[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       THE FOOD FOR PEACE PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Bereuter] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member rises today, and will speak 
again on May 12, in a two-part tribute to, and discussion of, one of 
the outstanding programs of the U.S. Government, which has literally 
saved the lives of millions and millions of people around the world 
during the last four decades. That program is the Food for Peace 
Program, also called the Public Law 480 program after the public law 
that created the program 40 years ago. Today my remarks will focus on 
the history of the Public Law 480 program. My remarks later this week 
will focus on the current challenges facing Public Law 480 program in 
responding to food security needs worldwide.
  On the morning of May 4, 1994, there was a gathering here on Capitol 
Hill of several hundred people from around the United States to 
recognize the 40th anniversary of the Public Law 480 program. The 
several hundred people in attendance included representatives from 
farming, food processing, transportation, and relief organizations like 
CARE and Catholic Relief Services from all over the country. Members of 
Congress and officials from the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. 
Agency for International Development also spoke of the many 
contributions of the program over the years. Many commented that this 
program embodies the heart of America at its best, reaching out with 
concrete generosity to those most in need. Mr. C. Payne Lucas, 
executive director of Africare, said that just as Public Law 480 was 
instrumental in limiting the appeal of communism in poor countries, so 
it continues to be needed today to preserve the fragile democracies 
that are emerging. This Member was reminded that Mr. James Grant, 
executive director of UNICEF, once defined democracy as ``elections, 
followed by dinner.''
  In these remarks today this Member will briefly recap some of the 
changes in the food aid program over the years, and, in the second set 
of remarks later this week, point out some of the serious challenges 
faced by the Food for Peace Program today.
  The Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, was 
signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower on July 10, 1954. Since 
1955, it has provided about 48 billion dollars' worth of food to 
countries with food shortages. The program is reevaluated and 
redesigned every 4 to 5 years as part of the general farm bill 
legislation that authorizes most food and agricultural programs. The 
last farm bill was in 1990; the next one will be in 1995. Funding for 
food aid is provided annually as part of the agriculture appropriations 
bill. In fiscal year 1994, the Public Law 480 program is funded at a 
level of $1.6 billion, most of which is spent to buy commodities in the 
United States for donation or sale in poor countries and to pay for 
transportation services.
  During the early years of the program, the Public Law 480 program 
helped dispose of surplus commodities and increase U.S. agricultural 
exports as its primary objectives. Concerns that careless dumping could 
disrupt local agricultural production and marketing led to redesign of 
the program. By the mid-1960's the focus of the program was changed by 
Congress to emphasize economic development and foreign policy 
objectives, including emergency relief and combating communism in the 
Third World. Commodities used in the P.L. 480 program were no longer 
required to be in surplus, but could be bought for use in meeting 
emergencies and development needs in the Third World.

  In the early 1970's the world food situation deteriorated sharply 
because of poor weather conditions and other market factors. World food 
stocks diminished and commodity prices rose sharply, threatening many 
people in poor, food-importing countries with famine. The World Food 
Conference in 1974 was a gathering of delegates from 130 nations in 
response to this emergency situation. The world community pledged to 
boost food production, particularly in poor and food deficit nations, 
and to establish a world target of 10 million tons of food assistance 
available each year. The U.S. food aid program has continued to be the 
largest national effort toward this global commitment, accounting for a 
very substantial share of worldwide food aid contributions since then. 
Then Public Law 480 legislation throughout the 1970's reflected a 
continuing focus on advancing the development of needy countries by 
reducing poverty and helping to meet the basic needs of their people. 
Private voluntary organizations like CARE and Catholic Relief Services 
came to play a predominant role in the management and distribution of 
donated food. Also, under the special food for development program, 
very poor countries could negotiate forgiveness of U.S. food aid loans 
if they undertook acceptable development reforms to improve food 
security and rural development.
  In the 1980's U.S. food aid played a major role in meeting the 
humanitarian needs of the famine in Africa in 1984-85. In 1985 an 
additional new food aid distribution channel called Food for Progress 
was created to allow grants of food aid to countries committed to 
introducing free market agricultural reforms. Rules governing CCC-owned 
surplus stocks were also broadened under section 416 to allow foreign 
donations of all CCC-held edible commodities as a supplement to the 
Public Law 480 program.
  Today, as the result of the latest changes in the Food for Peace 
program in 1990 farm bill legislation, Public Law 480 food aid is 
focused on improving food security in countries with significant levels 
of malnutrition, chronic food shortages, and high infant mortality 
rates. Food aid can no longer be used as a political reward for foreign 
countries, without regard for their degree of need or their potential 
as commercial markets for the U.S. Emergency food aid is donated to 
provide immediate assistance during famines and man-made disasters. 
Developmental food aid meets current food deficit needs and requires 
that any local currency proceeds from sales of the donated food in 
local markets be reinvested in projects to improve the long-term food 
security, health, and productivity of poor and undernourished people. 
There also continues to be a food aid credit program for food-deficit 
countries that need concessional financing terms and have potential to 
become commercial markets for U.S. commodities.

  Over the years food assistance has decreased in absolute terms and as 
a percentage of total U.S. exports. In the 1950's and early 1960's, 
total U.S. grain exports ranged between 10 and 30 million tons a year, 
and more than 50 percent of grain exports were shipped under the Public 
Law 480 program. In the late 1980's and 1990's, total U.S. grain 
exports have ranged between 80 and 100 million tons a year, 
representing a dramatic increase in commercial sales, and food aid has 
accounted for only about 7 percent of total grain exports and 2 to 4 
percent of total U.S. agricultural exports.
  The second part of my remarks on U.S. food assistance programs later 
this week will focus on several difficult challenges to the Public Law 
480 program at present. The first is the serious decline in funding 
levels in the face of ongoing, even escalating, needs for international 
food aid. The second is the challenge of preserving food aid programs 
that address chronic hunger and food insecurity through long-term 
development in the face of mounting emergency food aid needs.

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