In recent months the World Food Program has cut the volume of food aid provided through UN agencies in Afghanistan, Haiti, and other points of extreme need, as funding donations have dropped drastically.
Overall, the number of people worldwide who are lacking reliable food now exceeds two billion, and of those, 750 million are going hungry, an increase of 122 million from 2019 to 2022. The latest world picture is provided in the annual UN multi-agency report released last week, “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023.”
https://www.wfp.org/publications/state-food-security-and-nutrition-world-sofi-report-2023
Recent WFP press releases give the updates on cuts in food relief, from place to place:
HAITI. The number of people receiving emergency food assistance in Haiti was cut by 25% in July, down from the previous month, reports a WFP July 17 release. “Tragically, this means 100,000 of the most vulnerable Haitians are forced to get by without any WFP support this month.
“At the current level of funding for the calendar year, WFP lacks the resources to provide food assistance to a total of 750,000 people who are in urgent need. This is at a time when the country is facing an unprecedented level of humanitarian needs, with nearly half of the population—4.9 million people—unable to find enough to eat.”
https://www.wfp.org/news/funding-cuts-force-wfp-slash-food-assistance-one-two-haitians-go-hungry
AFGHANISTAN. Over May to June, food aid cuts sufficient for emergency relief for 8 million people were made, so the current food aid level is in the range of supplying food to 6 to 7 million people, down from 13-15 million people receiving aid per month early in the year. Overall an estimated 27 million people in Afghanistan need food aid, out of the 37 million people with not enough to eat. These UN agency food aid cuts directly reflect the “war economy” reorientation in the trans-Atlantic, in which the NATO member budgets are built up for arms, and resources are slashed for food relief donations.
With an international, collaborative food-production and -distribution mobilization, the physical demands for temporary food relief volumes sufficient to end hunger everywhere could be met in two crop cycles, in 24 to 36 months. This can be part of increasing annual world grain output to reach the range of some 6 billion metric tons from its current volume of under 3 bmt.
Instead of this approach, in recent decades, a cynical “food relief pretense” was perpetrated by the U.S. and other Western nations, in which their budgets, and a few billionaire donors, would give funds to the WFP and other agencies and charities, which then bought their food from the commodities cartel (Cargill, Bunge, ADM and lesser known firms), and made hand-outs, along with cash vouchers. This has fed some people, but was mostly an adjunct to the London/Wall Street policy of preventing nations from developing their economies and food production, and the attempted prevention of infrastructure construction everywhere—water, transportation, and power systems required for modern, high-yield agriculture. The awful, imperial green narrative was propagated, that those suffering hunger are a permanent feature of an overpopulated world.
WFP Director David Beasley (2017 to March 2023) tried to fight this, often saying that he began at the WFP, hoping he would soon be out of a job, by elimination of world hunger. His replacement, now politely overseeing the cuts in lifesaving relief, is Mrs. Cindy McCain, widow of the late war-hawk, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona). She was appointed by President Biden, who moved her to the WFP position, from her being ambassador to UN food agencies in Rome, 2021-2023.
This week’s new NATO food narrative is that Russia will be causing any increase in hunger, and food price spikes, by wrongfully terminating the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Reality check: The key terms of the Initiative, agreed upon in July 2022, were never fulfilled to support Russian food and fertilizer exports, as well as those from Ukraine. Russia stated this week that it will re-join the deal, if they are fulfilled.
For the record, here are the two prior NATO food narratives:
Narrative One was the outrageous lie that Ukraine was a major provider of grain to poor countries, and Russia was starving people by its special military operation. Fact check: Ukraine has been since the 1990s a major source of grain on the commercial market for developed countries, e.g. Spain, Japan, The Netherlands, and China and others, for livestock feed, and food needs. These importers account for over 90% of Ukraine’s exports, and this kind of “world sourcing,” was imposed on Ukraine beginning in the 1990s, by cartel domination of Ukraine agriculture potential in terms of land use, processing, and shipping.
Narrative Two, promoted in Fall 2022 to replace the discredited “Ukraine supplies poor countries,” states that preventing Ukraine Black Sea food export shipments raises the prices on the world grain markets, and that is what harms poor, grain-import dependent nations. Not admitted, of course, is that the Western/NATO sanctions policies, non-fulfilment of the Black Sea Grain Initiative terms, and similar actions, are causing the disruptions and hyperinflation.
The drop in funding for emergency food to Afghanistan is catastrophic. As of June, as summarized by the Voice of America, June 20: “The United States, which contributed more than $1.2 billion to the humanitarian appeal last year, has given $74 million as of this past June. Similarly, the United Kingdom, another major donor, allocated $522 million in 2022 but has only contributed around $30 million thus far in 2023. Germany’s funding has dropped from $444 million to $34 million during the same period, according to U.N. figures.”
