[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 61 (Thursday, April 17, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3137-S3138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WORLD FOOD CRISIS

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I fear we are on the brink of a major 
humanitarian crisis around the world. Food prices are rising beyond the 
reach of people in countries as disparate and far apart as Haiti, 
Egypt, and Thailand. Food prices and their increase have led to 
demonstrations, sometimes even violent demonstrations in many parts of 
the world, creating real threats to the stability of those countries. 
As many as 33 countries face a growing risk of hunger and social unrest 
that is caused when people are hungry and frightened about their 
future. Quite simply, I am concerned that we are steps away from a 
world food crisis, a crisis that could have a dramatic impact on some 
of the world's poorest nations.
  The other week, World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned:

       For countries where food comprises about half to three-
     quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival.

  In the United States, the poorest 20 percent, the poorest one-fifth 
of our population, spends about 16 percent of their income on food. It 
is a lot compared to many of us. But in the poorest nations, those 
families spend more than half of what they earn to feed themselves. In 
Nigeria, families spend an average of 73 percent of the money they earn 
on food; in Vietnam, 65 percent. Even as food prices soar, humanitarian 
aid has been forced to scale back. In Cambodia, the World Food Program, 
which is largely sustained and supported by the United States, has 
suspended a feeding program for 500,000 schoolchildren because of food 
shortages. Rising food prices mean hunger, and with hunger and no real 
hope of ending it come panic, desperation, and, ultimately civil 
unrest.
  At any given time, chronic hunger threatens the welfare of an 
estimated 850 million people in the world.
  We talk a lot about the forces of extremists and terrorists and 
fundamentalists, how destabilizing they are with their acts of violence 
in countries where they kill innocent people. But I have to say, if 
this world food crisis continues unabated, the instability of terrorism 
may pale in comparison.
  In Thailand, local farmers are reporting theft of their rice crops, 
as supplies from other countries are going down and prices are going up 
dramatically. Protests have turned violent in many places. In Yemen, 
food prices have doubled in recent months. Protests and riots there 
left at least 12 people dead. Protests in Cameroon earlier this year 
killed more than two dozen people and led to desperate attempts by the 
Government to raise wages and reduce customs duties on food products. 
Rioters in Burkina Faso looted stores and burned Government buildings. 
The Prime Minister of Haiti was forced to resign following days of 
deadly violence over rising food prices. Last weekend, a U.N. 
peacekeeper transporting food for his unit was dragged from his vehicle 
and shot execution style in the Haitian capital by protesters.
  The risk of unrest is even more troubling in areas such as Darfur, 
where the World Food Program is feeding up to 3 million people a day. 
This is a humanitarian time bomb which threatens to explode at any 
moment.
  I have seen food aid programs operate overseas, and they can make a 
big difference. I saw one program when I traveled to a slum in Nairobi, 
Kenya. It is a slum of lean-to homes where more than 600,000 people 
live. It is called Kibera. If you saw the movie ``The Constant 
Gardener,'' much of it was filmed in the slum of Kibera in Nairobi, 
Kenya. Some people think up to 1 million people live there from time to 
time, some 600,000. Nobody even knows.
  When you visit there, there are people as far as the eye can see--
kids playing in the streets, in the filth, in railway yards, 
everywhere.
  But when I visited there, there was a scene that was almost hard to 
believe. It was near the holiday season. The local schools were on 
vacation, but they asked the students to come back to greet this 
Senator who was coming from America. About 40 or 50 children put on 
their uniforms, left their vacation time at home, to come back to 
school. It wasn't to see me; believe me. It was because they promised 
them that if they would come back to school that day, they would feed 
them. The feeding program in that little school is part of what is 
known as the McGovern-Dole school feeding program, named after two 
former great Senators who served from South Dakota and Kansas.
  I saw the way that food program worked. There was a noon lunch which 
consisted of a pot of boiling cereal. It looked a lot like oatmeal or 
some form of porridge. They ladled it into plastic cups. The kids stood 
in line like they were at Baskin Robbins in Springfield, IL, hoping to 
get a double-dip ice cream cone. They were so excited to get something 
to eat. It was the only meal they were going to have that day. They 
were willing to put up with this politician, wear their uniforms, come 
in from vacation, on the chance they could fill that cup. They stood 
there and waited, just to get one meal.
  The World Food Program has issued an extraordinary emergency appeal 
because food programs like that one in Kenya may not last. There is a 
shortfall of some $500 million in food programs across the world. 
Considering the high cost of food and fuel prices to transport it, the 
shortfall is no surprise. But it requires immediate action. The U.S. 
contribution to the World Food Program is important because it doesn't 
just feed hungry kids. It tells the world who we are.
  Right now there are people who are not our friends, who are in fact 
our enemies, who are advertising against the United States. On 
television sets and other places around the world, there is an image of 
America that is not even close to the truth. They suggest that we are 
warmongers and selfish people. We are not.
  We have to prove to the world again that our values count, and we 
will stand behind them. This global food crisis is the kind of 
challenge that gives us our opportunity.
  It also is important to quell the growing security concerns attached 
with a global food crisis. Senators John Kerry and Joe Biden joined me 
today in sending a letter to President Bush urging him to support 
additional funding for food aid in the fiscal year 2008 supplemental 
appropriations bill. The President is going to come to us shortly and 
ask for $108 billion to continue the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan. He 
will tell us this is an emergency. The world food crisis is also an 
emergency. It is one we should deal with. If we are really focused on 
stability and peace in Iraq, we should not ignore the fact that the 
shortages of food and hunger around the world can lead to instability 
in many other places.
  As a first step, the Department of Agriculture has committed to 
providing $200 million in emergency food assistance through the Bill 
Emerson humanitarian trust. Bill Emerson, former Republican Congressman 
from the Boothill area of Missouri, was a fine fellow. I got to know 
him when I served in the House. He really cared about children and 
feeding people. So $200 million in his name is certainly money well 
spent.
  Moving forward, though, we have to understand that is not enough. We 
are going to need to add more to make sure this crisis doesn't occur.
  We can share our bountiful harvest. We can help the poorest people in 
the world. We can demonstrate in that way the finest elements of the 
American spirit.

[[Page S3138]]

  We recently had a hearing, in fact yesterday, before the Senate 
Appropriations Committee, where Jim Nussle, who is chairman of the 
Office of Management and Budget, spoke. Jim comes from the State of 
Iowa. He is a former Congressman, former chairman of the House Budget 
Committee.
  I asked him about this. I asked him if the administration would 
consider, as part of their supplemental appropriations bill, including 
more money for this global food crisis. I am afraid Mr. Nussle was 
adamant in saying they would not. They would not consider adding any 
money to the $108 billion for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said 
that is all the President has asked for.
  I hope Mr. Nussle will reconsider. I certainly hope the President 
will reconsider. What is at issue is not a political fight. What is at 
issue is a fight for food so some of the poorest people on Earth can 
survive. The United States will have a chance to demonstrate to the 
world our values and what we stand for. I hope we can do that by adding 
to this supplemental funding bill enough money to provide assistance to 
people around the world who face deprivation and starvation because of 
the current global food crisis.

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