AMO to N.Y. Times: PL-480 Food Aid Export Program Stands on Strong Merit

American Maritime Officers National President Tom Bethel sent the following letter to the editorial board of The New York Times on April 30 in response to a Times editorial supporting the Obama administration's proposal to shift from the direct shipment of U.S. food aid to poor countries to cash grants for the "local and regional purchase" of farm products for distribution to the needy. The Times did not print the letter.

The Times's editorial affirmation of U.S. food aid as "one of the most important tools of American foreign policy" was at odds with its simultaneous support of the President's fiscal 2014 budget proposal to substitute cash for commodities to "countries in need" ("Food Aid Reform," April 28).

As the Times acknowledged, food aid in its current form under Public Law 480 has saved "millions of lives" in "Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere" through the direct shipment of crops grown, processed, packaged and transported in the U.S. and carried overseas in part by privately owned and operated U.S.-flagged merchant ships. Indeed, PL-480 has since 1954 fed more than 3 billion people in 150 countries.

To assert that food aid purchased locally with U.S. cash (or with U.S. vouchers or debit cards that can become cash quickly) is less expensive is to assume that food is available in the recipient region in the first place. In one recent transaction under a "local and regional purchase" demonstration project, grain purchased by the U.S. was shipped to Kenya from Bulgaria - hardly a neighboring state and certainly not a regional food provider to the needy in Africa.

To help support its position and the President's, the Times said several studies had found the current food aid system to be "inefficient, costly and even harmful," but other studies in the same 10-year period had found otherwise. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers the food aid export program, PL-480 is 78 percent less expensive than dispensing cash or cash equivalents for the purchase of food in other countries.

The PL-480 program has its domestic advantages as well. PL-480 improves the lives of thousands of American families in at least 28 states by sustaining good private sector jobs in several industries. That PL-480 represents sound investment in U.S. goods and services for compassionate purpose is among the qualities that distinguish it from other U.S. foreign aid programs.

But a most important and too often overlooked point is that PL-480 generates cargo for U.S. merchant ships the Department of Defense relies on exclusively for the transport of vehicles, tanks, helicopters and other heavy equipment to U.S. troops overseas during prolonged war. More than 90 percent of the outsized hardware and basic supplies delivered to U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan between September 2001 and December 2012 was carried in U.S. merchant ships drawn from the private sector, including many that carry PL-480 food aid exports routinely.

Moreover, U.S.-flagged cargo ships bringing food aid to impoverished countries provide jobs for the skilled civilian American merchant mariners DOD needs to maintain and operate a fleet of government-owned reserve ships activated for strategic sealift service during major mobilizations.

These national security considerations are reflected in a federal law that sets aside up to 50 percent of PL-480 cargoes for U.S.-flagged merchant ships - and 50 percent does not by any stretch constitute what the Times called "a vast majority" of the shipments.

Under this law, U.S. merchant ships must be available at what the U.S. government determines to be "fair and reasonable" rates. U.S. shipping companies must compete for shares of this 50-percent "cargo preference" allocation, and this competition has resulted in a 22-percent decline in the cost of U.S.-flagged PL-480 service since 2009.

"When budgets are tight, every program must be scrutinized for maximum return," the Times said, and we agree. Fair analysis of PL-480 would confirm that this program yields considerable national security, economic, humanitarian and diplomatic dividends. This program also helps DOD avoid having to spend multiple billions of dollars to match the defense shipping capacity provided by the private sector U.S.-flagged merchant fleet and American merchant mariners.

PL-480 works as intended by guaranteeing that hungry people the world over get the food they need so desperately. By contrast, the radical restructuring of food aid proposed by the President and the Times would guarantee only doubt - about the safety of food obtained from overseas sources, about the quality and consistency of delivery systems, and about transparency and accountability. It would also cede control of important U.S. spending to private charities that sometimes appear more interested in greater international political influence than in famine relief worldwide.