AMO, SIU back food aid export budget hike

AMO and the Seafarers International Union are among 110 labor, shipping, fishing, agricultural, port and humanitarian interest groups seeking increased spending on U.S. food aid exports in the fiscal 2023 farm bill in the federal budget.

In a letter to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture Chair Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Subcommittee Ranking Member John Hoeven (R-ND), the coalition requested additional funding of the PL-480 Food for Peace, Food for Progress and McGovern-Dole International Food for Education.

“These programs have enjoyed significant bipartisan support for more than 65 years,” the coalition noted. “We respectfully request Congress continue to fully support these programs and that the fiscal year 2023 agriculture appropriations funding for these critical accounts be increased to at least $2.26 billion.

“Global food assistance is required as drought, continuing conflict and other crises persist around the world,” the letter continued. “Chronic and acute hunger have continued to rise, and the U.N. World Food Program warns that the number of people facing crisis levels of food insecurity has risen to 349 million as a result of COVID-19, ongoing conflict — including between Russia and Ukraine — and climate-related extreme events.”

According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the worldwide hunger crisis had claimed an estimated 105 million men, women and children in 2022.

U.S. food aid exports are subject to cargo preference requirements — under current law, at least 50 percent of such exports must be delivered in U.S.-flagged ships.

“Food assistance programs not only benefit the recipients, but also U.S. economic and national security interests,” the coalition said in its letter in apparent reference to the cargo preference mandate. “Food aid, in all its forms, is made available through these programs usually bearing the U.S. flag and/or marked ‘from the American people.’”

U.S. food aid exports promote stability and prosperity in recipient countries, which the letter said “are now among the most important U.S. trading partners.”

The letter concluded: “While our organizations at times have policy differences, we stand united in our belief that U.S. food aid programs are among the world’s most critical foreign assistance programs, save countless lives, bolster our nation’s and global security and help millions in need around the world.”

The entire letter can be read on the AMO Currents website.