CARE rejects $46M in food aid

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A humanitarian group has turned down $46 million worth of U.S. food aid, arguing that the way the American government distributes its help hurts poor farmers.

CARE said wheat donated by the U.S. government and sold by charities to finance anti-poverty programs results in low-priced crops being dumped on local markets and small-scale growers cannot compete.

Other experts said they share CARE’s concern, but stressed that food donations are sometimes needed when a natural disaster harms a local area’s agriculture, such as the flooding that North Korea says has devastated vast tracts of its farmland.

The Atlanta-based CARE agreed with that view. “We are not against emergency food aid for things like drought and famine,” spokeswoman Alina Labrada said Thursday.

But, she added, the donation of wheat and other crops does not help in regions where people consistently go hungry because local farming has been weakened by international competition. “They are being hurt instead of helped by this mechanism,” she said.

Labrada said such areas would be helped more if the U.S. and other donors gave cash that could be spent on locally produced crops, which would stimulate agricultural expansion.