Food aid interventions can curb climate change-induced hardship. But should they do more?

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Working to make food aid programs more effective Because USAID's investments can be so consequential for receiving countries, it's important they're done right, said Lora Iannotti, a professor who studies global maternal and youth nutrition at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Richer countries like the U.S. have tended to use direct donations of surplus staple and commodity crops like corn and wheat as a way to benefit their own farmers, according to Iannotti’s research. Daniel Maxwell, a professor of food security at Tufts University, thinks countries providing aid also need strategies to address problems "causing the hunger in the first place,” whether that's climate change, war or other factors. USAID and the U.S. Department of Agriculture haven't yet explained how food aid efforts might be changed or altered by the incoming U.S. administration, but the delay on renewing expired Farm Bill legislation does hold up USDA programming including food aid projects in a variety of ways, said Alexis Taylor, undersecretary of trade and foreign agricultural affairs at USDA.