Charities Block Famine-Relief Savings
October 26th, 2005 Posted in GeneralIf you want to read something that will make smoke come out of your ears, pick up a 10/26 issue of the Wall Street Journal (not on line, but available in most libraries) and check out the first page story, “Farmers, Charities Join Forces to Block Famine-Relief Revamp.”
This is a long, in-depth article that tries to present both sides of the story. But the gist of it is that some of the biggest aid charities in the world are blocking efforts to source more food aid close to the problem areas rather than shipping them, at great expense, halfway around the world. You see, when you send in your aid money to Catholic Relief Services, Care, World Vision, Mercy Corps International, or Save the Children, they use that money to ship surplus food from American stockpiles, food that the U.S. government has paid farmers market rates to grow and then give away. We’ve been doing this since 1954. Even though we don’t need it. So all this food gets transported from the source, loaded on huge container ships at ports, goes all the way to Africa, then gets unloaded by hand in a foreign port, then moves again to the actual destination. According to the article, “shipping costs often exceed the price of the goods.”
Meanwhile, nearby countries often have a surplus of grain, cooking oil, milk, or other items that their government can’t afford to buy up just to keep farmers happy. They would sell them to the aid agencies for a fraction of what the agencies are paying just for shipping and the U.S. government would save a fortune. Less fuel gets wasted and needy third-world farmers make some money to feed their own broke family. Sounds sensible, right?
“No way,” say the aid orgs. They like things the way they are, and so do their buddies the industrial farmers, who can’t make such fat profit margins without government handouts. (This is not a U.S. phenomenon by the way. European farmers and their governments are even more protectionist, if that’s possible.)
I said repeatedly during the tsunami disaster that big aid organizations are too big, political, and unwieldy to ever operate efficiently. Time and again, as recently as Hurricane Katrina, we’ve seen the proof in action. If you want to make a difference, take the time to do some research and find an organization that is nimble, effective, and acting in the best interest of the needy at ground level, not in the best interest of its officers and politically-connected buddies in fancy offices. Yes, you might half to skip a half hour of TV to figure this out instead of just clicking on the ubiquitous “Donate to Mercy Corps” button on a website, but your money will likely do some good instead of supporting the status quo. If we’ve learned anything about food aid since 1954, it should be that the status quo isn’t helping the developing world very much.
Oh, and if you travel to a developing country, please don’t spend all your time in luxury hotels, using imported French soaps, drinking imported wine or liquor, and eating imported U.S. and European food. If you want some of your money to actually help the place you’re visiting, eat local food, frequent local restaurants, buy from small local vendors, and seek out locally-owned hotels. You’ll be helping to create a real change for the better, instead of just helping things stay the same.
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