Rajiv Shah
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah appealed to agricultural lobbyists today to support the Obama administration’s request for more flexibility in administering food aid programs.

In a speech to the Agribusiness Club of Washington, Shah said the administration’s proposal that government agencies be given the freedom to buy food in countries near those that need it, and in some cases to give individuals purchasing power rather than being given food, should be viewed not as a stepping away from U.S. agriculture but as a “recommitment” to the government’s relationship with U.S. agricultural producers.

Shah noted that he had visited a plant in Rhode Island that produces peanut paste and other highly nutrition foods that USAID sends overseas. He said that visit showed that U.S.-produced “modern and scientifically enhanced food products” are vital to the food aid effort.

U.S. farm leaders who had led the world in food aid should become “champions of the new approach,” in order to remain world food aid leaders, he said.

But he also said that times have changed since Food for Peace was established during the Eisenhower administration, when most food aid went to Europe.

In his 2014 budget proposal, President Barack Obama said that agencies should have more flexibility, and the Senate-passed farm bill contains a food aid title with that flexibility included. The administration is urging farm bill conferees to adopt the Senate-passed provision as opposed to the food aid section of the House bill, which makes no changes.

After the speech, Shah told The Hagstrom Report that he is “hopeful” the conferees will adopt the Senate proposal.

“There is an urgency and specificity in which this [flexibility] is critical today” due to the situations in the Philippines and the Middle East, Shah said.

The United States airlifted high-energy biscuits to the Philippines after the recent storms there, but the larger shipment of food aid is only now arriving. Without increased flexibility, it will be hard to fulfill the Philippines’ need for food, he said in the interview.

And without flexibility with the situation in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, there can be “pretty dire human consequences,” he said.

The Senate farm bill proposal would allow less than half the flexibility that Obama proposed, Shah noted.

Asked about the statement by Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, that questions the use of cash aid because it is easier to steal than food (see story below), Shah pointed out that the George W. Bush administration had started the pilot project on which the flexibility request is based, and that the pilot showed the U.S. government food aid effort has more impact when USAID has more flexibility, that the food aid is delivered faster, is less costly and feeds more children.

Asked by an audience member about attacks on U.S. biotechnology, Shah said he was proud of USAID’s partnerships with biotechnology companies, but he urged the companies to invest more in biotech projects that are helpful in the developing countries even if they do not produce immediate profits.

“No one is even close in the competitive excellence of our system,” Shah said, adding that U.S. biotech companies should help in creating “an integrated system in which we will be the world leader.”