Public Law 480 also known as Food for Peace (and commonly abbreviated PL 480) is a funding avenue by which U.S. food can be used for overseas aid.
It has four parts, titles 1, 2, 3 and 5. Title 1 is managed by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), while titles 2, 3 and 5 are managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The full name for Public Law 480 is the Agricultural Trade Development Assistance Act, signed into law on July 10, 1954, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In signing the legislation, Eisenhower stated that the legislation's purpose was to "lay the basis for a permanent expansion of our exports of agricultural products with lasting benefits to ourselves and peoples of other lands."[1]
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy renamed it as "Food for Peace," stating, "Food is strength, and food is peace, and food is freedom, and food is a helping to people around the world whose good will and friendship we want."[1]
This was reauthorised through the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (FAIR), commonly known as 1996 Farm Bill.
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The purpose of PL 480 is to:
PL 480 can be divided into 4 Titles: Each is administered by different US agencies.
The main focus of title 1 is Economic Assistance and Food Security. It allows concessional sales of agricultural products to friendly developing nations, either by government to government (main means) or government to private entities (rare).
Surplus bulk commodities purchased from the US are monetized in the recipient's country market. Income generated is to support stated objectives in the predetermined agreement between the US government and the recipient government.
Concessional terms are very favourable: it can be long-term credit up to thirty years, with no minimum repayment for ten years, grace period for payment of principle up to five years at low interest such as 2 - 4%.
This program is flexible and facilitates collaboration with international bodies such as the World Bank in support of development programs.
Priority is given to
Recipients’ countries must also demonstrate potential to become commercial markets for US agricultural products.
The main use of this program is for Emergency and Private Assistance Programs. Title 2 allows donation of US agricultural products to meet humanitarian food needs. Emergency and non emergency (development) food aid activities support broader USAID objectives and can be used for both direct feeding and monetisation programs.
Recipients can be any of the following, operating in conjunction with cooperative sponsors (CS):
For non-emergency aid Title 2 can be often seen to be in support of:
Title 2 has a subsection that gives funding for strengthening of the management ability of the CS especially in the area of management improvement, such as administration and implementation improvement as well as monitoring and reviews.
Section 202 (e) - logistic, information system, research
International Strengthening Assist. (ISA) - Better accountability
Also known as Food for Development. It is a government-to-government grant to the least developed countries, and aims at addressing food and nutrition problems, countries most in need of food to enhance long term food security. Programs with direct links to increased food production and consumption have priority.
It can be used by monetisation of donated commodities in the domestic market, but some may be kept as reserve. To support the program, the US government will pay for all charges involved. Programmes may include:
Known as Farmer to Farmer Program, established in 1986, re-authorised by the 1996 Farm Bill Act. It is not a food aid programme, but a short term technical assistance by linking American volunteer farmers with farmers in developing countries, whereby the US farmer will spend time in the developing country working with the developing country farmers to improve food production, marketing and distribution.
This program was established aimed mainly at the NIS of the former Soviet Union, but also covers Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.
As a civilian agency government-impelled cargo, U.S. humanitarian assistance shipped overseas as food aid is subject to the requirements of Cargo Preference. Under provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985[2], certain agricultural cargoes and programs were exempted from cargo preference, and the U.S. flag carriage requirement was increased by 25% for others, meaning that 75% of such cargoes should be carried in U.S. bottoms[3].
Maritime interests, including USA Maritime strongly support cargo preference, recently releasing a study about the economic benefit of shipping food aid on U.S. vessels[4].