The following article was written by Joshua Jacobs, a constituent of my 15th Congressional District.

With nearly 1 billion people in the world going hungry, the issues of food security and food sovereignty directly affect more people now than ever before. As the largest provider of foreign aid, the United States plays a pivotal role in globally influencing these issues. As such, the 2012 reauthorization of the United States Farm Bill is of paramount importance towards ensuring that the policies of the U.S. play a positive role in helping to curtail global hunger.

With the backing of more than 18,000 signatories and the support of numerous religious organizations of multiple faiths, we, a group of district 15 voters representing American Jewish World Service’s Reverse Hunger Campaign, met with Mr. Rangel's staff to discuss our version of a Just Farm Bill. As the bill currently stands, millions of dollars that have been earmarked to help those who are hungry in the developing world will instead be spent inefficiently on shipping and distribution. Furthermore, the stipulation of direct food aid means that those who are hungry will sometimes wait 4-6 months for food to arrive on boats from across the world. The long term ramifications of direct food aid only worsen the problems. The influx of U.S. food undermines local farming economies abroad, rendering them unable to build the economic infrastructure to feed themselves and ultimately cease to require aid from the international community.

The detrimental effects of prior policies were readily observable following the Haiti earthquake of 2010. While the international community responded to the disaster with tremendous amounts of support and aid, this aid was not received as well as the intentions with which it was given. The influx of free food aid undermined local farmers to the point where Haiti eventually rejected boats carrying food aid bound for its shores. Also in 2010, former President Bill Clinton apologized to Haiti for U.S. policies of providing direct food aid, which undermined Haiti's economy rendering it unable to provide for itself, especially in the time of disaster.

We are proud that in 2008, Mr. Rangel played a role in getting the local and regional procurement pilot program into the Farm Bill. Independent evaluation of the pilot program reports that wait times for food decreased and purchasing efficiency increased as a result of the program². If the pilot program were permanent, it could result in millions of additional people being fed, getting food to people in need more cheaply and several weeks faster than current policies accomplish. However, this pilot program is set to expire, and unless it is permanently written into the 2012 bill, the U.S. will go back to its prior policies of in-kind food aid.

As the bill is making its way through the Senate and then through the House, now is a crucial moment to ensure that the portion of the Farm Bill that dictates foreign aid, PL 480 - Food For Peace - includes language allowing greater flexibility for recipient countries to spend that aid in ways that feed their people in the short term, build their economy in the long term and ultimately place themselves in a position where they no longer require aid. As concerned voters and volunteers with the American Jewish World Service, we support these changes to create a just Farm Bill that will result in benefits to the United States and to the most marginalized populations in the world with whom we seek to make change. We thank Mr. Rangel for standing with us on this important issue.