June 23, 2008
Epoch Times
NEW YORK—Rising food prices are causing a global headache as aid agencies worldwide are strained from the hike in food and fuel prices. Most agencies rely heavily on donations but as prices rise, donations may be falling short of demand.
Photo: Burmese children eat donated food in Kyouttan on Saturday. Recent spike in food prices are threatening the ability of humanitarian aid organizations to continue their relief efforts. (Khin Maung Win /AFP /Getty Images)
A panel on Sunday consisting of representatives from humanitarian aid agencies sought to explain the impact of rising food and fuel prices. Hosted by CNN's Christiane Amanpour, the panel drew a crowd of over 500 to The New School in New York City.
Questions from Amanpour put into focus the efficiency and impact of global food aid.
Globally, an average of 10 million tons of food is donated to over twenty countries, most of which reach Africa and southern Asia. Agencies such as the United Nation World Food Program (WFP) cover 50 percent of all food aid globally. In 2006, WFP delivered food to over 87 million people.
The rising prices have a particularly heavy effect because most families buy and don't grow their food. According to Susan Shepherd, a medical advisor for Doctors Without Borders, families replace their normal diets with foods of lower nutritional value when they can't afford meats and vegetables.
"The majority of death from malnutrition cluster in a number of countries especially the Sahel, India, and Bangladesh," said Nicolas de Torrenté, Executive Director of Doctors Without Borders-USA.
"The families have difficulty accessing the nutrition children need. It's caused by chronic structural problem," said de Torrenté.
The ones most affected by this substitution are children, due to the special nutritional needs of their development. A therapeutic food consisting of peanut butter, milk, and various vitamins has helped in nutritional aid for children.
"Prior to using this in Angola, we were able to treat 8,000 kids and we thought it was great," Shepherd said. "A few years later, in 2005, in Niger, we used a therapeutic product and we treated 60,000 kids."
Despite the advancements in food aid, opinion of long term benefits of food aid is still divided.
"Food aid is the least effective method," according to Alex de Waal, program director at the Social Science Research Council. "It only works in a short term with low food and fuel prices."
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2041363620080621?virtualBrandChannel=10112&sp=true