of civil unrest is significant in dozens of countries, making this an important global security issue as well.

We cannot afford to let this situation continue. I strongly support an increase in emergency food aid and funding for agricultural and rural development programs to address this crisis. We need to make sure that this assistance is adequate, well-targeted to reach those who are most in need, and well-coordinated within the international community. You may be interested to know that on May 22, 2008, I voted in favor of a domestic spending amendment to the FY08 emergency supplemental appropriations bill, which included $850 million for international food assistance to address the crisis. Similar legislation was agreed to by the House, and the two versions are now being reconciled in conference between the two chambers of Congress. As these deliberations move forward, I will keep your views in mind.

In addition to expanding food assistance efforts, we also have to take step to break the cycle of poverty that makes people around the world so vulnerable to rising prices. Over 1 billion people worldwide live on less than $1 per day, and another 1.6 billion people struggle to survive on less than $2 per day. We need a comprehensive, bipartisan approach to make significant strides in addressing a problem of this magnitude and importance.

Last year, I worked with Senators Chuck Hagel and Maria Cantwell to introduce the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433), which requires the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to advance the goal of cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015. Key components of this strategy would be foreign aid, trade, debt relief, and coordination with the international community, businesses, and non-governmental organizations. The bill requires that the President's strategy include specific and measurable goals, efforts to be undertaken, benchmarks, and timetables. The President would also be required to report back to Congress on progress made in the implementation of the global poverty strategy. The bill was reported favorably out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this year.

You may rest assured that I will continue to work with colleagues in the Senate to address global poverty. In the days ahead, I hope you will stay in touch.

Thank you again for writing.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

CALL CONGRESS on Tues, June 17 (Bread lobby day)

From Bread for the World...
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Join people from all over the country who are walking the halls of Congress on Tuesday, June 17, to speak up for hungry and poor people.

During Bread for the World's annual Lobby Day, hundreds of hunger activists from across the United States are visiting their members of Congress, asking them to increase funding for poverty-focused development assistance-- real programs that can make a significant contribution to improving the lives of the world's poorest people. Learn more about poverty-focused development assistance.

Let your voice be heard, too. Please call your members of Congress on Tuesday, June 17, and ask them to increase poverty focused development assistance by $5 billion in the fiscal year 2009 budget. Use this special toll-free number, and ask to be transferred to your senators' and representative's offices: 1-800-826-3688. Find out who your members are.

Talking points:

-In light of the recent hunger crisis, we must increase our commitment to programs that provide sustainable assistance to hungry and poor people.
-Poverty-focused development assistance is focused primarily on programs that reduce hunger, poverty and disease in the world's poorest countries.
-An additional $5 billion will help to ensure that the United States keeps the commitments we have made to world's most vulnerable people.

Thank you!
David Beckmann
President
Bread for the World

Uganda 'happy' about food crisis

I came across this on the Poverty News Blog (http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.com/) who cites the BBC as the source. If trade barriers can be removed, then it is possible that a great deal of long term good could come from (relatively) short term hardship.
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Uganda 'happy' about food crisis
from the BBC

The president of Uganda says he is "very happy" about the food crisis.

"Why? Because we produce a lot of food... We are stuck with food," President Yoweri Museveni told Commonwealth heads of government.

The president hopes the food crisis will prompt the removal of trade barriers, allowing countries like Uganda to profit from food surpluses.

A BBC correspondent says most benefits are going to large, commercial farms, while poor Ugandans are suffering.

The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Uganda says most of the population are subsistence farmers, who do not export their crops but are affected by the rising cost of fuel and other inputs.

But overall food production has risen in recent years.

Uganda's growth rate is expected to reach 8.9% later on this year, up from 6.5% last year, partly due to debt relief.

"Our problem has been marketing... We produce 10 million metric tonnes of bananas and 40% of it rots because we have nowhere to sell it," President Museveni told delegates.

President Museveni said milk production had risen so rapidly, it had been poured away.

That was until Uganda set up a recent agreement with an Indian processor plant: excess milk is now being shipped to India.

Bread for the World's Recipe for Hope Week #6

From Bread for the World...the last installment of Recipe for Hope. A statement of a hunger problem and proposed actions to fight it!
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Ingredient for Despair: Restrictive and distorted trade policies
Another national government policy that can come between supply and demand is the prohibition of certain exports. Some grain-producing countries have done this recently in an effort to keep domestic prices under control. Thus, less grain is available globally while demand has risen. The result is dramatic increases in the price of corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, rice, and others.

In a recent series on the hunger crisis, the Washington Post reported that factors that interfere with supply and demand explain why "the global food trade never became the kind of well-honed machine" that has made the price of manufactured products increasingly similar worldwide. Some economists argue that if market forces played a larger role, food prices would have risen more gradually and the world would have had more time to adjust.

Read the Washington Post story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/27/ST2008042702198.html

Ingredients for Hope:
Our Recipe for Hope has two components—something you can do; and something you can say to our nation’s leaders.
1) Prayers for a Time of Hunger
In celebration of Father's Day this Sunday (June 15)—and to remember fathers around the world struggling to feed their families—include special prayers for hungry people in your worship services or when you say grace at home. Download prayers in full-color.
http://www.bread.org/learn/rising-food-prices/RecipeForHope/recipeforhopeprayers.pdf

2) Call Congress on Bread for the World's annual Lobby Day, June 17
Please call your member of Congress on Tuesday, June 17th, and ask them to increase poverty focused development assistance by $5 billion in the fiscal year 2009 budget. Use this special toll-free number, and ask to be transferred to your senator's office: 1-800-826-3688. Find out who your members are.
Talking points:

-In light of the recent hunger crisis, we must increase our commitment to programs that provide sustainable assistance to hungry and poor people.

- Poverty-focused development assistance is focused primarily on programs that reduce hunger, poverty and disease in the world's poorest countries.

- An additional $5 billion will help to ensure that the United States keeps the commitments we have made to the world's most vulnerable people.

Leaders at UN summit pledge to ease food crisis

ROME (AP) — World leaders at a U.N. summit embraced an ambitious strategy to combat a food crisis that is causing violent riots and threatening to push up to a billion people across the globe into hunger. Delegates from 181 countries pledged Thursday to reduce trade barriers and boost agricultural production to combat rising food prices, but some nations and groups maintained more concrete measures will be needed. After three days of wrangling, delegates at the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization approved a declaration resolving to ease the suffering caused by soaring food prices and step up investment in agriculture. The summit struck a balance on the contentious issue of biofuels, recognizing "challenges and opportunities" in using food for fuel. The declaration called for swift help for small-holder farmers in poor countries who need seed, fertilizers and animal feed in time for the approaching planting season. U.N. officials and humanitarian groups have pointed out that such an approach has already helped millions of farmers in Malawi, where food security has strongly improved thanks to a support package based mainly on a fertilizer subsidy.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had told the summit that import taxes and export restrictions must also be minimized to alleviate hunger and the document called for "reducing trade barriers and market-distorting policies." "We took the measure of the problem of hunger in the world correctly," said FAO head Jacques Diouf. He said the gathering was not a pledging conference but billions of dollars from countries, regional banks and the World Bank had been promised in recent days.
The strategy laid down in Rome will have to translate quickly into farm and trade policies in each country, as even before the crisis there were some 850 million undernourished people in the world, with the number increasing rapidly, according to U.N. officials.

Soaring fuel prices drive up the cost of fertilizers, farm vehicle use and transport of food to market. Speculation and increased consumption of meat and dairy goods by populations of China, India and other booming developing nations is also considered a main factor in the food price hikes.

Some countries felt the Rome summit had not gone far enough. Argentina said it was unhappy the declaration did not blame subsidies — generously granted to farmers in the U.S., the European Union and other Western food-producers — for a major role in driving up prices. Monica Robelo Raffone, head of Nicaragua's delegation, said the conference had failed to offer solutions or identify the reasons for the price increases. "It doesn't mention the real causes behind the crisis: the high oil prices, the market speculation, the subsidies ... it's a step back," she said.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer welcomed the declaration's tone on biofuels, saying the United States remains "firmly committed to the sustainable production and use of biofuels, both domestically and globally." The biofuel issue was a volatile one at the summit. The summit struck a balance on the fuels, which are made from crops such as sugar cane and corn, saying that "in-depth studies" are necessary to ensure that the environmentally friendly energy source does not take food off the table. Brazil, the United States and other big producers of biofuels disagree on which crops are better-suited to produce energy and how much they contribute to driving up food prices. U.N. officials, including Ban, have called on the international community to issue guidelines to ensure biofuel crops do not compete with food crops and do not encourage deforestation.

Recipe for Hope Week #4

Week Four of Bread for the World's "Recipe for Hope" campaign. Read about an aspect of the current food crisis (Ingredient for Despair) and find out how to take action in a positive way (Recipe for Hope)
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Ingredient for Despair: Government Subsidies for Farmers

Farmers in the United States, Japan, and the European Union receive government subsidies which often encourage overproduction and distort prices. They may even give farmers incentives that run entirely contrary to common sense.

For example, current commodity programs create an incentive for farmers to grow cotton in desert states like Arizona, where water for irrigation is scarce. In turn, artificially low prices for this subsidized cotton can prevent farmers in poor countries, such as Mali and Burkina Faso, from selling their cotton crops for a fair price and being able to feed their families. Subsidies to farmers in developed countries also hinder development of agriculture in poor countries, exacerbating the growing world food crisis.

Bread for the World Institute discusses this issue in detail in chapter three of its annual hunger report, Healthy Food, Farms & Families: Hunger 2007

Ingredients for Hope:

Our Recipe for Hope has two components—something you can do; and something you can say to our nation’s leaders.

Watch, rate, and forward this YouTube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZRbxMxB1GA
This one-minute piece is a great way to help spread the word about getting involved in the fight against the global hunger crisis. As you watch and rate videos on YouTube, they attract the attention of more people. So spread the word!

Call your senators:
Call your senators and ask them to cosponsor the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433). Use this special toll-free number, and ask to be transferred to your senator's office: 1-800-826-3688. Find out who your senators are.

Talking Points:
We can make sure that our assistance has the greatest impact on the people who need it the most by improving the effectiveness of our development programs.

-Trade policies of the U.S. government often undercut our efforts to help hungry and poor people around the world provide for their families.

-The Global Poverty Act can help prevent situations like the current hunger crisis by requiring a coordinated strategy across the U.S. government to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015.

Saudis donate $500M for food crisis

Printed in the Chicago Trib. I do not know how much the US contributed in the response to the UN emergency appeal.
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Saudis donate $500M for food crisis
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer
4:59 PM CDT, May 23, 2008
UNITED NATIONS

Saudi Arabia made an unprecedented contribution of $500 million to the U.N. World Food Program to respond to rising prices, meaning the agency won't have to cut rations to the world's needy, the United Nations announced Friday.

The contribution the world's biggest oil producing nation was by far the largest response to the U.N. food agency's emergency appeal for $755 million to cover increased costs that threatened critical aid to millions of needy people.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "warmly welcomes the offer of the landmark contribution," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

"The secretary-general notes that this contribution of an unprecedented size and generosity comes not a moment too soon, given the needs of millions of people dependent on food rations," she said.

The Saudi contribution means the agency, which operates the world's largest humanitarian program, will now have the money it needs to carry on its activities without cutting the amount of food given to the needy, Okabe said.

Josette Sheeran, the agency's executive director, said donations actually topped the appeal target -- reaching $960 million from 32 countries -- which means WFP will have $205 million to use for other urgent needs.

"We turned to the world to help the hungry and the world has been generous," Sheeran said in a statement issued at the agency's Rome headquarters.

According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Saudi Arabia produces about 9 million barrels of oil a day. Oil prices have now topped $130 a barrel.

The WFP describes higher food prices as its biggest challenge ever and estimates the rising prices are pushing 130 million people into hunger.

Ban warned last month that the rapidly escalating global food crisis has reached emergency proportions and threatens to wipe out seven years of progress in the fight against global poverty. Ban has established a top-level task force to tackle the world food crisis.

Recipe for Hope: Responding to the Hunger Crisis, Week #3

From Bread for the World's Recipe for Hope action event. Here is the third installment:
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Ingredient for Despair: The Weather Connection

Environmental degradation and climate change are already having far-reaching effects on food production, particularly in tropical regions of Africa, Latin America, and India. In Africa's Sahel, warmer and drier conditions have led to a shorter growing season. Receding Himalayan glaciers in India mean more floods in the monsoon season and more water shortages in the dry season.

But we can’t simply blame the weather—even extreme weather conditions like Australia’s continuing drought. Australia is one of the world’s top wheat exporters, and the drought has reduced its production by 98 percent in the past six years. However, more than 90 percent of the world’s wheat crop is produced elsewhere.

For more on this, download Bread for the World's June Background Paper: Responding to the Global Hunger Crisis.

Ingredients for Hope:

Our Recipe for Hope has two components—something you can do; and something you can say to our nation’s leaders.
Flood your local food bank with canned and boxed food contributions. With more people seeking help from food banks, shelves are being emptied quickly. Locate a food-rescue organization that serves your local community through America's Second Harvest: The Nation's Food Bank Network.

The local Web sites often provide lists of most-needed items, guidance on holding food drives, and drop-off information. If you don't find the information you need online, you will also get contact emails and local phone numbers for assistance.

Write to Congress:
Urge your members of Congress to include an additional $1.8 billion in the supplemental appropriations bill to help address this hunger crisis. Send an email to Congress. Send an email to Congress.

Recipe for Hope: Responding to the Hunger Crisis

From Bread for the World...
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It's in the news nearly every day: Food prices are soaring worldwide, and hunger is increasing. More low-income people in the United States are making trips to food banks, where stocks are quickly depleting. For the world's poorest people in developing countries—who spend up to 80 percent of their income to buy food—the situation is even more devastating.

But you have the power to make a difference in this global hunger crisis. Bread for the World is launching an emergency Recipe for Hope campaign which will run from Mother's Day, May 11, through Father's Day. We will help hunger activists raise awareness and take action. Each week, an email from Bread will offer the ingredients for a:
Recipe for Despair—more information on the causes of this crisis
Recipe for Hope—specific actions you can take to help end it
It’s easy to feel helpless when you watch people around the world suffering for lack of food. Join Bread for the World's Recipe for Hope and be part of the solution.

Mother's Day Recipe:

Ingredient for Despair: Rising Fuel Prices

You've likely felt the impact of rising fuel prices at the gas station. The cost of a barrel of crude oil has doubled in a year, reaching a new record. Higher oil and energy prices affect the entire chain of food production, from fertilizer to harvesting to storage and delivery. People in the United States are seeing these increases in their grocery bills. Poor people in developing countries are hit even harder, since these countries must import food to feed their citizens.

The Washington Post put it well in a recent special series, "As prices skyrocket, those who can least afford it are squeezed the most as the world confronts the worst bout of food inflation since the Soviet grain crisis of the 1970s." Read Rising Food Prices: Impact on the Hungry by the World Food Program.

Ingredient for Hope:
Join the campaign and sign up to receive weekly emails and tell-a-friend.
http://ga4.org/campaign/Recipe_For_Hope/wk36se84476ewe5n?

Somalia today: Food Riots with Fatalities

"I've never demonstrated before, but I'm not ashamed because if you can't eat, you will do whatever you can," said Abdullahi Mohammed, 57, of Mogadishu. "Before I was eating three times a day, but now sometimes it's not even once."

This quote from the LA Times coverage of today's food riot in Somalia really leapt out at me. The food riots have started and are well underway in the developing world. Today, the issue was that shops refused to accept the Somali shilling, preventing citizens to buy food with the only currency they could hold. Gunfire and grenades were used upon the looting protesters in Mogadishu. I am heartbroken considering that more of the same is sure to come. I think of the irritability I feel when I fast. I think about the love I have for my children. I think about how small my fasting irritation would be in comparison to the desperation and unfocused wrath I would feel if extreme hunger were coupled with watching my beloved starve. I think I might be out burning tires as well and (if I thought I could get away with it to feed my children)...looting. Not the most moral admission, but an honest one.

France said that it would double it's food aid to Somalia. I don't know what that amount would be, but it is a call for all of "developed nations" to live up to our Millennium Development Goal commitments. We said we would help and we didn't. And now there are people dying in the streets over rice. It won't be fast enough to help the people in Somalia in the short term, but passage of the Global Poverty Act is critical...not only to get our ball rolling in providing more and better poverty-focused development assistance, but to tell the rest of the world we give a damn about people besides ourselves.

David Beckmann's letter to W: Hunger Crisis

The President of Bread for the World recently wrote to the President of the United States to offer advice on alleviating poverty in the face of the recent food crisis. The formatting may be a little messed up, but the text is here:
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April 25, 2008
Subject: The Hunger Crisis

Dear President Bush,

You have already responded to the increase in global food prices, and I understand you are considering yet bolder action. This letter recommends elements for a Presidential hunger Initiative. It would include completion of a reformed Farm Bill, funding for assistance to hungry people and agricultural development in poor parts of the world, and global policy initiatives.

- The hunger crisis strengthens your case for finalizing an improved Farm Bill. You have conveyed your views via the Secretary of Agriculture and White House statements, but I hope you will now speak out and intervene personally to close the deal. Congress and the administration must reach agreement on a reformed Farm Bill, so that U.S. farmers know the rules as they plant this spring, and because the hunger crisis requires an urgent response:

-You are right to insist on reducing market-distorting subsidies to affluent landowners. This would make U.S. agriculture more efficient and reduce the extent to which U.S. and European farm policies depress agriculture in developing countries. The money can be better used to help struggling U.S. farm and rural families, for investments in U.S. agricultural productivity and to increase food assistance to hungry people.

-The Farm Bill should include reforms and funding to get more food aid to hungry people in poor countries. Your proposed local-purchase reform would provide about $150 million a year in additional food to hungry people at no extra cost to taxpayers. You should also support the House’s proposed expansion of the McGovern-Dole child nutrition initiative as part of our country’s response to the current hunger crisis.

Higher food and fuel prices, unemployment and more constrained credit have increased hunger and poverty in our own country. Your administration has indicated you are willing to go along with the $10 billion increase in nutrition funding that Congress wants to include in the farm bill. In view of the changed situation, you should actively support increased funding for food stamps and food banks.

A compromise on the Farm Bill is within reach. But in any case, it would be wrong to extend the current Farm Bill for another year in the midst of today’s hunger crisis without strengthening food assistance to hungry people.

Looking beyond the Farm Bill, a Presidential Hunger Initiative should also include additional funding for food assistance and for agricultural development in Africa and other poor parts of the world.

We are impressed by the proposal that is being discussed within your administration -- $2 billion (half for immediate assistance to hungry people and half for agricultural development) and complementary policy initiatives. The immediate assistance component should include $600 million for food aid in this year’s emergency supplemental.

Agricultural development is the way to turn the current hunger crisis into powerful and permanent progress against world hunger. The high prices that are causing hardship for 100 million of the world’s poorest people represent opportunity for another 600 million undernourished people who make their living from agriculture. Agricultural development will reduce food prices and also increase incomes in rural areas. About half of Millennium Challenge Account commitments are for agriculture and rural development, because that is what good governments in poor countries are asking for. But USAID’s agriculture programs were drastically cut in the FY08 appropriations. A Presidential Hunger Initiative should include money for USAID agriculture programs, starting with $300 million in this year’s supplemental. We urge the largest possible increase in poverty-focused development assistance for FY09, including $600 million for USAID agriculture.

We understand that administration officials are considering a presidential speech on the hunger crisis and several global policy initiatives: completing the Doha agriculture deal, steps to make agricultural technology available internationally, and developing biofuels in a way that does not add to hunger. These are great ideas, and we would add one more. A recent assessment of different approaches to child hunger (sponsored by the Gates Foundation and World Bank) shows that the highest impact interventions focus on nutrition for pregnant women and babies and add missing vitamins and minerals to basic foods. Child and maternal undernutrition causes more death and disability than any disease, and you could provide leadership for a targeted, cost- effective global campaign to improve global health through child nutrition.

Finally, the next economic stimulus package in this country should include funding for food stamps. Hungry and poor families were left out of the first stimulus package, even though they are hardest hit by the economic slowdown. The best way to reduce hunger in America is through improvements in earnings, income and assets among low-income people. But the fastest, most direct way to reduce hunger – and stimulate the economy – is to strengthen the food stamp program.

Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision-makers to end hunger at home and abroad. We pray for you and other leaders of this richly blessed nation.

Sincerely yours,

The Rev. David Beckmann
President

NY Times: "Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger'

The April 18 New York Times ran an article about the increasing food riots across the globe. These clashes are becoming more an more common as people on the edge are feeling desperation and anger. All of these stories are illustrating how extreme poverty alleviation is not only a matter of morality, charity, social justice or national security, but all of those things together.

Here are excerpts:

"Saint Louis Meriska’s children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry. That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis is not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile governments."

“Why are these riots happening?” asked Arif Husain, senior food security analyst at the World Food Program, which has issued urgent appeals for donations. “The human instinct is to survive, and people are going to do no matter what to survive. And if you’re hungry you get angry quicker.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18food.htmlx=1209614400&en=fad837a1acd76314&ei=5070&emc=eta1