USDA, USAID announce food aid meeting
July 10, 2013 | 11:53 PM
The Agriculture Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which earlier announced that for the first time in decades they would not hold a summer conference on food aid, announced today they would hold a public meeting on “international food assistance and development” on November 21 and 22 in Washington.
The agencies had said that they canceled the Kansas City meeting, which attracted advocates and providers of food aid, as part of a program of reducing government travel.
But participants said the agencies may not have wanted to hold the conference because the Obama administration has proposed shifting from a food aid program based on purchasing and shipping U.S. commodities to a program of cash assistance that would use 45 percent of the budget to buy commodities closer to the problem areas and offer more agricultural development programs in the recipient countries.
Neither the Senate nor the House farm bills included the Obama administration proposal, but a vote on the House floor on the measure was close and the Senate made some changes to allow USAID more flexibility in food aid management.
The meeting will be held November 21 from 2 to 5 p.m. and November 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at USDA, the announcement said. The agencies also said that the Food Aid Consultative Group will meet November 21 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The agencies had said that they canceled the Kansas City meeting, which attracted advocates and providers of food aid, as part of a program of reducing government travel.
But participants said the agencies may not have wanted to hold the conference because the Obama administration has proposed shifting from a food aid program based on purchasing and shipping U.S. commodities to a program of cash assistance that would use 45 percent of the budget to buy commodities closer to the problem areas and offer more agricultural development programs in the recipient countries.
Neither the Senate nor the House farm bills included the Obama administration proposal, but a vote on the House floor on the measure was close and the Senate made some changes to allow USAID more flexibility in food aid management.
The meeting will be held November 21 from 2 to 5 p.m. and November 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at USDA, the announcement said. The agencies also said that the Food Aid Consultative Group will meet November 21 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
