Today, House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig released the following statement regarding the unelected billionaire Elon Musk’s barrage of attacks on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“U.S.-run international food assistance programs provide critical business for American farmers and the entire agricultural supply chain. There are currently over 550 million metric tons of food – worth over $340 million – that were expected to be provided by America’s farmers which is now either in limbo or stuck at U.S. export ports, unable to be delivered. The uncertainty caused by Elon Musk’s attacks on USAID hurts the rural economy and damages the proud heritage of American farmers feeding the world. I’ll keep standing up to anyone who doesn’t have our farmers’ best interests at heart.”

Background

The Food for Peace, Food for Progress and the McGovern-Dole programs play a critical role in supporting our agricultural economy. Dismantling these critical programs will erode the rural economy and the infrastructure that supports it. With funding freezes, employees furloughed at USAID and a lack of leadership at USDA, future commodity sales for U.S. international food aid programs are now in doubt. This uncertainty will start to stall rail car movements, back up our export ports and tie up ships headed towards their destinations with food that can’t be delivered, risking the spoilage of tons of commodities here and abroad. Markets where U.S.-grown commodities once had a steady presence now look shaky. 

Food for Peace is the United States’ flagship program for providing international food assistance. America’s farmers are the bedrock of this program. In 2022 alone, American farmers provided over 4 billion pounds of American-grown grains, soybeans, lentils, rice, and other commodity staples to the Food for Peace program. That food fed nearly 60 million hungry people in developing countries.