ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some cases that illustrate the emergence of the food issue as a major factor in United States (U. S.) foreign policy toward the Third World during the mid-1970s. By the summer of 1972 Henry Kissinger began to take an increased interest in the implications of food policy for U. S. foreign relations, which eventually led to an expansion of the food aid program. By 1974 the U. S. food assistance program had changed dramatically. Food prices continued to rise throughout 1973, with corn prices exceeding $2 a bushel, and wheat prices remaining between $4 and $5 a bushel, despite record harvests for wheat, corn and soybeans that year. During 1974, however, U. S. food allocation policy gradually changed, despite the fact that food supplies remained tight, and prices high. The dismantling of the grain reserve system was a major component of the Nixon Administration’s policy of transforming U. S. food policy and the international food system itself.
