Since the beginning of the Donald Trump presidential experiment, his administration has hammered home the idea of putting American interests first when it comes to foreign policy. “America first” is now just another made-for-television catchphrase perpetually uttered during these very strange times.

With this agenda in mind, however, the current administration is actually doing something else. It’s making America the number one bystander on the world stage. The reputation of the United States as the global ambassador; helping craft the conversation on trade and human rights, is quickly being chipped away at. President Trump and the White House tout this America-centric position as being beneficial to our people and economy, but scaling back our sphere of influence can cause a chain reaction of crises that affect everyone on the planet.

GAFSP [Global Agriculture and Food Security Program] was created in 2009 in response to the world food crisis of 2008 and was a pivotal cog in former President Barack Obama’s “Feed the Future” initiative, with partners in Germany, Britain, South Korea, Japan, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In the seven years between 2009 and 2016, around $1.2 billion in funds went to agricultural projects in 41 countries. The U.S. was the program’s largest contributor, accounting for one-third of the program’s finances—about $653 million.

In November, undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department, David Malpass, submitted a written statement to the House Financial Service Committee stating that the U.S. would no longer fund the program that addresses food insecurity, access, and wages in some of the world’s poorest countries. The statement cited a desire “to achieve faster U.S. and global growth in ways that improve after-tax wages for American workers,” and a need to scale back on international working groups because of the strain on “staff time, energy, and often travel.” Even though only 7 percent of the program’s funds go toward overhead, the rest is funneled into various agriculture grants.

Read the full article by Jonathan Carey about global hunger from The New Food Economy