New US Farm Bill provides hope for food aid reform

Men unload sacks of rice to store in the World Food Program warehouse in Gao, Mali. The rice is used to respond to emergency food and nutritional needs in conflict-affected areas, such as Gao in northern Mali, which fell under occupation of armed groups in 2012.
tanya bindra/IRIN©

(IRIN) NEW YORK, April 14, 2014 - Efforts to improve the way the US government distributes roughly US$2 billion in international food aid each year achieved some successes in the recently enacted Agriculture Act of 2014 - commonly referred to as the Farm Bill - but the food aid mechanism used by the world’s largest donor continues to prioritize the needs of US commercial interests.

Southeast Asia wasting too much food

Farmers in Myanmar are often unaware of the risks of using pesticides on their fruits and vegetables. Contributor/IRIN©

(IRN) BANGKOK,  October 9, 2012 - As cities expand in Southeast Asia, more and more food is going to waste and governments are ill-prepared to stem the loss, according experts recently convened by the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies in Singapore.

“It is likely that the region wastes approximately 33 percent of food, but accurate estimates are not available due to a dearth of quantitative information,” they said.

Regional food loss stemming from natural disasters and improper crop storage, packing and delivery will worsen as more goods travel farther. Urbanites are expected to outnumber rural residents here by 2028. 

Governments need to better fund the tracking of food waste (especially fish, vegetables and rice). Possible solutions include redistributing edible wasted food to people; turning it into energy and agriculture inputs; and developing new technology to separate food waste from other rubbish. Policymakers need to take a “total supply chain approach” or else risk breaking Southeast Asia’s fragile food system, said the experts.

rg/pt/cb