The people of the United States have played an important role in stanching the tide of world hunger for the past 70 years.
Given primarily in the form of in-kind gifting of agricultural commodities, the $2.5 billion annual donations comprise 6 percent of total U.S. development assistance. Initially, this in-kind gifting was utilized to effectively distribute the excess food production that the U.S. has enjoyed for nearly a century.
However, now inefficiencies have grown up around the production, packaging and distribution of food to hungry nations around the globe. These inefficiencies, encouraged by arcane and self-serving legislation, now threaten to limit the ability of well-meaning people to assuage the hunger that menaces much of the developing world.
About the author
David Vanderpool
Dr. David Vanderpool is founder and CEO of LiveBeyond, a faith-based, humanitarian organization bringing medical and maternal health care, clean water, education, orphan care, community development and the gospel of Jesus Christ to the oppressed in Thomazeau, Haiti. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a fellow of the American College of Physicians and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Texas A&M University College of Medicine and is a regular contributor to medical journals on tropical diseases and to political publications on U.S. disaster response/developing world goals.
