Food crisis may turn tide in U.S. food-aid debate

By Missy Ryan - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The global food crisis and a tough stance from the White House are finally winning over U.S. lawmakers to the Bush administration's pursuit of greater flexibility in bringing food to the world's hungry.

President George W. Bush, taking a harder line in recent weeks, appears closer to victory in persuading Congress to accept a proposal to use some U.S. food-aid funds to buy crops overseas in the end game of a long-delayed agriculture law.

Giving poor countries the authority to buy food aid locally "seems like it's becoming a requirement to get this farm bill passed," said Rebecca Bratter, who follows trade at U.S. Wheat Associates, an industry group.

The authority would be a departure for the U.S. government, which in the past has bought U.S. crops and shipped them to poor nations overseas, often through aid groups or the United Nations.

The issue takes on new urgency as world leaders call for swift action to help poor nations cope with skyrocketing prices of basic staples, triggered over recent years by poor harvests, rising demand, and growing production of crop-based biofuels.

Yet as lawmakers struggle to write the new farm bill, the far-reaching agriculture law that sets everything from crop supports to food stamps, fears about crop shortages and growing hunger worldwide may work to Bush's benefit.

"What's happened is that the administration has a much stronger hand in saying how food aid should be provided," said Ellen Levinson, who heads a coalition of aid groups.

Although no final decisions have been made, according to one congressional aide, lawmakers are more likely than ever to set aside sharp agribusiness opposition and vote to allow up to a quarter of the largest food-aid program, run by the U.S. Agency for International Development, to buy crops overseas.