Hi Elisheva, Cathy and everyone,

Elisheva, you weren't being a scrooge at all when highlighting the very
real relationship between food donations to Third World countries and
diminished availability of local foods. In just the same way that
donations of ABMs undermines the local production of breastmilk, the same
is true of all foods. In some very limited cases (<5%) staple food
donations do save lives, and but even then the distribution and monitoring
mechanisms have to be very specific and only one part of an overall
strategy if it is to have any more than a negligible impact (see the
Review of Food Aid policy, 1998, pub: Overseas Development Institute).

Please forgive me if this is slightly off the subject of this list - but
given that it has already been raised in this forum, and given that most
of the people who suffer as a direct result of food aid are Third World
women who are also aggressively targeted by donations of ABMs - it is
probably worth saying that the majority of food donations are either
worthless (as in the case of wheat dumping) or sent with a clear intention
of "creating new markets" - and often a combination of both. There are
many references - mainly case studies and program evaluations - which
support this - let me know privately if you would like a list.

The latter (creation of market dependencies) has usually been a fairly
straightforward situation. More recently however, this is complicated by
the explicit intention to create markets for genetically modified foods.
Dr. Vandan Shiva - mother, activist, farmer and Secretariat of Diverse
Women for Diversity at the Research Foundation for Science Technology &
Ecology in India - has just released an important statement regarding the
interplays between Third World Women, UN Food and Trade Organisations, and
industries (food processing, pesticide, seed companies etc). She staes:

"Women in the Third World are predominately small farmers. They provide
the basis of food security, and the provide food security in partnership
with other species. The partnership between women and biodiversity has
kept the world fed through history, at present, and will feed the world in
the future. It is this partnership that needs to be preserved and promoted
to ensure food security" (email me privately for entire copy of Dr Shiva's
statement).

Cathy you ask about the microeconomics of food aid: There is I think a
common perception that hunger is determined by a "lack of food" which can
be alleviated by giving it. In most (95%+) of cases, the situation is much
more significantly related to inequitable distribution of economic
resourses at household, community, national & international levels.
Therefore, to alleviate hunger the challenge lies a radical redistribution
of resources & their consumption throughout the entire world. To evaluate
how effective the "hunger site" might be in achieveing this, try answering
this: where will most of the money donated by the corporate sponsors go?
Answer: to the multinational food companies who "donate" the food and get
the feel-good publicity for their involvement. A recent study from the US
even found that US farmers don't benefit from these programs - let alone
Third World women - only the corporations and their shareholders end up
with the $$$. In very basic terms, this reinforces the inequitable
distribution patterns rather than alleviating them.

The presence of a multilateral agency - such as the World Food Program,
UNDP, The World Bank, and dare I say even UNICEF does not automatically
imply that the program is appropriate. For example, Larry Summers, Deputy
Secretary of the US Treasury and the former Chief Economist of the World
Bank is famous for advocating "the shipping of more toxic wastes to low
income countries because people there die early anyway and they have less
income earning potential so their lives are less valuable" (Korten 1997).
This may seem off track until one realises this man represented the US at
UN meetings on sustainable development - which is very much embedded in
food & food security. UNDP now of course accepts corporate $$$ from Rio
Tinto, a range of nuclear power companies, and other industries some of
whose activities in the Third World have been "seriously questioned" :0(.
A recent Independent delegation to Indonesia (1998 Food Security & Fair
Trade Council) found that much of what had been called food "aid" was
infact food dumping of inferior and un-needed products explicity intended
to create new market dependicies and often with full cooperation and
encouragement from Governments and Mulitilateral agencies. At the very
best, the many good individuals working in the multi-lateral agencies can
be put in a situation of "taking what they can get" because nothing more
appropriate is forthcoming. And I don't mean to single out the US -
Australia, Japan and Norway have also played major roles in these
activities. You will be very hard-pressed to find any grass-roots or
"people-controlled" activist or development group from the Third World
which supports these types of indiscriminate programs or who have
experienced any real benefits from them.

There is a great need for politically-minded breastfeeding activists from
the "Western World" to align with these grass-roots organisations.
Although the issues *seem* somewhat removed, they are essentially the same
- the protection of women's capacities in the local production of diverse,
"alive" and locally appropriate food (of which human breastmilk is one). I
don't think we can sucessfully protect one without also protecting the
other...just a thought.

I could go on lots more...but won't 'cos I think you get the idea. For
those who want more info. you are welcome to contact me directly :0)

Cheers

Alice Campbell (in Australia)
RN BNursing (dist).
Grad Dip Disaster Mgt.
Grad Cert Health Ed.
MPH (ca)

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