[wnight]

> However, even if the crisis could temporarily be averted, the problem with food aid is it undermines any possibility of local production. Farmers can't compete with free food dumped on the market, so they stop farming.

Aid like this needs to happen through buying the food locally, or as close to it as possible.

I think you'd get the most long-term benefit from enforcing peace on the roads and at the refugee camps, then giving the refugees money - ever more until it's worth it for independents to deliver food.

Initially this would result in the same rush of foreign food which would otherwise put local farmers out of business, but instead of the aid being foreign food which displaces local food production, it's foreign money - which will buy local food with preference because it's cheaper. Local farmers could command any price - just short of that of shipping food across the world under military convoy, and would make a fortune. This would build local food production, not ruin it.

[jcampbell1]

The USDA has been piloting a food aid program for a few years that procures food locally. I think an independent study on the program is due next year.