U.S. boosts global food aid, food security funding

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will spend an additional $1.25 billion on international food aid donations this year and next as donor countries seek to blunt the effects of soaring food prices on the world's poor.

On Monday morning, President George W. Bush signed a supplemental spending bill that will provide last-minute funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a host of other international and domestic priorities.

The bill signed into law on Monday will also provide an additional $850 million to Food for Peace, the largest U.S. food aid program, in fiscal 2008 and $395 million for fiscal 2009, according to Senate staff.

Other funding for disaster assistance and agriculture development programs abroad bring the bill's food security total to $1.9 billion for the two years.

The additional funding will help the United States, the world's largest donor of food aid, provide even more assistance as soaring food and fuel prices increase the specter of hunger in vulnerable countries the world over.

Most emergency U.S. food aid goes to Africa.

While the dramatic surge in staple food prices has eased somewhat in the past several months, the climb over the last 18 months has not only made it more difficult for the world's poor to afford food, but has also shrunk the amount of food that donor countries' aid budgets can buy.

"Millions of people are starving around the world, increasing the potential for humanitarian disasters and political unrest," said Senator Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee.

"We must do everything we can to provide emergency food aid to our neighbors in the international community on an urgent basis. I am pleased that Congress and the President took action to send aid to those who need it most," he said.

The Alliance for Food Aid, a coalition of U.S.-supported aid groups, applauded the new funding.

"We urge Congress to continue to maintain these levels in (fiscal year) 2009, funding food aid at $2 billion," said Ellen Levinson, who heads the coalition.

"The response must be more than short term hand-outs and as much as possible must be linked improving agricultural production and family incomes," she said.

(Reporting by Missy Ryan and Richard Cowan; Editing by Marguerita Choy)