Food Aid Changes

So according to an article in South Africa’s Mail and Guardian the United Nations is going to start buying surplus crops from low-income farmers in 21 developing countries for the World Food Programme.

Apparently 80 per cent comes from developing countries but all from traders (aka middle men) and large scale farmers (possible bad labour practices?).

The article says

"The world's poor are reeling under the impact of high food and fuel prices and buying food assistance from developing-world farmers is the right solution at the right time," said Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, who said the Purchase for Progress scheme was a "win-win".

Win-win indeed – wonder why it took them so long to come up with this?

Charitable foundations established by Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and Howard Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, are funding the project, which targets some of the world's poorest countries, including Sierra Leone, Malawi, Ethiopia and El Salvador. It is expected that 40 000 tons of food - enough to feed to 250 000 people for a year -- will be purchased in the first year.

Right it took Bill Gates and Howard Buffett to come up with this…

The farmers will be required to form collectives and the usual UN requirements for growers to provide surety bonds, transport and packaging materials will be relaxed or waived. By selling directly to the WFP rather than to middlemen, it is expected that the farmers will receive higher-than-normal prices.

That’s great – I have nothing bad to say about it!

Although it’s entertaining because as we grow closer to the deadline for the millennium development goals it seems that us developed countries are realizing we are going to have to work at achieving them

Apparently we just can’t make goals and then sit back – we have to work for them.