A number of my Cato colleagues have offered good criticisms of developments related to the latest farm bill here, here, here, here, here, and here. (That’s a lot of “heres,” but farm subsidies deserve a lot of criticism!) But there is one possible element of the farm bill that would actually count as “reform”: a proposal to take some of the protectionism out of food aid.

I discussed this issue here and here. As I noted, the way these programs work is that when giving aid to help with food shortages abroad, “[i]nstead of simply giving money to people to buy food from the cheapest source, the U.S. government buys food from U.S. producers and requires that it be sent overseas on U.S. ships.” Not surprisingly, that’s not a very efficient way of doing things. As noted in an article in the Guardian newspaper, “50% of the US food aid budget is currently spent on shipping costs.” 

To address this problem, a food aid reform act has been introduced in the House, and would eliminate the requirements that food assistance be grown in the U.S. and transported on U.S.-flagged ships. Currently, this act is a separate bill, but the article says that “many observers assume that it will probably be tied into the House farm bill eventually.” So, while there’s still plenty not to like about the farm bill, a fix to this long-standing example of economic nationalism would be welcome.