LAWMAKERS URGE ACTION ON GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS
News Date May 02, 2008
Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) held a press conference April 28 and linked the growing food crisis to national and global security. The lawmakers urged the President to immediately increase U.S. food aid to $550 million.
Durbin said this is the worst food crisis in more than thirty years and with food prices soaring, millions of the world's poor risk deprivation and starvation--many of them children. He said feeding the hungry is no longer just a moral issue but one of global security. Casey said the global food crisis now risks creating a series of failed states as anger at inadequate food stocks spur riots and political instability. He believes U.S. funding needs to be increased in the short-term, but we also need to look at more long-term solutions to help nations respond to skyrocketing prices. Casey and six other lawmakers sent a letter to Senate appropriators last month advocating an expansion of emergency funds.
On April 22, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) spoke on the Senate floor about the importance of boosting international food aid in the wake of the growing world hunger crisis. Kohl is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and Rural Development. He said that unless Congress acts, thousands of people will die and an increasing number of societies and nations will be at risk. (Contact: Charlie Ingram)