Does the U.S. Need a Plan to Help Feed the Developing World? (S. 1252)

What is S. 1252?

(Updated March 15, 2018)

This bill was enacted on July 20, 2016

This bill would require the President to create and implement a plan to improve global food security. The plan would include ideas for helping developing countries reduce chronic hunger and poverty, improve nutrition among women and children, and expand agricultural productivity.

While developing and implementing this strategy, the President would be directed to coordinate the efforts of relevant federal agencies including: 

• The Departments of Agriculture, State, Commerce, and the Treasury, 
• U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), 
• the Peace Corps, 
• the U.S.-African Development Foundation, 
• and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. 
  

USAID’s Feed the Future Program and the Innovation Labs it operates would be authorized to do the research for initiatives proposed in the president's strategy.

Some of the goals for the global food security plan would include:

• Accelerating agriculture-led economic growth, 
• Raising incomes for small-scale producers — particularly women, 
• Improving the nutrition of women and children across the globe, 
• Build resilience to food shocks, like famine,
• Strengthening partnerships between U.S. universities and institutions in developing countries to boost agricultural capacity, 
• And aligning broader U.S. strategies and investments in trade, economic growth, water, sanitation, and hygiene. 

This bill also clearly states that global food security is in the national security interest of the U.S.

Argument in favor

The U.S. has vast resources at its disposal, and while this isn’t a huge investment, it creates a strategy for bringing food security to the developing world.

Argument opposed

A strategy is only as good as the resources that support it, and the U.S. needs to be focusing on food insecurity at home before it works on helping developing countries.

Impact

People facing food insecurity in their communities and in the surrounding agricultural industries; governments in developing countries experiencing food insecurity; relevant federal agencies; U.S. universities and trade industries; and the President.

Cost of S. 1252

The CBO estimates that implementing this bill would cost $905 million over the 2016-2020 period.

Additional Info

In-Depth: The strategy this bill calls for would build on the U.S. government’s 2010 Feed the Future initiative. Since then, it has helped the U.S. provide assistance to nearly seven million farmers to boost their productivity. Roughly 12.5 million children have also received nutritional interventions to combat malnutrition and famine through Feed the Future.

Sponsoring Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced this bill to build on the previous successes of the Feed the Future program in fighting global hunger:

"The need to address global hunger is an urgent foreign policy and national security priority. It is in the United States’ best interest to promote initiatives that work to eliminate the causes of food and nutrition insecurity."

Media:

• Sponsoring Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) Press Release
  
• House Foreign Affairs Committee Press Release
• CBO Cost Estimate
• BORGEN Magazine (In Favor)
• Bread for the World (In Favor)
• Global Citizen (In Favor)

Summary by Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: Flickr user Benno Hansen)