| 3.23.22

Should Congress Support The Fight Against World Hunger? (H.R. 5656)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 5656?

(Updated July 13, 2017)

This bill expresses the sense of Congress that U.S. efforts to end global poverty should build upon the progress and successes of the Feed the Future Initiative in supporting agricultural development and addressing chronic hunger and malnutrition.

The U.S. government created the Feed the Future program in order to reduce hunger, malnutrition, and extreme poverty throughout the developing world.

The program is administered through 11 different agencies that focus on providing the tools, resources, and organization to help countries develop agricultural sectors to eliminate hunger within their borders. In 2013 it improved the nutrition situations of more than 12.5 million children, helped 7 million farmers, and improved agricultural management practices through new technologies on more than 4 million hectares of land.

H.R. 5656 would direct the President to offer assistance to reduce poverty and hunger in developing countries, by acting through said federal departments and agencies.

Argument in favor

Fighting world hunger demonstrates America’s humanitarian values. It also accelerates development and reduces poverty in other countries, making the world a more stable place.

Argument opposed

This bill should have included funding for the Feed the Future program, rather than simply expressing approval of its performance, and encouraging future efforts to be done similarly.

Impact

People in the developing world suffering from malnutrition or who are frequently without enough food, U.S. government programs providing food to the developing world.

Cost of H.R. 5656

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth:

There are about 805 million people — or one in nine people — in the world today who are considered undernourished, according to the World Food Program. With the world’s population projected to approach 9 billion people by 2050, agricultural production will need to increase by 60% at least to keep pace.