805 



Between 1954 and 1961 the amount of food shipped abroad under 

 P.L. 480 grew steadily. However, since the law required that only 

 commodities in surplus could be shipped under its terms, the main 

 thrust of the program was the disposal of U.S. surpluses.^^ When U.S. 

 stocks were reduced to what were considered reasonable levels, offers 

 to give or sell such commodities under P.L. 480 were withdrawn. This 

 happened, for example, to butter, dry skim milk, cheese, and vegetable 

 oils. Wheat, however, continued to be in surplus and was shipped 

 abroad in large quantities. 



There is no doubt that food aid under P.L. 480 has been massive, 

 and that the proceeds from the sale of P.L. 480 food have made a sub- 

 stantial contribution to development. Af^ricultural exports under P.L. 

 480 for the period 1954-1967 amounted to 5^17.2 billion, of which about 

 $11.0 billion was shipped under Title I of the act (sales for foreign 

 currency). Food was supplied to 116 countries containing half the 

 world's population." The development of Taiwan, Israel, and South 

 Korea benefitted markedly from P.L. 480 assistance. In the view of 

 at least one informed observer, India would not have survived as a 

 democratic state without the great transfer of food on a concessional 

 basis provided by P.L. 480.^* In Tunisia, food donated under Title II 

 was used as wage payments on work relief projects. 



In the 1960s food aid began to be used as an instrument of develop- 

 ment. President Kennedy, on January 24, 1961, called for th6 construc- 

 tive use of ''' American agricultural abundance" to promote peace and 

 "to play an important role in helping to provide a more adequate diet" 

 in the LDCs.^* Orville Freeman, then Secretary of Agriculture, urged 

 similarly that the United States use its agricultural abundance to en- 

 courage economic growth in underdeveloped areas.*^° Congress extended 

 and expanded P.L. 480 assistance in 1961, and again in 1964 and 1965. 



PRESENT STATUS OF PUBLIC LAW 4 80 



As the program evolved, various defects became evident. Sometimes, 

 a developing country would use U.S. surplus food shipments to replace 

 commercial food imports, diverting the credits to the purchase of 

 consumer goods which would not contribute to development. Some- 

 times the surplus imports were used to postpone the making of hard 

 decisions in the modernization of a country's agriculture, or with re- 

 gard to an explosively increasing population. Cochrane implies that 

 the uge of food in this manner lay behind the failure of food aid to 

 make a significant contribution to development in those Latin Amer- 

 ican countries which received it.®^ 



Food assistance need not lead to unbalanced or lopsided develop- 

 ment. But it can release officials in developing countries from the 

 pressing obligation of taking distasteful steps necessary to sound 

 development, by mitigating an immediate food shortage. The ar- 

 gument has been advanced that P.L." 480 assistance in the 19o0s, by 

 failing to oblige developing countries to take steps to limit popula- 



™ Orville Freeman. "World Without HunKer" (New York, PrneRer, 1968). pape 20. 



=7 WiUard W. Cochrane, "The World Food Problem" (New York, Crowell, 1969), page IM. 



« Ibid., page 13R. 



™ Ibid., pages 29. 30 



*> Ibid., page HO. 



« Ibid., page 139. 



