ABSTRACT
Food aid has seen many changes since 1954 when the United States began systematically to export food on concessional terms as part of its policy to cope with growing domestic agricultural surpluses. Begun as a scheme designed primarily to assist rich-country farmers by disposing of surplus commodities, it has become an instrument of the development aid agencies and not only is it no longer restricted to foods in surplus supply, it actually utilises exotic concoctions that have been developed especially for food aid and do not exist outside its domain. The general trend has been to shift the emphasis from surplus disposal to development. The 1974 World Food Conference set three main objectives for food aid: to provide emergency relief; to combat hunger and malnutrition; and to promote economic and social development. Different donors give different priorities to these goals, but all now attempt to justify their aid within a development framework. However, the changes in emphasis have brought their own problems. The farmers have been joined by the blended food processors as a powerful donor lobby with interests that need not necessarily coincide with those of the recipients. Emphasis on the poorest ldcs has caused administrative headaches. Thus, a congressional directive that 75 per cent of PL 480 Title I aid should go to states with a per capita GNP of under $300 had to be amended to set the limit at $550 because there were too few takers. However, this chapter is concerned less with the philosophy of food aid than with its size and distribution.
