Fixing food aid: help that hurts.

• Author: Sanders, Ben
• Position: Citings - Brief article

CORN AND wheat from U.S. farms can save lives in countries hit by war, famine, or other disasters, as many Haitians learned after a severe earthquake struck their country in January. But excessive or ill-timed food aid can undermine the local economies of already ravaged countries. And when the aid dries up and the emergency passes, local farms will again have to feed the populace.

While European countries tend to give cash donations to purchase food locally, the U.S. donates homegrown grain and other goods to nonprofits for shipment overseas. The U.S. also allows aid groups to sell off a percentage of the goods they receive overseas to cover transportation costs or fund development programs, a practice known as "monetization." The program not only provides a subsidy to U.S. agribusiness and shipping interests; it undermines local agriculture in the countries receiving aid by temporarily flooding the...