Top donors accused of sending 'substandard' food to poor

[cory777]

Source: AlertNet

LONDON (AlertNet) - Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has accused rich nations such as the United States of offloading food it would not feed its own children to poorer countries as food aid.

MSF said the world's biggest donors of food aid -- including the U.S., Canada, Japan and the European Union -- continued to supply and fund nutritionally "substandard" food to developing countries, despite scientific evidence showing it was of little value in reducing child malnutrition.

"Foods we would never give our own children are being sent overseas as food aid to the most vulnerable children in malnutrition hotspots in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia," MSF's international president Unni Karunakara said in a statement issued ahead of World Food Day on Oct. 16.

"This double standard must stop."

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/57964/2010/09/14-201329-1.htm

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Uncensored Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[No Elephants]

1. Only white children, preferably WASP, need nutritious food. It's in the Bible.

[zonkers]

22. You really think poor white children are treated any different?

[emilyg]

26. Silly comment.

[Donnachaidh]

41. what an obnoxious, and incredibly stupid comment

Guess you've never been to a foodbank in any major US city, eh?

[azurnoir]

2. How disgusting especially when you consider

that the very foods these kids need exist in great quantity including high fat baby formula's ect and yes breast feeding is best but we are talking about area's where the mothers also most likely suffer from severe malnutrition, as to any water purity problems that could be taken care in number of ways

[svpadgham]

28. I'm stealing your signature.

nt

[Drops_not_Dope]

3. sad

Several south Asian countries have made the largest improvements and some sub-Saharan African countries have also made advances, including Ghana, Ethiopia, and Angola. But improvements are not consistent globally.

According to the United Nations, two-thirds of the world's undernourished live in just seven countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia. 

The proportion of undernourished people is highest in sub-Saharan Africa - 30 percent of the continent's population.

[orbitalman]

4. Our children and THEIR children do NOT eat the same food...

Do we send hamburgers & hot dogs to eg India, or do we send Indian food, or something else in between? Name the specific products being supplied AND associated nutritional content. It is difficult to believe the rich nations are in a conspiracy to short-change food aid.

[happyslug]

33. No one is saying Conspiracy, but that it happens

You have to understand HOW such food aid comes about. Almost all of it is the result of Domestic Support for Farmers. It is the Farm Lobby that wants Governments to buy excess food. Now once the Government has the excess food, what do you do with it? You can NOT sell it, for that would undo the price support the Government provided when the food was purchased. Thus the general rule that the food is given away to third world countries to save people from Staving.

The problem is that the reason many third world residence are starving is that the food being given away is cheaper then the cost of the local farmers to raise the same food. You thus end up in a deadly cycle, no local farming for what ever the farm raise can NOT be sold locally at a price the farmer can at least break even do to all the excess food from Europe and the US being dumped into their economy. This is the "bad" food being dumped into the third world. Non-process food, farmers knowing they can NOT sell it commercially selling it to their government (or more often the case, Governments holding on to the food till it starts to rot, and then giving it away).

As one person said, many years ago, if you want to stop famine in the third world, first thing we have to do is STOP sending food. Sending food during a crisis is good, but the problem is when we ship food to third world counties NOT in a food crisis. That has to be stopped so that the agricultural section of most third world countries can have a market for their product, a product that is better overall for most people then food raised thousand of miles away and stored for who knows how long.

[Shining Jack]

38. Thanks.

Good POV.

[Psephos]

44. Insightful post. n/t

[BlueJazz]

5. Gee....I didn't now that they were sending Big Mac's and Chicken McNugguts to them.

:) :)

[melm00se]

6. from the MSF open letter

The domestic nutrition program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), provides vouchers to low-income mothers for the purchase of high-value foods like milk, fruit, and eggs. Thus, the U.S. sends inadequate food overseas to vulnerable children that it would not use in its domestic nutrition programs.

the way I read this is:

the USA has the WIC program so we send crappy food out as aid.

I don't see the logical link between the 2 events or am I misreading this (or is it just mistranslated)?

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.com/publications/article.cfm?id=4797&cat=open-letters

(edited to add the link)

[Egnever]

7. The article says they need food like milk and eggs

I'd argue it's a lot harder to send perishable foods across the world, so we send non-perishable foods. I suppose we could send cows and chickens, but wouldn't they die off? Someone mentioned we have WIC here to feed our poor, but those needy folks go to grocery stores to get perishable foods. I don't see evidence that we are purposely sending substandard food to other countries. Those starving children under two discussed in the article would be much better off if there were a bigger push for mothers to breastfeed those first two years. Even malnourished mothers make high quality breastmilk.

[dkf]

9. Next they will accuse us of sending rotten food.

Can't win.

[Gormy Cuss]

18. As others have noted downthread both milk and eggs are available in powdered form

and thus are shelf stable for aid programs. The powdered eggs and milk were at the core of USDA surplus food distributions before the advent of retail-based programs like WIC and Food Stamps/SNAP. To my knowledge the USDA still has these products in its surplus food system.

[Taverner]

25. Powdered milk and powdered eggs

[JerseygirlCT]

36. Absolutely on the breastfeeding

Cheap, plentiful (usually, if mom is in good health) and just what the young child needs!

[boppers]

42. Depends on the population.

A lot of mothers are trying to avoid passing HIV to their infants.

[dkf]

8. The want us to provide perishable items?

Does that really make sense?

[Scruffy1]

10. It's obvious that neither read the article

They are talking about dry milk products (non-perishable and other non perishable supplements). While breast feeding is ideal it is not always possible. Sometimes I'm just blown away by some who post before they think. Or maybe they just are blown away I don't know. What i do know is that it is inexcusable to use my tax dollars to provide substandard products just because the agribusiness giants make money off of them.

[dkf]

13. Powdered eggs too? Didn't know they existed.

[muriel_volestrangler]

45. They're not common, but they do exist

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/food_storage/powdered_eggs_dehydrated_eggs.htm

They were widespread in WW2:

Lilydale experienced many changes that were not expected in its first few years. During World War II, Lilydale was called on to supply powdered eggs to support Canadian and British troops overseas. To meet the demand, Lilydale purchased almost $200,000 in equipment to process the powdered eggs and as a result, became one of only three Canadian egg suppliers for the war effort. The need for eggs during the War allowed Lilydale to grow at a rapid rate, and provided the stability that grounded the company as a leading poultry producer. At its peak, the company operated 72 egg stations throughout the province and continued to provide these eggs until the end of the War.

After World War II, the demand for powdered eggs declined, and the last shipment was sent in 1949. Lilydale began to focus its efforts to supply eggs to the domestic market in the early 1950's. This brought on new challenges for the company as farmers across Canada achieved the ability to produce fresh eggs year-round. Lilydale lost much of its domestic egg market and went from powdered and fresh eggs to frozen egg melange. ...

http://www.lilydale.com/_bin/about/history.cfm

If you find a British cookbook from shortly after WW2, it will often have amounts for powdered egg as well as fresh, since rationing was still in place. There might be a case for sending powdered egg (it may not fit in well with local recipes, but for under twos, you may just be giving them anything you have that works, especially in the case of malnutrition).

[bhikkhu]

16. Its actually a conflict with a long history

donor nations such as the US often have a surplus of food in storage - powdered milk, dried egg, grains, etc, which drives down domestic prices. Giving it away to needy countries is a clever way of subsidizing our own agriculture.

On the other hand, what poor nations need is healthy, fresh, local food, and healthy local food producers. When we give them lower quality stored food it drives down their own prices and production, leading to more poverty. What poorer countries have long asked for and generally not gotten is money. If a poor person is given money to buy food that is locally produced, it generally has a very positive impact on economic health of the area. Our current policy tends to replace local agriculture with charity and produce permanently dependent populations, though it does benefit our own markets.

[Bette Noir]

27. Donations of money often, if not usually, end up in the pockets of greedy local officials.

[joeglow3]

32. Because the money we give is always well used

So long as you mean taken by a select few.

[JerseygirlCT]

37. But isn't one of the other problems with aid delivery

corruption, particularly of such easily pilfered things as money? Don't we also need enough of an infrastructure at the government or NPO level to see that money gets to those who need it?

[bhikkhu]

43. Certainly corruption is a problem

...and whether its cash or food, there is always corruption to deal with. You can imagine though, if giving excess food in foreign is in effect a subsidy to our own ag industry then we aren't particularly concerned with what happens downstream. And you can also see the point of a foreign aid recipient nation, which would love to have the funds to subsidize its own ag industry, but instead sees it undermined by cheap or free low-quality foreign produce.

Most poor people would like to have enough money to go to their own market and buy local foods from their neighbors. As above, there is of course a list of reasons why people can't be trusted and nothing is going to get fixed, and poverty remains endemic in many places.

[Joanne98]

11. It sounds like we sent them Cocoa Cocoa Puffs.......

It said most child nutrition programmes in developing countries and supported by international food aid depend heavily on fortified blended flours such as corn- and soy-blend (CSB) cereals.




This IS what we feed our children.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. I think they may be overestimating the quality of the food we feed our own.

How many kids right here are subsisting on Ramen noodles?

[bitchkitty]

15. This kid does -

but my favorite is that neon-orange mac and cheese! :)

[Jamastiene]

21. I think they don't know America very well if they think we feed our children

anything nutritious. Many of our own children either live off Ramen Noodles or are not fed enough. For some, the only meals they get are at school.

Trust me. We don't feed our own children any better than we offer them...sadly.

[Barack_America]

14. Silly MSF, we DO feed our children "substandard" food.

If we're not sending over Happy Meals, I'd say we're donating better than what our kids get.

[riverbendviewgal]

17. I took it as outdated

and spoiled. Different way to look it.
They were not clear what it was that a-was not good.

[hayu_lol]

20. For many of our troops, the dried milk and eggs are ok...

someone here wants fresh milk and eggs and fruit? None would hold up during the shipping and would certainly spoil once they got there. With the dried stuff, all you have to worry about is water quality which might be bad depending on where the water comes from.

Baby formula, dried, isn't much good. They do not sterilize the bottles or the water over there. When regular formula was sent to the Philippines for example, the mothers could not afford the stuff...so they diluted it.

Shipments of food to Africa is problematic: shipping space and time, warlords who capture the stuff and either use it themselves or sell it on a 'black' market, and the people themselves who frequently allow the stuff to be contaminated or spoil.

Big problems just getting the material over there from anywhere else.

If the 1st world is getting any sorts of food over there, that is an accomplishment in itself. No matter how much get shipped, it will never be enough.

As for the 'poor' quality, some of our folks here would be happy enough to get it.

The attempt to feed the world is being made. Any food for starving people is a plus. There will always be these elite groups screaming for more and better.

[happyslug]

40. Dried Milk is a very marginal produce outside Europe, North America and Siberia

For years it was thought the enzyme that is used by the Human body to process milk disappeared in people as their age do to the absence of milk in their diet. No milk, the proteins used to process milk was no longer produced by the body.

More recent research indicate the processing of milk is product of your genes NOT your body adjusting to a non-milk diet. Europeans and the Mongols from the Steeps of Siberia retain the enzyme needed to process milk as adults. Those people who do NOT use milk as an adult do NOT have that ability, even of exposed to milk on a daily basis since birth.

Indication that this is a dominate gene not a recessive gene as shown by the fact African-Americans can process Milk, while many Africans in Africa can not. Almost all African Americans have some "White" blood in them, maybe back to the 1600s, but it in their gene pool to a much higher degree then African American genes are in the General "White" Gene Pool (This reflects the traditional American rule that one drop of "African" blood made that person a "Colored" person, no matter how white he appeared or how far back that African blood comes from). Please note while White Americans have a lactose rejection rate of 12%, African Americans have a rejection rate of 75%.

My point is milk, for years, was exported in relief packages, causing all types of problems for people who did NOT have the ability to process Milk. This was a big scandal in the 1980s when Milk, was withdrawn from most relief packages (Milk had been a huge boom during the post WWI and WWII relief efforts in Europe, but by the 1960s relief was aimed at African and Asia NOT Europe and such milk products became more and more marginal over time).

In fact I am surprise that Milk (even in the dried form) is still being exported. I thought that was stopped in the 1980s, but as I have said before such food is driven more by Domestic Politics and support of the Farmers of Developed nations then anything to do with helping the people actually getting the relief.

Article of Lactose intolerance:
Lactose intolerance is the inability to metabolize lactose..., because of a lack of the required enzyme lactase in the digestive system. It is estimated that 75% of adults worldwide show some decrease in lactase activity during adulthood. The frequency of decreased lactase activity ranges from as little as 5% in northern Europe, up to 71% for Sicily, to more than 90% in some African and Asian countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance

Map showing degree of Lactose Intolerance:

[Bette Noir]

29. Read the article. They're complaining about getting grain blends,

rather than milk and eggs.

Another factor is that people have to be willing to eat what's donated. How many of the folks who have suggested sending powdered milk and eggs have actually eaten powdered milk and eggs?

For short-term help in an emergency, grain/soy blends may be the best that we can do. For long-term aid, certainly, supporting local agriculture is the way to go.

[WingDinger]

19. Then the little bastards need to be genetically modified to run well on swill.

[Karenina]

23. And this surprises whom?

No one recalls the biscuits thrown from helicopters in Haiti that were larvae infested? Such SHORT memories... :shrug:

[butterfly77]

24. What's new..

they do this to poor people in America all of the time,and they think its fine..Don't you see in this country if you are poor in this country you can never have a soda pop,steak,shrimp,or any other of the so called superior foods.

[Bette Noir]

30. I've worked as a cook in a couple of facilities that received surplus food

from the federal government. Since they get this food as a result of farm price supports, it's honest, wholesome food. Okay, the canned meat is disgusting, and way too salty, but it's okay if you wash the excess salt off and add some seasoning. It works for chili, spaghetti sauce, or sloppy joes. The butter and cheddar cheese were just as good as you'd find in any grocery store, and the frozen blueberries were terrific. We also got giant bags of beans, which are fine, if you have the facilities to cook them. Sometimes, we got cases of t-bone steaks.

The problem is in distribution. Most people don't know these things are available, or they're kept for schools and government camps of one kind or another, like the places I worked. One was a work project for teenagers, the other was a juvenile lock-up.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

31. "Blankets meet Smallpox...Smallpox meet Blankets."

:think:

[happyslug]

34. No evidence that smallpox blankets ever were used.

British General Amhurst advocated such a policy during the French and Indian war, but it was rejected by the American Colonial Governments on the fear of the resulting small pox would back lash into the white community. On his staff was George Washington.

25 years later George Washington was commander of the Main US Army, while General Amhurst was the overall commander of British forces (He was offered command in American but kept declining, staying in England during the American Revolution). George Washington remember Amhurst's recommendation and ordered the entire US army vaccinated against Small Pox, the first army in the world to be 100% treated for Small Pox.

More on Amhurst and the Small Pox Blankets:
http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/amherst/lord_jeff.html

[LanternWaste]

35. "does anyone wants this? If not I'm giving it to the dog..."

Reminds of growing up and hearing my mother shout while cleaning out the refrigerator, "does anyone wants this? If not I'm giving it to the dog..."

[Shining Jack]

39. And we also shit on them...

West dumps ever more toxic waste on Third World

Bali, June 27: The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was created in 1989 as a response to “toxic ships” attempting to offload their cargo in poor nations. With measures allowing countries to ban imports and requiring exporters to gain consent before sending toxic materials abroad, it was seen as the best hope to end the mountains of waste that were reaching poor countries.

But almost two decades later, critics including environmentalists and African nations contend the accord has failed to stem the flow of toxic waste and keep pace with a rapidly changing trade that is increasing global in nature. They contend that insufficient funds, widespread corruption and the absence of the United States as a participant have undermined the pact, leaving millions of poor people exposed to heavy metals, PCBs and other toxins. :(