Role International Food Assistance Plays at USDA

What role does international food assistance play at the USDA?

USDA administers three international  food assistance programs: the Food for Progress Program, the McGovern/Dole Program, and  a subset of that being the Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement Program.” said Ken Isley with the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

He made those comments recently before a House appropriations subcommittee hearing.

Food for Progress has two principle objectives: to improve agriculture productivity in developing countries and emerging democracies without negatively impacting the export of U.S. commodities, and to expand trade in agricultural products.

For fiscal year 2019 preliminary allocations of about $140 million for Food for Progress projects.  Meanwhile he noted, $190 million dollars has been preliminary allocated to McGovern/Dole projects, which are designed to graduate from USDA assistance down the road.