World Food Crisis Update

Bush has done this before in the face of crisis: starting with a pledge of aid too small for the job, then being shamed into something larger (this happened with the tsunami relief). And now, he's doing it again.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush called for $770 million in new U.S. food aid donations and other measures on Thursday as Washington seeks to stave off a food crisis threatening to envelop the developing world.

Bush, expressing concern as skyrocketing world food prices intensify unrest in poor countries from Haiti to Burkina Faso, promised the United States would take a lead in fighting the hunger now gripping a greater swath of the developing world.

"With the new international funding I'm announcing today, we're sending a clear message to the world that America will lead the fight against hunger for years to come," Bush said.

Except he offered less than half this sum a few weeks ago. And actually, he's offering the same kind of money now. The additional funds are toward extra seeds and farming development for third world nations. That isn't bad (teach a man to fish and all that) but what is needed right now is direct aid, and more than the $395 million Bush has proposed. There's an urgent need right now and we can't wait for development programs. This is about saving lives; putting down the roots for the future must wait.

The administration has already requested supplemental food aid funding, a perennial addition to annual budget funds, of $350 million for fiscal 2008, but some are pushing for a figure at least $200 million higher.

"As a humanitarian organization interested in saving lives, we are not sure these resources equip us to meet the needs now," said Catholic Relief Services, an aid group.

Raymond Offenheiser, head of Oxfam America, urged Congress to loosen purchasing rules for food aid to make the most of every aid dollar.

Meanwhile, the WaPo finished up their series about the food crisis by exploring the role of ethanol.

Across the country, ethanol plants are swallowing more and more of the nation's corn crop. This year, about a quarter of U.S. corn will go to feeding ethanol plants instead of poultry or livestock. That has helped farmers like Johnson, but it has boosted demand -- and prices -- for corn at the same time global grain demand is growing.

And it has linked food and fuel prices just as oil is rising to new records, pulling up the price of anything that can be poured into a gasoline tank. "The price of grain is now directly tied to the price of oil," says Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute, a Washington research group. "We used to have a grain economy and a fuel economy. But now they're beginning to fuse."

Not everyone thinks it's fantastic. People who use corn to feed cattle, hogs and chickens are being squeezed by high corn prices. On Monday, Tyson Foods reported its first loss in six quarters and said that its corn and soybean costs would increase by $600 million this year. Those who are able, such as egg producers, are passing those high corn costs along to consumers. The wholesale price of eggs in the first quarter soared 40 percent from a year earlier, according to the Agriculture Department. Meanwhile, retail prices of countless food items, from cereal to sodas to salad dressing, are being nudged upward by more expensive ingredients such as corn syrup and cornstarch.

Considering that the most recent energy bill included massive investments in corn-based ethanol, we're in a real quandary here. Corn for ethanol is being grown because it's profitable, and it's profitable because of subsidies. And I have to say that Kevin Drum is right, for the sake of the planet these subsidies should not be extended.