Latest news with #PublicLaw480
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Foreign Aid Can Benefit Both the U.S. and the World
President John F. Kennedy meets with his Food for Peace administrator, George S. McGovern, at the White House. Credit - Bettmann Archive—Getty Images With devastating indifference, President Donald Trump and his special assistant Elon Musk have crippled Food for Peace, a program few Americans have heard of, but one that did tremendous good for over six decades. President John F. Kennedy effectively launched the program in 1961 with the help of a special assistant of his own, George McGovern. Within a year, it was feeding tens of millions of children around the world. The press generally regarded it as one of the Kennedy administration's more impressive achievements. Though some Republicans have critiqued foreign aid as wasteful, the Food for Peace initiative vividly illustrated how foreign aid can do incalculable humanitarian good, while helping the American economy and advancing U.S. foreign policy goals. In the late 1950s, as a young congressman, McGovern had been a critic of foreign aid, albeit for reasons much different than those espoused today. For every dollar the U.S. spent on economic assistance in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, he pointed out, it spent $10 on military aid. The spending disparity ignored the circumstances of many of the countries receiving this aid: people did not have enough to eat, and rates of illiteracy were as high as 90%. For McGovern, the test for any program of foreign aid should be "how effectively it enables the people of the underdeveloped areas to build up the kind of society where better standards of life are possible." This philosophy made McGovern a champion of Public Law 480, enacted under Dwight Eisenhower, in 1954, to reduce America's ruinous postwar agricultural surpluses by distributing them overseas. Critics branded PL 480 a clumsy Republican 'dumping program,' one without any overt humanitarian mission, intended only to pacify electorally important farm states. McGovern saw things much differently. Instead of spending $1 billion annually to store surplus grain, he wanted to use PL-480 to feed more of the world's hungry. Doing so would raise 'living standards' and promote 'peace and stability in the free world" he argued before Congress. McGovern and Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey turned his proposal into the 'Food for Peace' Act, which Congress passed in 1959. Inside the Chaos, Confusion, and Heartbreak of Trump's Foreign-Aid Freeze Like many Republicans in the 1950s, Kennedy initially saw Food for Peace through a political lens, as a partial solution to the 'farm problem' which he could not ignore it during the close 1960 campaign. McGovern, who was running for Senate in South Dakota, helped him find his voice, explaining the dynamic connection between the domestic issue and foreign policy. Under McGovern's tutelage, the candidate played on the theme whenever he traveled to farm states. For example, to thousands of cheering South Dakotans in McGovern's hometown of Mitchell, Kennedy declared the agricultural surplus 'an opportunity." No group could do more for the country than farmers if Americans 'recognize that food is strength' that gave the U.S. the power to win 'good will and friendship' from people around the world Kennedy told the crowd. Kennedy won a narrow victory, but McGovern lost his race for the Senate. The President-elect admired the South Dakotan's agricultural expertise and his distinguished record as a B-24 bomber pilot in World War II and appointed him the first Director of Food for Peace. McGovern set out to turn the program into a bona fide progressive instrument of foreign policy by burying the old 'surplus disposal' concept and dramatically increasing the volume of food distributed through a variety of initiatives. For example, he marshaled allotments of millions of tons of surplus American food and fiber to fuel labor-intensive economic development projects in a 'food for wages' program. In 22 underdeveloped countries, Food for Peace provided partial wage payments for over 700,000 workers engaged in land clearance, irrigation, reforestation, and the construction of roads, schools, hospitals, and agricultural cooperatives. (Workers received food not only for themselves but for their families as well.) For McGovern, this was the way to fight the Cold War—by improving the nutritional health of many millions of people while launching essential public works projects that otherwise might have gone undone. Dearest to his heart, however, was the overseas school lunch program, which he worked tirelessly to expand in 17 countries, including Cold War hotspots like South Korea and South Vietnam. Feeding hungry school children did enormous good; it resulted in striking improvements in school attendance (often by 40 and 50%) and in the health of tens of millions of malnourished children. Pre-schoolers and nursing mothers often came at lunchtime, too. In 1962, McGovern arrived in Bombay to deliver the 14 millionth ton of wheat to India. One out of five Indian school children then received a Food for Peace lunch every day. The children, Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith remarked at the event, 'are better fed and better read as a result of this progressive vision.' McGovern had masterminded the greatest humanitarian achievement of the Kennedy-Johnson era; but it was one that also came with substantial economic and political benefits for the U.S. In recounting to farm audiences the successes of Food for Peace, McGovern highlighted the practical advantages: it absorbed surpluses, saved millions of dollars in storage costs, and, because American ships carried half of all the exported commodities, it benefitted the merchant marine as well. Further, the program served a Cold War purpose: the abundance produced by American farmers alleviated the worst kinds of human suffering that had spawned tyranny abroad. It was 'our most constructive instrument of foreign policy,' McGovern would tell audiences. 'American food has done more to prevent communism than all the military hardware we've shipped around the world.' This meant that America's rural heartland was now a force in foreign policy. Indeed, 'America could make its greatest contribution to world peace by fully utilizing our agricultural abundance,' said McGovern. He often reminded farmers that they composed just 8% of the U.S. population, yet they produced a volume of commodities five times greater than did their counterparts in Russia who made up nearly half of its labor force. 'Marx,' he liked to say, "was a city boy." I Came to Congress to Gut Foreign Aid. I Was Wrong This experience would have a lasting impact on McGovern's thinking about the ways powerful nations might figure in the life of weaker nations. He went on to help establish the World Food Program in 1961. Though he won a Senate race in 1962, he never forgot the lessons of Food for Peace. What today we call 'food security' became his top domestic priority. In 1968 he launched the first serious investigation of the scope of hunger and malnutrition in America, which resulted in a major expansion of the school lunch program; in 1971, he worked with Kansas Republican Senator Robert Dole to quadruple the number of families who could qualify for Food Stamps, thus (for the while) nearly eradicating hunger in America. McGovern is best remembered today for his prescient opposition to the Vietnam War and his landslide loss in the 1972 presidential election. But he was also the statesman who, according to Robert F. Kennedy, 'almost single-handedly' transformed a mere surplus distribution venture and made it 'mean something around the rest of the world.' President Kennedy did not exaggerate when he stated proudly in 1962, 'Food for Peace has become a vital force in the world.' In the decades since, Congress has continued to reauthorize the program with an emphasis on international food security in the underdeveloped world. Legislators also recognized that it advanced the economic standing of American farmers and the country's foreign policy goals. It remained, in Kennedy's words, 'a vital force' and the enlightened instrument of practical idealism that McGovern had crafted. As of February 2025, Food for Peace had fed upwards of some four billion people around the world. In light of the Trump administration's approach to foreign aid, Americans today would do well to recall McGovern's legacy. For it demonstrates how foreign aid can have political and economic benefits while also accomplishing undeniable good. The history of Food for Peace exemplifies the value of internationalism and humanitarian endeavors in the making of American foreign policy. Thomas J. Knock is professor of history in the Clements department of history at Southern Methodist University and distinguished fellow at its Center for Presidential History. He is the author of The Rise of a Prairie Statesman, The Life and Times of George McGovern; and To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order. Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors. Write to Made by History at madebyhistory@
Time Magazine
23-04-2025
- Business
- Time Magazine
Food for Peace Showed How Foreign Aid Can Benefit Both the U.S. and the World
With devastating indifference, President Donald Trump and his special assistant Elon Musk have crippled Food for Peace, a program few Americans have heard of, but one that did tremendous good for over six decades. President John F. Kennedy effectively launched the program in 1961 with the help of a special assistant of his own, George McGovern. Within a year, it was feeding tens of millions of children around the world. The press generally regarded it as one of the Kennedy administration's more impressive achievements. Though some Republicans have critiqued foreign aid as wasteful, the Food for Peace initiative vividly illustrated how foreign aid can do incalculable humanitarian good, while helping the American economy and advancing U.S. foreign policy goals. In the late 1950s, as a young congressman, McGovern had been a critic of foreign aid, albeit for reasons much different than those espoused today. For every dollar the U.S. spent on economic assistance in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, he pointed out, it spent $10 on military aid. The spending disparity ignored the circumstances of many of the countries receiving this aid: people did not have enough to eat, and rates of illiteracy were as high as 90%. For McGovern, the test for any program of foreign aid should be "how effectively it enables the people of the underdeveloped areas to build up the kind of society where better standards of life are possible." This philosophy made McGovern a champion of Public Law 480, enacted under Dwight Eisenhower, in 1954, to reduce America's ruinous postwar agricultural surpluses by distributing them overseas. Critics branded PL 480 a clumsy Republican 'dumping program,' one without any overt humanitarian mission, intended only to pacify electorally important farm states. McGovern saw things much differently. Instead of spending $1 billion annually to store surplus grain, he wanted to use PL-480 to feed more of the world's hungry. Doing so would raise 'living standards' and promote 'peace and stability in the free world" he argued before Congress. McGovern and Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey turned his proposal into the 'Food for Peace' Act, which Congress passed in 1959. Like many Republicans in the 1950s, Kennedy initially saw Food for Peace through a political lens, as a partial solution to the 'farm problem' which he could not ignore it during the close 1960 campaign. McGovern, who was running for Senate in South Dakota, helped him find his voice, explaining the dynamic connection between the domestic issue and foreign policy. Under McGovern's tutelage, the candidate played on the theme whenever he traveled to farm states. For example, to thousands of cheering South Dakotans in McGovern's hometown of Mitchell, Kennedy declared the agricultural surplus 'an opportunity." No group could do more for the country than farmers if Americans 'recognize that food is strength' that gave the U.S. the power to win 'good will and friendship' from people around the world Kennedy told the crowd. Kennedy won a narrow victory, but McGovern lost his race for the Senate. The President-elect admired the South Dakotan's agricultural expertise and his distinguished record as a B-24 bomber pilot in World War II and appointed him the first Director of Food for Peace. McGovern set out to turn the program into a bona fide progressive instrument of foreign policy by burying the old 'surplus disposal' concept and dramatically increasing the volume of food distributed through a variety of initiatives. For example, he marshaled allotments of millions of tons of surplus American food and fiber to fuel labor-intensive economic development projects in a 'food for wages' program. In 22 underdeveloped countries, Food for Peace provided partial wage payments for over 700,000 workers engaged in land clearance, irrigation, reforestation, and the construction of roads, schools, hospitals, and agricultural cooperatives. (Workers received food not only for themselves but for their families as well.) For McGovern, this was the way to fight the Cold War—by improving the nutritional health of many millions of people while launching essential public works projects that otherwise might have gone undone. Dearest to his heart, however, was the overseas school lunch program, which he worked tirelessly to expand in 17 countries, including Cold War hotspots like South Korea and South Vietnam. Feeding hungry school children did enormous good; it resulted in striking improvements in school attendance (often by 40 and 50%) and in the health of tens of millions of malnourished children. Pre-schoolers and nursing mothers often came at lunchtime, too. In 1962, McGovern arrived in Bombay to deliver the 14 millionth ton of wheat to India. One out of five Indian school children then received a Food for Peace lunch every day. The children, Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith remarked at the event, 'are better fed and better read as a result of this progressive vision.' McGovern had masterminded the greatest humanitarian achievement of the Kennedy-Johnson era; but it was one that also came with substantial economic and political benefits for the U.S. In recounting to farm audiences the successes of Food for Peace, McGovern highlighted the practical advantages: it absorbed surpluses, saved millions of dollars in storage costs, and, because American ships carried half of all the exported commodities, it benefitted the merchant marine as well. Further, the program served a Cold War purpose: the abundance produced by American farmers alleviated the worst kinds of human suffering that had spawned tyranny abroad. It was 'our most constructive instrument of foreign policy,' McGovern would tell audiences. 'American food has done more to prevent communism than all the military hardware we've shipped around the world.' This meant that America's rural heartland was now a force in foreign policy. Indeed, 'America could make its greatest contribution to world peace by fully utilizing our agricultural abundance,' said McGovern. He often reminded farmers that they composed just 8% of the U.S. population, yet they produced a volume of commodities five times greater than did their counterparts in Russia who made up nearly half of its labor force. 'Marx,' he liked to say, "was a city boy." This experience would have a lasting impact on McGovern's thinking about the ways powerful nations might figure in the life of weaker nations. He went on to help establish the World Food Program in 1961. Though he won a Senate race in 1962, he never forgot the lessons of Food for Peace. What today we call 'food security' became his top domestic priority. In 1968 he launched the first serious investigation of the scope of hunger and malnutrition in America, which resulted in a major expansion of the school lunch program; in 1971, he worked with Kansas Republican Senator Robert Dole to quadruple the number of families who could qualify for Food Stamps, thus (for the while) nearly eradicating hunger in America. McGovern is best remembered today for his prescient opposition to the Vietnam War and his landslide loss in the 1972 presidential election. But he was also the statesman who, according to Robert F. Kennedy, 'almost single-handedly' transformed a mere surplus distribution venture and made it 'mean something around the rest of the world.' President Kennedy did not exaggerate when he stated proudly in 1962, 'Food for Peace has become a vital force in the world.' In the decades since, Congress has continued to reauthorize the program with an emphasis on international food security in the underdeveloped world. Legislators also recognized that it advanced the economic standing of American farmers and the country's foreign policy goals. It remained, in Kennedy's words, 'a vital force' and the enlightened instrument of practical idealism that McGovern had crafted. As of February 2025, Food for Peace had fed upwards of some four billion people around the world. In light of the Trump administration's approach to foreign aid, Americans today would do well to recall McGovern's legacy. For it demonstrates how foreign aid can have political and economic benefits while also accomplishing undeniable good. The history of Food for Peace exemplifies the value of internationalism and humanitarian endeavors in the making of American foreign policy. Thomas J. Knock is professor of history in the Clements department of history at Southern Methodist University and distinguished fellow at its Center for Presidential History. He is the author of The Rise of a Prairie Statesman, The Life and Times of George McGovern; and To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order.
USA Today
09-02-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Without USAID's Food for Peace, Kansas grain elevators have no market for sorghum
Without USAID's Food for Peace, Kansas grain elevators have no market for sorghum Show Caption Hide Caption Protest outside USAID offices after Elon Musk vows to shut agency down Protesters gathered outside the USAID building in Washington, D.C., after Donald Trump and Elon Musk vowed to shut the agency down. The U.S. Agency for International Development has been shut down by President Trump and Elon Musk. Food for Peace, a program under USAID that used American agricultural surpluses for foreign aid, has been shuttered. Kansas farmers, the leading producers of sorghum often purchased for the Food for Peace program, are left with a surplus and no buyer. The shutdown has raised concerns about the potential loss of export markets and the impact on global food security. Kansas farmers and grain elevators could be left without a market for last year's sorghum crop after President Donald Trump dismantled a federal foreign aid program. Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. It housed Food for Peace, which used America's agricultural surpluses to fight world hunger, expand international trade and advance foreign diplomacy. Shutting down the food aid program could adversely affect the Kansas agriculture industry, which has an overabundance of sorghum, also known as milo. "Right now, there's no export market for it, and there's no domestic market," said Kim Barnes, the chief financial officer of the Pawnee County co-op in Larned. Part of his job is purchasing and selling grain, like the sorghum taking up much of the space in the co-op's grain elevators. Sometimes, that has meant selling to Food for Peace when there are calls for contracts. "We were hoping there'd be another one with as much milo as we have," Barnes said. Food for Peace used to buy grain from Kansas Food for Peace, also known as Public Law 480, is a 70-year-old foreign aid program with a Kansas legacy. It was inspired by a Kansas farmer, signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and later championed by U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. Barnes said taxpayer dollars pay the American agriculture industry for the food that is used in foreign aid. The way the USAID program has worked is the government, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sends out a call for contract. "I've gotten these contract proposals for many years," Barnes said. "They tell you what they're looking to buy and the destination and how much they're looking to buy." Sometimes, they sell to brokers. Other times, directly to an export house, and they then make the contract with the government. From there, the grain is loaded on a ship and sent overseas. If the government doesn't buy the sorghum to use as food aid, grain elevators and others in the industry could find themselves stuck with last year's harvest filling up space — and potentially costing them storage interest — heading into this year's growing season. "It won't go bad — we know how to maintain grain — but storage space is going to get tight," Barnes said. Sorghum grain stocks are higher than a year ago Sorghum is a popular crop in western Kansas. Because it requires less water to produce, it has been championed as part of the response to the ongoing depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer. While Kansas may be better known for wheat and sunflowers, it is the nation's leading producer of sorghum. The USDA reports that Kansas produces 57% of the country's sorghum. Meanwhile, the U.S. is the world leader with 14% of global sorghum production. Being the nation's leading producer also means Kansas has more sorghum stocks than the rest of the country. The latest USDA grain stock data shows that as of Dec. 1, Kansas had 151 million bushels of sorghum held at mills, elevators, warehouses, terminals and processors. The nationwide total was 210 million bushels. The state figure is 26 million bushels — or 21% — higher than the same date a year before. "The market is just not there to sell it," Barnes said. "We've been buying milo from our producers all along. We have a tremendous company-owned position at this point, just nobody on the other side to sell it to. And it's just not country elevators, it's terminals, it's everybody, because there's just no market in the world today for milo." The Pawnee County co-op's grain elevator has a storage capacity of 6 million bushels, Barnes said. About 2.5 to 3 million of that is currently full, and the majority of that is sorghum. Compared to this time in past years, grain storage is typically around 2 to 2.5 million, with sorghum accounting for a smaller share. "This is just a milo issue," he said. "Because corn, soybeans and wheat are finding homes domestically and export." In the United States, sorghum is primarily used for ethanol or livestock feed. Human consumption is more common internationally. Top export destinations include China, Mexico and Africa. "If we can't get a chance to move this milo, the basis on milo is just going to deteriorate farther as we get into the future months," Barnes said. "Because if there's no place to go with it, we can't buy something that we can't get fair value on the other side." More: Will Kansas State lose $50 million in USAID funding for agriculture research? Donald Trump and Elon Musk shut down USAID Trump has alleged corruption at USAID, saying, "It's been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we're getting them out." The president reiterated his point in an all-caps post Friday morning on Truth Social. "USAID IS DRIVING THE RADICAL LEFT CRAZY, AND THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT BECAUSE THE WAY IN WHICH THE MONEY HAS BEEN SPENT, SO MUCH OF IT FRAUDULENTLY, IS TOTALLY UNEXPLAINABLE," Trump wrote. "THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!" Musk, who lead's Trump's informal Department of Government Efficiency, has said USAID is "beyond repair" and that it is "time for it to die." He called it "evil" and a "criminal organization." After shutting down the agency, he said, "We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper." When asked about the future of Food for Peace, U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, alleged waste, fraud and abuse at USAID. "It's something that I want to be part of, but I want it to be efficient, and I don't want the thugs stealing the food and stealing the money as well," Marshall said in response to a question from The Capital-Journal while in Topeka on Feb. 3. "So I think there's a right way to do it; there's a wrong way to do it. I think it's very good to take a pause on all of our money that we're sending outside of this country." Barnes, who is 70 years old and has worked at the Pawnee County co-op for 51 years, said he has not seen financial impropriety on the grain side of foreign aid. "I know the discussion was that there was a lot of potential mismanagement of funds," he said. "I don't know that over the whole system, but I know when the award was made, I'm able to see what they get, price per metric ton. I can convert that back to bushel price. I know the freight between here and that foreign country. And I've not seen where a company selling that grain isn't getting above and beyond normal margin." More: Are Trump and Musk ending a Kansas legacy by shuttering USAID's Food for Peace? Could Food for Peace be kept alive? Barnes said putting back in place Food for Peace would help the industry. But he doesn't know whether to expect future calls for contracts or if the program is permanently gone. "It's unclear today what's going to happen," he said. Nearly all USAID employees have been placed on administrative leave. There appears to be no way to contact what, if anything, remains of the agency. Kansas Sorghum Producers CEO Adam York said in a statement to The Capital-Journal that sorghum is a critical crop for national and global food security. "Throughout changes in administrations, U.S. sorghum farmers have worked to have a seat at the table in international food aid programs housed across many agencies, including over the past several years with officials at State Department," York said. "As the Administration sees reorganization, we absolutely urge the Administration and Congress to prioritize American agriculture going forward as a solution to challenges in both international and domestic policy." Barnes said he has been in communication with U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran's office. "U.S. food aid feeds the hungry, bolsters our national security & provides an important market for our farmers, especially when commodity prices are low," said Moran, R-Kansas, in a Friday afternoon post on X. "I've spoken to USDA & the White House about the importance of resuming the procurement, shipping & distribution of American-grown food." Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now as acting administrator of USAID. The U.S. State Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon on if and when USAID's Food for Peace will resume buying Kansas sorghum. Speaking to reporters in the past week while in Latin America, Rubio said he would have preferred an approach that identified which ones to keep and which ones to end. But he said that USAID staff were uncooperative, so the administration went a different route. "The goal of our endeavor has always been to identify programs that work and continue them and to identify programs that are not aligned with our national interest and identify those and address them," Rubio told reporters in on Thursday in the Dominican Republic. "We are going to do foreign aid," he added. "The United States will be providing foreign aid, but it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest." More: Without USAID funding, Kansans who help children with disabilities lose jobs Jerry Moran talks in Congress about foreign food aid In a Wednesday hearing of the U.S. Senate's agriculture committee, Moran emphasized the importance of agricultural export markets, "because we produce more than we can consume." Moran raised concerns that "what we believe to be true is that $560 million worth of food commodities is sitting in ports awaiting the ability to be moved to places where people are starving." The senator said "while there is certainly a moral component to food aid," there is also "a value to farmers" and bettering their economics. He recalled, during the first Trump administration, visiting Kensington where sorghum "piled on the ground was as high as the elevator." "Any food aid helps in that economic picture for farmers," said Zippy Duvall, a Georgia farmer who is president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. "It is important to realize that we support efficiencies. We want it done in an efficient way and not be wasteful. But we also got to think about the stability of our world." National Farmers Union president Rob Larew, who is a West Virginia farmer, said that in addition to the humanitarian aspects of food aid, it can help bring market stability. "And particularly now, with a lot of pressure on all of those commodities, some of those commodities are at risk — should there be major disruptions here — to falling even further," Larew said. 'The breadbasket of the world' Barnes, with the co-op in Pawnee County, echoed the thoughts shared in Congress. "My concern is these will be potential markets that we'll lose, and people will go hungry," Barnes said. "They'll look for other sources, and will those other sources not be what we need for safety? We also need to take care of those in need." Barnes said that foreign food aid opens the opportunity for long-term benefit in exports. "In other words," he said, "taking that development of that country, getting them on their feet, helping them to be better economics in their countries, with the idea that we help you today, get you back on your feet, and you could be a purchaser down the road." "The farming community," he added, "believes in raising the crop and providing things for the world and for other people to be able to prosper themselves. We've been the breadbasket of the world for years, and that hasn't changed." Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@ Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
