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U.S. food aid reform could fare better this year: FAO

A revived proposal from the Bush administration to reform U.S. food aid programs, which Congress sank in recent years, may fare better this year as lawmakers overhaul broad U.S. farm and food policy, a
United Nations official said on Tuesday.

John Ziolkowski, who directs the Washington office of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, is a former congressional staffer who witnessed similar plans fail in past years to loosen food aid procurement rules.

But he believes the plan, which would "untie" up to a quarter of emergency food aid, meaning the government can buy crops close to disaster areas instead of buying U.S. crops and shipping them, has a "good chance" of passing.

The issue has typically pitted charities that receive government food aid, U.S. shipping companies, and farm interests against administration reformers and others who believe all food aid should be "untied."

But the tone of debate over the matter is cooler now, and "people are more ready to listen," Ziolkowski told Reuters in an interview.

A more collegial conversation may be due in part to the sheer volume of food and agriculture issues under debate this year as Congress prepares to rewrite agriculture policy in the 2007 farm bill, which is expected to be passed by this fall.

With a price tag of $2 billion a year, food aid accounts for only a tiny share of U.S. farm sales and spending.

Traditionally, it is an issue that evokes strong responses from members of Congress who want to support philanthropy while ensuring that their constituents see a share of sales.

RIPE FOR REPAIR

It is also a program reformers seize upon as ripe for repair. A recent report from a government watchdog delivered a searing analysis of U.S. food aid, calculating that 65 percent of emergency spending goes to overhead.

The report rooted problems largely in stringent procurement and transport rules that require U.S. shippers to transport U.S. crops to crisis zones.

By the administration's own accounting, it can take as long as five months for food to arrive at hunger hot spots. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which manages most aid delivery, believes the proposed changes would have sped delivery of aid to
Iraq in 2003, to Lebanon in 2006, and to East Africa in 2006 and 2007.

"We simply ask for every tool available to save lives," Michael Yost, an Agriculture Department official who oversees food aid, told lawmakers recently.

Opponents worry the change could direct U.S. aid money to farmers overseas and possibly chip away at the aid budget.

The FAO supports untied food aid.

Ziolkowski suspects that even purchasing food locally will not eliminate the delivery problems faced by aid providers in countries with poor roads and often violent conflict.