International Development groups immediately jumped into action after Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines, earlier this month, but relief workers and groups say the current laws around American food aid can possibly delay or hurt relief efforts for the country.
According to the New York Times, the disaster overseas has sparked a long-running debate on how America supplies food from their $1.4 billion internationals food aid program. The Obama administration has stressed the need to revise the program, giving the agency the flexibility needed to buy less expensive food closer to the disaster areas.
"This is just common sense," said Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "Buying food locally when it makes sense, like in this case, is cheaper and faster."
However, agriculture and shipping industries say it will hurt American farmers and cost jobs. Both Senate and House have rejected a new five-year farm bill that would have made changes to the food-aid program. In the bill aid agency would be allowed to use no more than 45 percent of their food aid money to buy local products.
"As you see from the initial response to the typhoon, we need both American food and locally grown food," said Dr. Rajiv Shah, aid administrator. "It works in tandem. All we're asking for is a little bit more flexibility to meet the humanitarian needs of a much more complex and changing world."
Times reported the U.S. remains the only major supplying country that continues to send food to crisis areas, rather than buying food locally. As required by law, most American food aid is shipped from the U.S.
Engel said the food agency should be allowed to use the money as they please, when it comes to buying locally-produced food from non-effected areas of the Philippines, rather than shipping food from the opposite side of the world.
Since the Typhoon hit the Philippines, the United States Agency has sent a shipped filled with rice, 55-tons of heated biscuits were airlifted from Miami, Fl., and $100 million more in food aid.
