Giving Compass' Take:

• Legislation that requires American food aid to consist of food purchased in America supports American farmers but undermines the economy in the country that receives aid and costs a fortune in shipping and handling.

• How can policy shift to more effectively deliver aid? How do American farmers fit into the food aid picture?

• Learn more about potential legislation for the 2018 Farm Bill. 

What if the best way to aid hungry people in other countries is to stop shipping American food abroad?

That’s what lawmakers from both sides of the aisle want to see happen. In March, Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate introduced the Food for Peace Modernization Act of 2018, which they hope will be a substantive update to the existing program, currently reauthorized every five years as part of the farm bill. If passed, it would mark the most radical—and progressive—change to America’s food-aid commitments since the program was established in 1954.

The existing law requires that 100 percent of the food we ship to hungry people in other countries be purchased in the United States. This new legislation would reduce that number to 25 percent and allocate the remaining funding for more direct assistance.

Only 30 cents of every dollar taxpayers contribute to Food for Peace is spent on actual food. But here we are: It’s 2018, and the amount of food sent to hungry people abroad actually fell 60 percent over the last generation.

So where does all our food-aid money really go? Critics argue it has artificially propped up shipping companies and food processors for years.

Read more about the food aid crisis by H. Claire Brown at The New Food Economy