The Catch-22 of Food Aid

The world's poor are caught in a Catch-22. When food prices rise, they suffer. When food prices fall, they suffer.

That, according to Robert Paarlberg, writing in Foreign Policy, is because "prices are not the only factor at work."

Paarlberg, an advocate of the teach-a-man-to-fish worldview, is a Wellesley poli sci professor and author of Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out of Africa.

He doesn't mention biotech here but rather advocates that the United States boost its development aid and stop relying on the ultimately unhelpful direct shipments of food to poverty-stricken countries.

He also argues that ups and downs in food prices and incomes simply exacerbate the real problem, which is "persistent rural poverty in Africa and South Asia."

The irony is that this poverty mostly affects farmers. Many of them are caught in a trap of trying to live on less than $1 a day, which gives them little hope of acquiring the quality seeds and fertilizers that more affluent farmers enjoy. And their governments, themselves often strapped for cash or hopelessly corrupt, can't or won't provide the infrastructure needed for farmers to bring their goods to market: roads, electricity, etc.

President Bush has frequently been lauded for his efforts to help Africa fight disease—it is among the few accomplishments of his presidency that most people agree upon. But he didn't do much to help African countries, or any others, with agricultural development. Neither did previous presidents. Over the past three decades, Paarlberg notes, the United States has cut its development assistance to Africa by 85 percent. But last year, it boosted its direct food shipments by $1.4 billion.

Such aid can actually hurt poor farmers by crowding their crops out of the marketplace. But the United States spends about 20 times as much on food aid as it does on development aid—something that would help solve the core problems.

He finds hope in the new administration and a bill that is making its way through Congress to significantly boost development aid.