CARE and feeding the developing world

CARE International made an interesting break with food aid precedent(and headlines) last week, formally separating from a long-term program whereby U.S. surplus commodities were bought up by Uncle Sam, given to CARE and like-minded charities, who in turn sold them in the developing world as a means of raising cash and providing a cheap food resource to the hungry in the affluence-challenged world. Problem is the policy was driving farmers in Africa, Asia, et al who might have been food self-sufficient otherwise, directly to the CARE lines for food aid handouts and completely out of the business of growing food for themselves and their families. In their critique of the existing mal-infrastructure of global food aid, CARE joins Catholic Relief Service and Save the Children in a welcome reanalysis of the ends, means, and net results of such campaigns. The ultimate beneficiaries of such efforts, after all, should not be heavily subsidized U.S. mega-farmers and the likes of ADM and Cargill.

Let's hear it for a little common sense and justice over charity.