Sean Callahan, executive vice president for overseas operations, wrote a commentary that was published in this morning’s Baltimore Sun:

As our children don their Halloween costumes and ready their bags for trick-or-treating, we Americans are preparing to dole out more than $1.5 billion worth of candy.

Sean Callahan, second from left, testifies before a congressional committee on food aid. Photo courtesy of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council.

That figure from the National Retail Federation stands in stark contrast to the amount budgeted for food aid that the United States will send this year to the poorest and hungriest people in the world: about $300 million less than we’ll spend for those Halloween treats.

The U.S. government is the largest donor of food aid to the world, and this should make Americans proud. Yet our generosity feeds less than 6 percent of the estimated 850 million chronically hungry people around the globe.

To feed more chronically hungry people, and to ensure that many of them are able to provide for themselves someday, we need to stop diverting funding from long-term development programs to meet emergency needs.

Read the rest of the article.

Catholic Relief Services was mentioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The recent article highlights successful seed and voucher fairs in Lesotho.

Julius Ncheche buys seeds at a farmers’ fair organized by FAO, CRS and Lesotho’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. Photo courtesy of FAO

Through the trade fairs, which end in mid-October, 10 percent of all households in Lesotho will have accessed enough agricultural inputs –- including 385 tonnes of seed — to prepare and plant 17,500 hectares [43,243 acres] of land. An estimated 5,600 tonnes of maize, sorghum, beans and other crops are expected to be produced from this assistance.

Read about the farmers who benefit from these programs in the article titled FAO rural markets offer hope to farmers in drought-stricken Lesotho.

A group of villagers working on soil bunding, near Harar. Photo by CRS staff.

As Congress develops the 2007 Farm Bill over the next few months, it has the opportunity to make sure that U.S. global food aid programs feed more people, helping them to be less vulnerable to emergencies and — ultimately — rise out of poverty.

Catholics and other people of good will throughout the United States are advocating for 2007 Farm Bill policies that further reduce hunger and poverty both in the United States and abroad. The 2007 Farm Bill will govern U.S. agricultural policy at home and abroad for the next five years and is the main vehicle that structures U.S. Food Aid programs. As a part of a broad Catholic effort to address a range of concerns about the Farm Bill, Catholic Relief Services is
calling for Congress to change policies that have driven down the food available for assistance, ultimately leading to cuts in important hunger programs worldwide.

Ethiopia
Ethiopia is one country where much of CRS’ work is focused on food security. Here is a snapshot of some programming in Ethiopia to highlight the importance of food aid around the world.

CRS Ethiopia has been supporting relief and development in Ethiopia since 1958. In Ethiopia, drought and poor land quality often spell agricultural disaster for people trying to earn a meager livelihood from herding and farming among the country’s deforested hillsides. While the distribution of U.S. food aid helps people make it through food emergencies, it is development programs such as those funded by the U.S. Title II Food for Peace program that help communities escape hunger altogether.

Food for Work is an activity supported by U.S. Title II funding. People receive food supplies for the work they contribute to programs that help their communities develop. In the steep rolling hillsides that surround Legedini village in the Diocese of Harar, for example, village residents built by hand many of the low stone walls that climb the terraced hillsides. They were paid for their labor by U.S. Title II food aid.

Terraced hillside outside of Dira Dawa. Photo by CRS staff.

Once the site of regular erosion, the now terraced hillsides are part of a soil- management approach called “soil bunding.” The terraces catch fertile soil as it washes from the top of the hills, providing richer soil in which to grow crops and animal feed. It is just one part of a large integrated program that bring numerous villages together to create better farmland, cleaner water sources, better community health practices and more lucrative markets for their crops.

Committees of villagers who live in a watershed district are involved in each phase of the program, which tackles the root causes of ill health, hunger and poverty in these Ethiopian communities. Managed by CRS and its partner, the Ethiopian Catholic Church, these integrated development programs run five years. When finished, the resulting water and agricultural projects, community health efforts and economic development programs are run and managed entirely by the communities that helped develop them, and which continue to benefit from them.

Currently in Ethiopia, the Development Assistance Program aims at addressing the root causes of poverty with a strategy based on watershed management, which looks to integrate other activities including: agriculture; natural-resource management; health and nutrition; and water and sanitation. Directly, this program serves more than 178,000 participants, while benefiting more than 890,000 people.

As CRS works on the Farm Bill in upcoming months, we will be calling upon our network of supporters to contact their elected officials to help shape a Farm Bill that best serves the needs of the poor overseas.

Things You Can Do
Sign up for CRS’ Legislative Network to receive information and for opportunities to take action on this and other pressing global issues.
• Sign up for the network here: http://actioncenter.crs.org/signup.
• Learn, discuss and pray about global issues that affect the poor and how our advocacy efforts can make a difference. Visit our website http://advocacy.crs.org for educational, action and prayer resources.
• Share this educational resource with your family, friends and fellow parishioners

 
Bags of Corn-Soy Blend, a mix of corn meal and soy flour, stacked in a CRS warehouse in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Photo by Michelle Harrington/CRS

Former Vice President Walter Mondale and former U.S. Sen. David Durenberger have written a commentary for thier hometown newspaper, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, that highlights an important food aid proposal being put forward by more than a dozen humanitarian agencies, including CRS:

A Better Way to Help the World’s Hungry - Crisis Relief, but not at the Expense of Programs to Help People Feed Themselves.

Young girls at a school in Ghana eat a meal provided by the food aid program. Photo by Sean Sprague for CRS.

The commentary deals with the fact that food aid resources are increasingly being diverted from long-term development programs to fund emergencies.

Food aid is not just an important resource in emergencies like natural disasters. It can also be a powerful tool in long-term development programs that help people build up the resources they need to eventually become self-sufficient.

At least 75 percent of U.S. food aid is supposed to be dedicated to these kinds of long-term development programs. But in recent years, the ratio has been reversed – 75 percent of food aid being used for emergencies, leaving only 25 percent for development.

The legislative fix favored by Mr. Mondale and Mr. Durenberger would mandate that at least half of the food aid budget be devoted to long-term development, placing it in a “safebox.” We feel that this is a sensible and equitable solution that will help us respond to unforeseen emergencies, while preserving these vital long-term programs that fight chronic hunger and increase food security.

For more information, the CRS website has a page on Food Aid and Food Security. We have also issued an Action Alert that outlines these proposals on fighting worldwide hunger through the 2007 Farm Bill and suggests ways to contact Congress.

CRS Chief of Staff Annemarie Reilly testified before Congress today on food aid. She outlined several proposals that would protect developmental food aid, which helps hungry people secure assets that help them help themselves.