[muawiyah]

Let's recognize something here first. The CARE argument on behalf of small farmers in the local area is the SAME argument made in the United Kingdom in the face of the first major famines in Ireland.

To "protect the price of corn" the Brits allowed a government administrator to disallow the import of food for starving people.

I think the CARE administrator who came up with that argument should be dealt with roughly and sent away.

[Constantine XI Palaeologus]

But in this case, the Kenyan’s are not experiencing a famine due to a disease afflicting their primary foodstuff. The influx of unneeded (by Americans) U.S. wheat DOES negatively impact the Kenyan agricultural sector and thus their economy in general. Furthermore, it’s a perpetuating cycle that will not easily allow the Kenyans (and other 3rd world countries) to improve their standard of living.

[DB]

Large amounts of free stuff are only helpful in the short term. It should only be done for sudden disasters that will cause people to starve in short order. Any aid should be accompanied by seed or whatever else is required to get local production back online but only short term. Otherwise you put the people further up the chain out of business with the same end result.

No one can compete with free so free has to be used carefully or you create the very situation you are trying to remedy.

[Grizzled Bear]

I think the CARE administrator who came up with that argument should be dealt with roughly and sent away.

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From the article: “Other experts said they share CARE’s concern, but stressed that food donations are sometimes needed when a natural disaster harms a local area’s agriculture, such as the flooding that North Korea says has devastated vast tracts of its farmland.

The Atlanta-based CARE agreed with that view. “We are not against emergency food aid for things like drought and famine,” spokeswoman Alina Labrada said Thursday.”

The CARE administrator echoes your idea about famines and disasters.

[ChurtleDawg]

it clearly said that the problem is different in a famine situation where local agriculture is devestated. In that case food aid is nessecary