Tag: famine

U.S. Food Aid (Part 6): A Timeline of U.S. Food Aid

July 20, 2026    This is the sixth posting in an effort to inform the public and USDA about Food For Peace lessons and directions.  Below is a timeline of selected milestones in the history of U.S. food aid sent overseas. World Hunger Education Service compiled this from a range of sources with inputs from various experts. It selects for different ways that the US has provided foods to other countries with a particular emphasis on Food for Peace, PL 480, Title II.

Notably, at the time of this publication the key food aid initiative is the same as the first, in 1812: aid to Venezuela in response to an earthquake. Contents in this table is meant to complement and not reiterate content published in other articles here at Hunger Notes.   Photo credit:  The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

Timeframe U.S. Food Aid Milestones
1812 USG sends food aid to Venezuela after earthquake. President James Madison and Congress appropriate $50,000 for wheat flour aid.
1847 Choctaw nation in Oklahoma raises famine relief funds for Ireland.
1914-1919 Commission for Relief in Belgium during WWI channels U.S. wheat that fed 10 million people in Belgium and Northern France, daily. Future president Herbert Hoover organizes first large scale food logistics to combat famine.
1918-22 American Relief Administration provides 700,000 MT of famine-relief food aid to Russia, Poland, Austria.
1930 U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service posts agricultural attachés around the world, starting in South Africa, Sydney, Belgrade.
1943 Catholic Relief Services (CRS) channels food aid in war-torn Europe. U.S. foods for Europe went through the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization.
1944 Dutch famine (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague) led to US Operation Chowhound of B-17 Airdrops of flour, meat, eggs. Later US military trucked in food as Operation Faust.
1945 WWII famine relief. George McGovern in the 741st Bomb Squadron flew surplus food aid to Trieste in northeastern Italy. George McGovern later becomes first director of the Office of Food for Peace, and Democratic nominee for President.
1945-47 CARE Packages as WWII relief, using surplus US Army “10-in-1” rations stockpiled for the canceled invasion of Japan. CARE leaders negotiated with the Army to acquire nearly 3 million pre-packaged rations. Post-WWII US aid also flowed through multilateral channels like UNRRA, the Marshall Plan/GARIOA. CARE and CRS bridged U.S. surpluses through private networks.
1948-49 USG and UK airlift 296,000 tons of food (and coal) to West Berlin. CARE delivered 230,000 packages to Berlin on its own planes.
1948-51 American Friends Service Committee, CARE, and USG provide aid to famine threatened parts of India during the Partition that created India & Pakistan. US passed India Emergency Food Aid Act providing 2 million MT of grain.
1950s India looms large as major concern for large food shortages & famine. US provided large scale grain shipments under Title I and II.
1950s US holds large domestic reserves, including surplus dairy products. FFP framed as a benefit to US farmers as safety valve for purchasing surplus production.
1954 FFP assistance to Korea includes large quantities of wheat flour shipped under Title I, a total of $1.6 billion through 1974. Later in 1987, Korea became a food donor.
1954 Western Wheat Associates (U.S. wheat growers) used food aid for market development, teaching bakers in Japan and India how to use wheat flour.
1954 PL 480 signed into law by President Eisenhower with primarily Title 1 government to government food going to governments.
1954-59 Food aid to Pakistan, Japan, Taiwan, Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, Spain.
1955 CARE’s Board of Directors votes to not dissolve, but to refocus the organization’s aid from Europe to other continents, hence the name changes from Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe to “Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere.” This passed by a single vote. CARE implements Title I and II food aid in Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, India and Dominican Republic.
1958 “Food and Fiber as a Force for Freedom” Senate report recommends food as a force for democracy and coins the phrase “food for peace”, written by Senator Hubert Humphrey, future nominee for US president.
1959 INCAP in Central America creates Incaparina weaning food to prevent malnutrition.
1961 President John F. Kennedy rebrands the initiative “Food for Peace” and consolidates U.S. overseas assistance under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Title III food aid created to incentivize agricultural modernization.
1961 WFP proposed by George McGovern, the first director of the U.S. Food for Peace program, as a three-year UN “experiment” to internationalize food aid.
1963 FFP fuels Operation Niños: Ag Secretary Orville Freeman claimed that U.S. food reached one in four Latin American children, that rural school-meal programs in Bolivia and Peru doubled school attendance. Food for Work also in S America.
1966 Egypt gets soft loans to purchase PL 480 food.
1966 Food aid in India peaked during the severe Indian famine of 1965–1966. During this time, the U.S. used food aid as a heavy diplomatic lever. CARE receives food aid for emergency food program in drought areas. President Johnson involved in every food aid decision related to India.
1966 The 1966 Food for Peace Act PL 89-808 reframes aid from surplus disposal to development conditionality and economic development. President Johnson transfers FFP direction from the White House to the State Department. Johnson emphasized agricultural reforms as a precondition for a country to receive food aid.
1966 Likuni Phala fortified weaning food is pioneered in Malawi.
1968 USAID offers Corn-Soy Milk (CSM) and Corn-Soy Blend (CSB) as fortified foods.
1968-69 U.S. C-97 Stratofreighters (Boeing) help deliver $50M of food aid to Biafra during war in Nigeria, via CRS, CARE, the ICRC and Joint Church Aid. First large scale deployment of new CSB. First live-televised famine; introduced kwashiorkor.
1972 World food crisis, Sahel famine.
1972-1974 Dan Shaughnessy directs Food for Peace and planning for the 1974 UN World Food Conference. Henry Kissinger plays central role in targeting countries for food aid.
1975 Integrated Child Development Services large child nutrition program in India. USG Corn Soya Milk and non-fat dried milk provided through South India Flour Mills for CARE’s “balahar” fortified food for school feeding, led by Tim Lavelle.
1976 World Hunger Education Service begins educating the public and USG about food aid issues and begins quarterly publication of the journal, Hunger Notes.
1977 Title III food aid revised to focus on barter for debt forgiveness and tying aid more explicitly to policy reforms and long-term development in recipient countries.
1979 Two key publications: Amartya Sen’s Poverty & Famines demonstrates that food insecurity is not only about food availability but also about access. Lincoln Chen demonstrates that risk of death increases non-linearly by degree of child wasting.
1979 U.S. donates polished (thiamine removed) white rice to anti-Khmer Rouge groups in Cambodia, resulting in epidemic beriberi (deficiency disease).
1980s Maternal Child Health (MCH) is main type of project supported by food aid, having grown during the 1970s. Food for Work also common for roads/infrastructure.
1983 Church World Service (CWS) stops taking USG FFP resources, following controversial episode of 60 Minutes on CBS about CWS programs in countries with communist governments. CWS goes overnight from being the largest food aid agency in the world to one of the smallest.
1984 Burma Border Consortium of NGOs formed, purchasing food locally for Burmese refugees in camps in Thailand, supported by the U.S. Department of State.
1985 Food for Progress Act explicitly references “Private Voluntary Organizations” or PVOs. Food for Progress authorized CCC financing for grants or credit sales to support agricultural development in developing countries and emerging democracies.
1985 6 million MT of food sent for African famine. Two supplemental appropriations made for Ethiopia famine. FFP manages $500M for Ethiopia alone, plus more for Sudan, and across 21 African countries.
1985 Farm Bill promotes PVO/NGO monetization, using Title II as an alternative revenue stream to direct-dollar grants. U.S. Dry Bean Council positioned pintos and black beans as shelf-stable, high-value food for NGOs to monetize. Initially monetization was to pay for internal transport, which was later funded by USAID in the 1990s.
1985 Ellen Levinson creates the Coalition for Food Aid of NGOs in Washington, DC to promote the roles of NGOs in food aid. Title II Enhancement Grant (later, Title II Strengthening Grant) for PVO headquarters capacity building.
1986 Famine Early Warning System Network (later named FEWS.NET), established on the advice of Tufts University’s President Jean Meyer. Credit also to John Field.
1989 Collapse of Soviet Union shifts emergency food aid gradually away from refugees fleeing regimes in host countries, instead to internally displaced persons.
1990 Food Aid Management funded by FFP with 5 original PVO members.
1990 Fred Cuny pioneers local purchase of food as a more appropriate response to food needs in Ethiopia.
1990s PVOs promote local village “grain reserves” with food aid for resilience.
1990-93 End of US food aid to Somalia leads to famine throughout 1992. President Bush directs US airlifts food via C-130s in late 1992. U.S. Food aid monetized to reduce retail prices across the country in 1993, but after famine has receded.
1990 “Partial monetization” turns into “100% monetization” for many NGOs.
1991 Famine Mitigation Project of experts convened by USAID to recommend best practices to prevention of famine. Including livestock, water, local food purchase.
1992 Food aid mobilization to former Soviet states where food insecurity tied to pensions lost from ruble devaluation. USG works through Red Cross movement. Operation Provide Hope channeled 25,000 MT to the Caucasus and Central Asian “Stans.” ADRA involved in Armenia and other states.
1992 Bosnia: Operation Provide Promise began July 2, 1992, becoming the longest-running humanitarian airlift in history. USG provided sorties into besieged Sarajevo, delivering food and other aid to civilians trapped by the Yugoslav war.
1992 Food Aid Management (FAM) publishes Generally Accepted Commodity Accountability Principles, GACAP, representing all NGOs working with US food aid.
1990s PVO/NGO “cooperating sponsors” include CRS, CARE, World Vision, Save the Children, ADRA, Land O Lakes, ACDI/VOCA, Food for the Hungry International, Project Concern, Africare, Technoserve, Partners for Development, World Relief, Mercy Corps, Lutheran World Relief, IOCC, UMCOR, and International Relief and Development. CARE is often lead food agency in refugee camps, while CRS is lead for IDPs.
1992-1994 FFP defines food security as: availability plus access plus bio-utilization.
1993-1996 FFP Director Robert Kramer rebalances food aid from entrenched USAID Mission projects to areas of greatest need (emergencies), and pushed WFP to recognize the greater priority in emergencies of food.
1993 FAM publishes NGO manual, Monetizing Food Aid, a Guide for PVOs.
1992 CRS’ Mike D’Adamo travels to Rome to strike a partnership with WFP, opening an era of WFP collaboration with NGOs.
1994 CARE and CRS account for roughly 72% of PVOs’ regular Title II programs.
1995 2 million refugees plus almost as many IDPs received some 240,000 MT of food in Rwanda and neighboring countries, following genocide and flight.
1995-97 North Korea’s famine received over 1.1 million metric tons.
1996 André Briend & Michel Lescanne create Plumpy’Nut, the first RUTF, at Nutriset.
1997 WFP strikes agreements partnering with NGOs for distribution activities.
1998 USG requires vegetable oil be fortified with vitamin A (and later, Vitamin D).
1997-2001 Asian financial crisis as currencies lost purchasing power. NGOs like IRD, and WFP used food aid as social protection safety nets.
1999 The majority of US food aid now channeled through WFP, not NGOs.
1999 USAID, FAM and the Canadian Govt convene food experts at a symposium at the American Red Cross to document feasibility of fortifying emergency food aid at the local level to mitigate micronutrient deficiency diseases widely seen among refugees.
2000 Global Food for Education Initiative $300 million, with CCC resources. Over next two decades, 5.5 billion meals for 31 million school children in 48 countries.
2000 Congress passes International Food Relief Partnership Act, amending Title II to authorized grants to US nonprofits to create shelf-stable food products for aid, such as Breedlove Foods in Texas.
2001 FFP Officer Tim Lavelle organizes long-term Bridge of Friendship pipeline from hub of Termez over the Amu Darya river from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, facilitating hundreds of thousands of tons of famine-preventing food aid into Afghanistan.
2002 FFP nutritionist Tom Marchione promotes new formulations of CSB and nutrient-dense foods as part of commodity docket.
2002 CTC/CMAM modality for treating malnourished children with RUTF promoted.
2002 New McGovern-Dole Food for Education program passed in 2002 Farm Bill. This moves school feeding from Food for Peace to USDA.
2002 No more funding for Title III, a government-to-government program under PL 480 where the foreign government sold food for local currency proceeds.
2003 Large-scale U.S. emergency food aid rejected by five southern African famine-affected countries because US corn is genetically modified. Eventually the grain was milled in S. Africa before transporting to Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, etc.
2000s Food aid targets HIV/AIDS response primarily in sub-Sahara Africa. USAID Administrator Natsios pushes for more flexibility for local purchase of food.
2003 Dr. Patricia Wolff from Washington University, St Louis, founds “Meds & Foods for Kids” in Haiti and produces Medika Mamba.
2003 FANTA and FFP develop criteria for prioritization of non-emergency countries.
2004 Jeanie Markunas retires from long career overseeing Food for Peace.
2004 C-SAFE consortium (World Vision, CARE, CRS) manages food aid across southern Africa, with the World Food Programme as a sub-grantee.
2004 Globally, World Vision now channels food aid mostly as a sub-awardee under WFP whereas a few years earlier it was primarily a prime.
2005–2011 RUTF increasingly mainstreamed among NGOs, UNICEF & USAID as part of a shift from blended-flour to lipid-based products for targeted feeding of malnourished.
2006 SMART survey manual released, about measuring acute malnutrition and mortality, with the intent to standardize reliable data across agencies. In 2008, the Global Nutrition Cluster designated Action Against Hunger (ACF) as the global convener of SMART, including ongoing infrastructure, guidance, consultations. FAM hosts a workshop about SMART for monitoring malnutrition.
2008 Farm Bill Sec. 3206 created the pilot USDA Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement Program. The rule established grants for field-based projects consisting of local or regional procurement.
2007 USAID & IFRC plan food aid reserves for future pandemics that contract markets.
2008 Prices for corn and oil increased 125% over a short period, increasing malnutrition worldwide. The USG provided additional $2.8 billion across all international food aid programs, delivering 2.3 million metric tons for 43 million people.
2009 Decades of US food aid to India ends. Meanwhile, India donates food to WFP.
2009 Land O’Lakes International Development nonprofit pilots local purchase of food baskets in Zambia for people with HIV.
2009 Food Aid Quality Review research starts at Tufts University School of Nutrition.
2010 Congress approves The Emergency Food Security Program (EFSP) to allow cash and voucher assistance, instead of only in-kind commodities, using International Disaster Assistance funds.
2010 MSF launches “starved for attention” campaign criticizing the US for donating CSB instead of only procuring RUTF.
2010s Ongoing scale up of RUF production by MANA and Edesia (U.S. NGOs).
2010-2011 Despite early warnings, over 200,000 Somalis die when US cuts off food aid because of Patriot Act. Food aid reinstated only after hunger season ended in 2011.
2010s “Sequencing, layering, and integration” promoted in FFP program designs.
2012 International Food Assistance Improvement Act of 2012 (H.R. 4141) sought to enhance nutritional quality and cost-effectiveness of food aid
2014 Farm Bill expanded Section 202(e) flexibility. USAID increase in authorized 202(e) funding to provide cash transfers, food vouchers, & local purchase modalities.
2014 Charles Hanrahan retires from the Congressional Research Service, after 29 years researching international food aid.
2015 Resilience Food Security Activities (RFSAs) formally introduced as new design of FFP development programs.
Mid 2010s Multi-year, development cooperative agreements, “MYAPs”, replaced by “DFAPs” as main form of FFP projects implemented by NGOs.
2017 Food to four well-publicized man-made famines: S Sudan, Somalia, Yemen & Nigeria.
2018 89% of FFP resources for emergencies. Development food aid % at all time low.
RFSAs emphasize new “graduation model”, along with theories-of-change, learning, and ‘pause and reflect.’
2019 USAID funds Nawiri resilience (RFSA) program in Kenya for northern, arid lands.
2020 Top recipient countries of US food aid from 2015 to 2020 were Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, DRC, Sudan, Afghanistan, Kenya, and Nigeria.
2022 Response to Ukraine war leads to full draining of the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. USG also provides $388 million for shipping/freight, totaling $670 million.
2023 USG and WFP shut down food pipelines to Ethiopia. USAID Administrator on June 8 suspended food aid across Ethiopia because of widespread, coordinated theft of U.S. food by multiple actors (including to military units and markets). This stopped aid for ~20 million people amid drought and post-conflict needs.
2024 First RFSA program in Somalia.
2025 DOGE terminates many FFP (RFSA) and Food for Progress programs, while authority for FFP and FEWS shifted to State Department. A few RFSAs are re-started: Mercy Corps in Kenya, ADRA in DRC, Food for the Hungry in Ethiopia, and CRS in Haiti.
2025 December: FFP transitions again, to US Department of Agriculture which in February commits $452 million to WFP and bids new emergency programs for DRC, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, & Rwanda.
2026 July: FFP announces $235 million to CRS for Ethiopia and Sudan.
2026 USG provides private and UN food aid in recovery from earthquake in Venezuela.

Most of Yemen is Now Hungry, UN Declares

June 17, 2026    Yesterday, the UN was advised that the extent of food insecurity in Yemen had ratcheted up further:  “The hunger crisis in Yemen is worsening sharply, with the share of people unable to meet basic food needs rising from about half to nearly 60 percent within a month,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher warned on Tuesday, calling for urgent funding to prevent further starvation.  “The number of Yemenis facing the most severe levels of deprivation has increased from one in four to nearly one in three. More than 18 million people, …are now experiencing acute hunger, ” Fletcher told the UN Security Council during a June 16 briefing.

Over 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, including more than half a million in the severe, life-threatening form. Nearly half of all children under five suffer chronic malnutrition (stunting), locking in lifelong disadvantages for a generation. In hard-hit areas, half of households with young children report at least one malnourished child, while one in four has a malnourished pregnant or lactating woman.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification System (IPC) of famine predicts and projects a growing number of regions moving into Phase 4 — Emergency, shown in red in the map at right — for the period September to December 2026.  The Orange Zones are very food insecure and Red are emergency.

The 2026 Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan of the U.N. requested $2.16 billion for aid in order to reach 12 million of the 22.3 million people in need of assistance.  Yet, donor fatigue and competing global crises threaten another shortfall. Recent floods have destroyed displacement camps and livelihoods, while economic pressures and regional shipping tensions continue to inflate food and fuel prices. In government-controlled areas alone, nearly half the population now are now suffering crisis-level acute food insecurity, with emergency levels expected to climb through the lean season.The country’s arid climate, limited arable land, and chronic water scarcity have always constrained domestic production. Yemen has long depended on imports for over 90 percent of its food, especially wheat, of which it imports around 96 percent, leaving it acutely vulnerable to global price spikes, shipping disruptions, currency collapse, and fuel shortages that drive up transport costs.  War has only deepened this dependency.

The current civil war, fueled by Iranian support to Houthi rebels, has made humanitarian aid more difficult.  NGOs that had been building long-term food resilience for years had to shift to more short-term life-saving aid.  Damaged irrigation, lost livestock, displacement of farmers, and soaring input costs have left cereal production well below average. Even when commercial imports through Red Sea ports remain adequate in volume, economic collapse and rial devaluation put basic staples beyond reach for millions.

The chart at right comes from the CEOBS Report: Yemen’s agriculture in distress – ceobs.org

What is new and especially alarming in 2026 is the sharp contraction of the humanitarian response itself. In January, the World Food Programme announced it was terminating operations and contracts for its 365 staff in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen, home to roughly 70 percent of the country’s humanitarian needs—after repeated obstructions, arbitrary detentions of aid workers, and an increasingly impossible operating environment. This followed earlier suspensions and adds to chronic underfunding.  The 2025 appeal was only 29 percent funded, forcing agencies to scale back nutrition, health, and food programs nationwide.

Yemen’s food insecurity has deep roots, but the convergence of aid cutbacks, operational halts in the areas of greatest need, economic freefall, and climate shocks risks erasing fragile gains in nutrition and pushing more families beyond their breaking point.

Aid agencies helping to address malnutrition in Yemen include:  the International Committee of the Red Cross, Action Against Hunger, Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee, Médecins Sans Frontières, CARE, Norwegian Refugee Council, Danish Refugee Council, Oxfam, Islamic Relief, Medair and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency.  Relief International is working with WFP in food aid in the south of Yemen.  UNICEF coordinates much of the nutrition programming for children and mothers, and the U.N. Nutrition Cluster (led by UNICEF), which reports for 44 operational nutrition partners in Yemen.

Further information, see:  https://www.nutritioncluster.net/country/yemen

and https://fscluster.org/yemen

 

Fridtjof Nansen: Polar Explorer turned Hunger Activist

May 10, 2026     By Lani Marquez

My husband and I recently visited Oslo, Norway, a beautiful city surrounded by the Oslo Fjord. One of the many very interesting museums we visited there was the Fram Polar Exploration Museum, which houses Norway’s most famous polar ship, the Fram, which sailed to both the North and South Poles.  The ship was designed by the Norwegian scientist Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) and launched in 1892.

Nansen had gained fame while pursuing a doctorate in Zoology when at the age of 27, he led a six-month expedition in 1888 to be the first to successfully cross Greenland on skis. He published two books about the journey with his own photographs and drawings, bringing him international fame. He then set his sights on being the first person to reach the North Pole.

Forcing ships through the Arctic ice to reach the North Pole had been tried and had failed many times in the 1800s. But in 1884, a Norwegian professor of meteorology, Henrik Mohn, had put forward a theory of an east-west current over the Arctic Ocean when the remains of the American expedition ship Jeannette were found by the Greenland coast after the ship had been crushed in the ice and had sunk sunk near the New Siberian Islands in 1881.  Nansen noted this and related it to the driftwood from Siberia that he had seen in the ice off Greenland.

Nansen conceived the plan of building a ship “so small and so strong as possible … that it was improbable that it could be destroyed by the ice”.  With such a ship he believed that he could drift over or very near to the North Pole.  In 1893, he and his crew prepared for a two-year journey in which they would let the Fram get frozen in the drift ice north of Siberia with the hope that the currents would carry the ship to reach the pole. While they did not reach the pole, the expedition returned home safely, and Nansen later sailed on the Fram on an expedition to reach the South Pole. He did not reach that goal either. (Robert Peary became the first person to reach the North Pole in 1909, and Roald Amundsen the South Pole in 1911.)

The story of Nansen’s polar expeditions was fascinating enough, but what really captivated me about this man was his humanitarian work.

Upon his return to Norway after his polar expeditions, Nansen became Norway’s first ambassador to Britain, and in 1917 led a Norwegian delegation to the United States to seek grain aid for Norway, since the country had depended on imports of grain from Germany and Russia before the first World War due to the very low proportion of its land that is arable and since most of the country is made up of mountains, forests, and glaciers.  Soon afterwards, horrified by the slaughter of World War I, Nansen became a champion for the League of Nations and attended the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 which helped shape it.

In 1920, the League of Nations appointed Nansen as High Commissioner in charge of the arrangements for the safe exchange of some 250,000 German and other foreign prisoners of war held by the Russians and some 200,000 Russian prisoners of war held in Germany.

At the same time as the prisoner exchange was being organized, the new Soviet Union was experiencing widespread famine. Nansen arranged for food, clothing, and medicines to be provided to the prisoners of war on Soviet territory and appealed for food aid for the Soviet Union. When Western governments refused to provide such aid to the Communist government, Nansen toured Europe and the United States to raise private donations to fund food for starving people in the Soviet Union.

He argued in the League of Nations for a £5 million loan to address the Russian famine, but his pleas were denied. Nansen estimated that 7 million people died in the Soviet Union as a result of the famine—more than twice the population of Norway at the time.  Nansen led relief efforts as High Commissioner for Relief in Russia for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and associated organizations, after the League of Nations declined official involvement due to distrust of the Soviet government. His work combined advocacy, logistics, fundraising, and on-the-ground aid distribution.

Through the Nansen Mission (involving Red Cross branches from multiple countries and groups like Save the Children), he helped set up free canteens at orphanages, railway stations, and factories. Field kitchens (hundreds deployed) provided daily rations like half a liter of soup and over 100 grams of bread per person. The effort served hundreds of millions of meals overall.

“The difficult is what takes a little time, the impossible is what takes a little longer”
— Fridtjof Nansen

After that, in 1922, the League of Nations appointed Nansen as its First High Commissioner for Refugees, the first High Commissioner for Refugees (what would later become UNHCR), where he continued to use his fame as a polar explorer and diplomat to call attention to the victims of famine and genocide in Russia, Ukraine, and Armenia. In 1922, Nansen received the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless work for refugees in Europe after the war.

In his biography Nansen: The Explorer as Hero, Roland Huntford wrote, “Nansen is among the few really worthy winners of the Peace Prize, although he is probably the one who spent the shortest time earning it.”  Nansen spent the prize money on the purchase of tractors and the establishment of model farms to develop agricultural improvements in Russia.

Nansen’s legacy as a diplomat and hunger activist is worth remembering today.  His Nobel Prize recognized this work alongside his refugee initiatives. He approached it with the same determination he showed in polar exploration—practical, innovative, and relentless. His legacy influenced modern humanitarian organizations like UNHCR.

see also:  https://www.unhcr.org/il/en/about-fridtjof-nansen-unhcr-israel

Global Food Crisis Opinion in Irish Times

April 30, 2026

The Executive Director of Concern Worldwide, Dominic Crowley, published in the Irish Times to amplify the findings of the 2026 Global Report on Food Crises, noting how “in total, 266 million people in 47 countries/territories experienced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025. Nearly one quarter of the population in these countries/territories are acutely food … This acute food insecurity is mostly concentrated in just ten countries.”

He adds that “reflecting our focus on food insecurity, Concern Worldwide works in eight of these countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the DRC, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Over the past twelve months, Concern has also supported a response to the March 2025 earthquake in a ninth country in the list – Myanmar.”

He writes:  “These figures could get even worse. Harsh reductions in aid and the ongoing conflict in Iran and the Gulf States threatens to push more vulnerable people into poverty and acute food insecurity….It is vital that governments and donors scale up aid and investment in resilient food systems and support safe humanitarian access to prevent further catastrophe.”

Also at:

https://www.threads.com/@concernworldwide/post/DXpDe8ilAvZ/humanitarian-and-development-funding-for-food-sectors-in-crisis-fell-last-year

https://x.com/Concern/status/2048869861472764152

India’s Conquest of Famine

April 19, 2026     In the weeks since Paul Ehrlich’s passing away, there have been many articles about the change that have occurred since his publication of the Population Bomb, where he warned about trends in risk of famine in India.

Indeed, one of the greatest stories in human history of overcoming food insecurity and famine has been India over the last 50 years. Not only has India grown in terms of food production, but it has diversified its economy, built infrastructure, and increased its GNP, which also supports improvements in long-term resilience.  In the 1990s, India turned away the food assistance provided in large quantities by the US Government’s Food for Peace, and India became itself a food aid donor to other countries.

In the late 1960s, India began intensively experimenting with ways to improve yields of key food crops, particularly wheat.  A few Indian scientists played an historic, important role in feeding this country which today has more people than any other.  The most important was M.S. Swaminathan, an unassuming man who, in his own gentle way, revolutionized India’s agricultural sector.

Swaminathan started out in 1947 working on plant breeding at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi. Swaminathan collaborated with US plant breeder Norman Borlaug touring India, breeding Mexican wheat with Japanese varieties. This new crop produced high yields of good quality.  In 1964 he earned funds to plant demonstration plots which convinced Indian farmers to experiment with its use.  Further experimentation led to wheat varieties which by 1968 increased wheat production to 17 million tons.

Swaminathan’s lifelong commitment to transparency pushed him to establish various systems of accountability of the institutions he headed; therefore, he placed the entire international rice collection under the supervision of an international rice board even though it was already a part of IRRI.  Swaminathan never tired of crediting that the seeds of the green revolution in India were actually sown far back in 1949 in the fields of the Central Rice Research Institute in Cuttack, India long before Norman Borlaug came to India.  Working with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, he established a commission for plant-based genetic resources to address issues related to the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources for food and agriculture. This included plants, animals, and aquatic organisms.  The commission’s focus was on the management of biodiversity.  In the 1980s, Swaminathan led, as Director General, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Here he shone as a brilliant and dedicated scientist, an excellent leader, and kind-hearted.  Despite occasional setbacks, he persevered in promoting international cooperation in the utilization and conservation of genetic resources.  His vision extended beyond yield per hectare. He was a prophet of sustainability long before it became a buzzword of the 21st century. From championing greater participation of women in agriculture to espousing ecological balance, from advancing research in Russian attics to promoting sustainable coastal farming, from advocating for tribal food security to establishing gene banks for endangered crops, his canvas was vast, and his brush precise. Swami Nathan was generous and humane, embodying the best and noblest of the India into which he was born and by which he was shaped.

As shown in the graph at right, food production in India has more than kept pace with population growth due to ongoing improvements in applications of scientific methods. In these same last fifty years, India’s population hasalmost tripled, from 520,000,000 to about 1.5 billion today.

India’s agricultural geography has shifted from a northwest “Green Revolution core” (1970s) to a much more broad-based and increasingly central/eastern growth pattern (last decade).  In the 1970s, increases in production were largely in the Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh.   More recently, Indian States with the strongest increases in food production:

    • * Madhya Pradesh – often cited as India’s fastest-growing agricultural state in the 2010s
    • * Chhattisgarh – rapid expansion in rice production and procurement
    • * Jharkhand – gains from irrigation and diversification
    • * Bihar & Eastern Uttar Pradesh – improvements in rice, maize, and horticulture.

The elimination of famine has not meant that there is no malnutrition in India.  Fifty years ago half of children were stunted (low height per age) from undernutrition, while today 1 in three are.

Meanwhile, rate of wasting malnutrition (as measured by weight for height) has remained stubbornly high over the last 50% years, by many estimates stuck in the range of 17-18%.

The government’s most current estimate for the national prevalence of wasting (low weight for height) among children under five in India for 2025 is estimated the 5.4% though estimates from prior years are closer to 18% among children.  Wasting malnutrition also varies across different areas.  For instance, the Union Territory of Lakshadweep reported the highest wasting rate at 11.6%, followed by Bihar (9.31%) and Madhya Pradesh (8.2%).

Much of the growth of production in India has been facilitated by increases in application of synthetic fertilizers. This is relevant today because, as reported yesterday, India’s food economy is seriously dependent upon fertilizers from the Middle East that are now blockaded and will be increasingly expensive, which may challenge food production in India this year.

Read more:   M.S. Swaminathan in conversation with Nitya Rao: The Ethics and Politics of Science, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation Centre for Research on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, 2014.

Charles C. Mann, The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 2018).

Priyambada Jayakumar, M S Swaminathan: The Man Who Fed India,  HarperCollins India, September 10, 2025

Further Increases of Starvation in Darfur, Sudan

April 12, 2026

The arid, poor, western region of Sudan, called Darfur, has been a complex emergency for twenty-three years, with mass displacement and an increasing problem of starvation and malnutrition.  Aid to prevent starvation is prevented by the inability of aid agencies to reach those in need, due to violence. A two-year siege of the regional capital of El-Fasher reflected the unending war between the two combatant groups, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces).

Using themal imaging, the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale University has recently published evidence of attacks against civilians Darfur.  Yales’s new HRL report provides detail of targeted burning, destruction and razing of 41 agrarian villages northwest of El-Fasher in darfur.  These communities were ethnically Zaghawa who produce food for the region, but following attacks, they halted agricultural work.  The Yale lab report finds:  “decreases in agricultural activity during the growing period following the razing of communities assessed through year-on-year changes in land use/land cover.”

The Yale lab and this report use remote sensing to measure changes in food security in non-permissive environments.  Satellite imagery of farming communities are shown in the photo at the top-left and at the map at right.

Oona Hathaway has called attention to famine as a war crime in Darfur, western Sudan.  “We conclude that the new Yale HRL report provies compeelling evidence relevant to multiple RSF starvation crises in the vicinity of El-Fasher, including war crimes, crimes against humanity…. Well over 11 million people have been displaced by the conflict, which has caused desperate levels of food insecurity, including multiple determinations of famine.”   She continues, “the fighting and the parties’ well-documented obstruction of humanitarian relief have, for extended periods, made the, made the transportation of food and aid to places that desperately need it nearly impossible.”

The economic and livelihood implications of the crisis have spread beyond the agricultural sector.  “Nearly 70 percent of bank branches have closed and ceased operation in conflict zones across Sudan. Bank closures, limited cash liquidity, and high transfer commission rates ranging from 10 to 30 percent have contribu ted to financial strain and limits any ability to sell and purchase food commodities, exacerbating food insecurity.”

Several locations in Darfur report acute malnutrition rates above 50%, which is very high.  Around 800,000 childhood cases of servere malnutrition, the most dangerous and deadly form of malnutrition, are expected nationwide this year in The Sudan.

Food aid does not benefit from a stable pipeline to Darfur, some food coming from Chad.  Much of the food is brought in by the World Food Programme.  NGOs responding include the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE, Food for the Hungry and Concern Worldwide.

Following the confirmed spread of famine in North Darfur, Action Against Hunger (AAH or ACF) is operating directly in regional hunger hotspots. Their teams provide emergency health and nutrition interventions, alongside water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs that are critical for preventing malnutrition-related diseases like cholera.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has provided food and cash, and health care for livestock, and rehabilitated water infrastructure (e.g., hand pumps in rural North, Central, and West Darfur) benefiting tens of thousands; conducted cholera response campaigns with chlorination and hygiene promotion in Tawila (North Darfur) and Al Daein (East Darfur), reaching over 117,000 people and distributed water filters.

See:

 

Paul Ehrlich, Who Warned of Famines, Passes Away

Scientist, educator and global citizen, Paul Ehrlich passed away at the age of 93 on March 13, 2026.   As professor from 1959 to 2016 at Stanford University, he sponsored the first course offered about international hunger and life-saving aid, consistent with his life-long efforts to mitigate suffering from famine, food insecurity and environmental crises.

In a series of publications, Ehrlich called the general public’s attention to the reality of famines around the world. His writings, often with his wife Anne Ehrlich, emphasized the dramatic increase in the number of people exposed to food insecurity and hunger as the world population quadrupled during his lifetime, an observation largely ignored by other major analysts and politicians.

The success of their 1968 book, The Population Bomb, resonated with a public increasingly aware in the 1950s and 1960s of exponential population growth. Demand for his views was reflected in his more than 20 appearances as a guest on NBC’s The Tonight Show.

Some obituaries have denied the recurrence of famine, turning a blind eye to the hundreds of millions of people affected in recent decades by famines in Mali, Sudan, Haiti, Ethiopia, Yemen, Cambodia, India, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, and other countries since the publication of The Population Bomb which warned of the threats of future famines.  Critics of Ehrlich pretend away the fact that in the decades since its population, over 300 million young children have died from malnutrition in poorer countries and that famines continue to occur in still-growing populations such as South Sudan, Nigeria, Mozambique Somalia, and Kenya.  Remarkably, some obituaries about Ehrlich suggest that malnutrition has not been a problem in the world, despite the fact that an estimated four to five billion people have been seriously hungry and malnourished during the decades since Ehrlich’s warning.

Fortunately, the frequency and severity of very large famines have declined, in part because of Ehrlich’s warnings, which helped spur the U.S. government to create the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) in the 1980s. This system has helped prevent famines through timely food and humanitarian assistance and is still used today by the U.S. Department of State.

The book also helped galvanize support for women’s reproductive rights, education, and microfinance initiatives, contributing to declines in fertility and more stable population growth in many countries. Governments, including that of the United States, increasingly supported programs to reduce child mortality, which in turn enabled women across Asia and Africa to choose smaller family sizes. For instance, in the 1960s, the average woman in Asia or Africa gave birth to seven children, whereas today the average is three to four.

Ehrlich’s environmental warnings have been less successful, however, in preventing species extinction and habitat loss.  Since his book, millions of species have gone extinct at rates up to 1,000 times the natural background level, largely due to human encroachment on land and marine habitats. As Ehrlich warned decades ago, the 2024 Living Planet Report documents that monitored wildlife populations have declined by an average of 73% since 1970.  This loss is often described as a “sixth mass extinction,” driven primarily by habitat destruction, followed by overharvesting, invasive species, disease, and climate change.

As Ehrlich documented, carbon dioxide emissions have increased by over 115% since 1968.  To feed a growing population, humans have converted vast tracts of forests and grasslands into farmland. Over the past 50 years, agriculture and land-use change have accounted for roughly 23% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The world has also lost about 420 million hectares of forest since 1990 due to land conversion.

Ehrlich spent a career studying the science of population dynamics, including coevolution and population biology. In his 1964 paper “Butterflies and Plants: A Study in Coevolution” (with Peter Raven), he argued that plants and herbivorous insects drive each other’s evolution—an idea that helped launch the modern field of coevolution. He also conducted decades-long field studies on checkerspot butterflies (Euphydryas editha bayensis), examining population dynamics, genetic structure, and the effects of climate and habitat fragmentation. His work documented patterns of local extinction and recolonization, providing empirical support for the concept of meta-populations and shaping modern conservation science.

Ehrlich helped popularize the notion of ecosystem services, the benefits people receive from nature, such as pollination, water purification, and soil fertility. He used this framework to quantify how human demography and consumption threaten the functioning of ecosystems.

As the Peter Bing professor at Stanford University, Ehrlich  founded Stanford’s Center for Conservation Biology and has worked on endangered‑species policy, countryside biogeography (making human‑altered landscapes hospitable to biodiversity), and cultural evolution of environmental ethics.

Over his long career he mentored scores of students at Stanford, cultivating in them the same blend of scientific rigor and moral urgency that defined his own work.

His textbook Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment, coauthored with Anne Ehrlich and John Holdren, is a comprehensive and still-relevant compendium. It provides a foundational overview of ecological principles, resource constraints, and environmental systems. The book explores how population growth, industrial agriculture, pesticide use, and pollution strain natural systems, and it outlines pathways for social, political, and economic adaptation. Ultimately, it frames humanity’s environmental challenges as requiring urgent and coordinated global action.

Like his publications, Ehrlich’s lectures were intellectually wide-ranging and provocative, integrating history, global trends, politics, and ecology. Unlike many academics, he was deeply committed to addressing hunger and alleviating human suffering.

Other readings:

Stanford University:  https://humsci.stanford.edu/feature/biologist-and-environmentalist-paul-ehrlich-has-died

Understanding the fragility of our planetary home: The legacy of Paul Ehrlich

Nature Journal:  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00939-5

Paul Ehrlich: A Tribute

– by Steve Hansch, board member, World Hunger Education Service

 

Threat of Child Malnutrition in Iran Amid U.S.–Iran Conflict

February 28, 2026       The U.S.–Iran war that began today, 28 February 2026, threatens to sharply worsen malnutrition among children under five in low-income urban neighborhoods of strike zones (Tehran, Isfahan, Kermanshah) and in rural border provinces (e.g., Sistan-Baluchestan and Kurdistan) that already experience high malnutrition rates.

Iran, with a total population of 93 million people, has 7 ½ million children under five years of age, which is more children than Germany, the UK, Canada, Iraq, Syria, Italy, Turkey, or France.

Over the last few decades the occurrence of childhood stunting (a form of long-term malnutrition) and of wasting (short-term) malnutrition have declined in Iran, reflected by the government’s attention to treating malnutrition.   However, studies in southern Iran from 2018 to 2023 show a significant increase in underweight and wasting among young children, with the annual % change of severe wasting increasing by 8.9%.  Nationally, the rate of wasting has averaged 4.2%, which is medium for regional and peer countries.  Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) manages child malnutrition programs through primary healthcare centers, hospitals, and nutrition initiatives.  Treatment follows protocols similar to WHO/UNICEF guidelines for community-based management of acute malnutrition, which emphasize outpatient therapeutic care using Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for severe malnutrition.

The most widespread micronutrient deficiency diseases in Iran include vitamin D (rickets), iron (anemia), vitamin A, and zinc deficiency.  Iran addresses these through national programs (e.g., supplementation, fortification of foods like flour with iron/folate, salt iodization, and targeted UNICEF-supported interventions in high-risk provinces), but challenges persist due to economic factors, dietary habits, and regional disparities.

Even before the current war threats, Iran’s food economy was struggling under the weight of international sanctions and mismanagement.  The conflict will further reduce Iranian families’ ability to afford food.  In fact, the protests that broke out in December 2025 were in part over increased food prices after the rial plunged against the U.S. dollar.   There has been criticism by Iranians that their government has failed to present a clear emergency response plan, leaving citizens to fend for themselves. 

Iran produces much of its own wheat, dates, barley, rice, pistachios, walnuts, citrus fruits, and saffron.  It imports rice, cooking oils, soybeans, sugar, tea, and dairy.  The fighting will disrupt Iran’s ability to import food commodities, tightening supply.  Agricultural supply chains, transportation networks, storage facilities, and water infrastructure are all vulnerable.  Damaged roads and ports will impede food distribution across the country.

Urban bombardment now underway in Tehran and other major cities will displace families.  Reuters today reports that Iranians have fled cities in search of safety, rushed to stock up on food, and formed long queues at fuel stations as attacks by the United States and Israel spread fear and panic throughout the country.  Iranian government messages have explicitly encouraged people to leave Tehran and other targeted cities to avoid attacks.  This kind of internal displacement typically leads to overcrowded towns, strain on services, and informal settlements on the periphery of safer cities.

Internally displaced populations lose access to stable food sources, income, and caregiving routines.  Young children are disproportionately harmed by the disruption of feeding practices and by unhygienic displacement conditions that compound malnutrition with infectious disease.

Iran is known as a country that takes care of refugees.  Estimates vary, but UNHCR and other agencies report roughly some 3.8 million refugees and people in refugee-like situations in Iran as of 2025, overwhelmingly from Afghanistan and a smaller number from Iraq and other countries.

Iran has been prone to disasters due to large earthquakes and famines.  As well, in February 1972, a week-long series of storms  brought up to 26 feet (8 meters) of snow in rural areas of western Iran which buried over 200 villages, killing thousands.

Iran also suffered severe famines in 1870-72 and during the First and Second World Wars.  The most recent UN Food and Agriculture Organization report about Iran (November 2025) notes that persistent dry weather has hampered winter wheat plantings, leading to an estimated cereal production nearly 10% below the five-year average in 2025.  It found that wheat prices in Tehran had risen 50% and rice prices had tripled, compared to the previous year.

Iran has a fairly extensive domestic social protection system by regional standards, though it has faced significant strains in recent years.  The Imam Khomeini Relief Committee (IKRC) is one of the largest non-governmental charitable organizations in the world by some measures. It operates under government supervision and provides cash transfers, food assistance, healthcare subsidies, and vocational training to millions of low-income Iranians. It draws on religious endowments (waqf) and public donations alongside state funding.   The State Welfare Organization (SWO) handles a broader range of social services including disability support, elderly care, and assistance for vulnerable families.

International aid agencies help Iran in disasters, including the Red Cross.  The national Red Crescent society of Iran, part of the global IFRC network, has deep roots in domestic disaster relief, rescue, and healthcare operations.  The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been working in Iran since the late 1970s.  The ICRC provides humanitarian services related to conflict-affected populations, health, and protection.

Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors without Borders) has been operating health programs in Iran.  Many other international NGOs have been hesitant to work in Iran, where the government distrusts Western organizations.  An exception has been Relief International (RI), which was founded in 1990 following the catastrophic Manjil–Rudbar earthquake in northern Iran.

The convergence of active conflict, pre-existing economic strain, and disrupted supply chains creates a compounding crisis for Iran’s most vulnerable — particularly children under five.  International humanitarian organizations face their own obstacles operating in Iran, given longstanding government suspicion of Western NGOs. The children most at risk — those in strike zones like Tehran and Isfahan, and those in already-malnourished border provinces like Sistan-Baluchestan — are precisely the populations least able to weather further disruption to food access, clean water, and caregiving. Without rapid and coordinated humanitarian response, the malnutrition crisis that predates this conflict will deepen sharply, with consequences that will outlast the fighting itself.

 

S. Hansch, WHES Board

 

 

 

 

 

Concern Worldwide in Sudan

World Hunger Education Service made its annual anti-hunger award, including our recommendation and a cash grant to Concern Worldwide for its food and nutrition assistance in the worst famine crisis in the world, The Sudan, where it manages health clinics, case finding of children with malnutrition and building household resilience amid an intractable civil war. Their operations reach nearly half a million people across several states, including West and Central Darfur, West and South Kordofan, and the Red Sea State.  Concern Worldwide has been operating in Sudan since 1985, with programs adapted to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis stemming from the conflict that escalated in April 2023.

Concern’s assistance in the last year included over 11 tons of medical items and 56 metric tonnes of pharmaceuticals and equipment in recent deliveries.   Nutrition programs include distributing 11 tons of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to treat childhood malnutrition, addressing the loss of Sudan’s domestic RUTF production capacity due to conflict damage. Overall, nearly 480,000 people received support through these health and nutrition efforts in the first 10 months of 2025, with programs continuing into 2026 amid funding shortfalls highlighted by Concern’s leadership.

To mitigate long-term impacts like poverty, Concern integrates food security, livelihoods support, nutrition, WASH, and disaster risk reduction.  Their aid includes agricultural training, provision of inputs, and village savings and loan associations in Kordofan communities, adapted to the conflict environment. These programs aim to build resilience while addressing immediate needs from the crisis, which has left over 24 million people in Sudan requiring aid.   In 2024, Concern treated 8,312 children for severe acute malnutrition (SAM).  In addition, in 2024, over 12,000 individuals received in-kind food assistance, and 5,875 households were provided with multi-purpose cash assistance totaling approximately €1.2 million.

Concern Worldwide began in 1968, when a small group of Irish volunteers launched an emergency response to the famine in Biafra, Nigeria.  Today, Concern reaches over 30 million people in emergencies.

See:    https://www.concern.net/what-we-do/health-and-nutrition

See Hunger Notes’ previous interview with Dominic MacSorley, former CEO of Concern at:  https://www.worldhunger.org/interview-with-dominic-macsorley-former-ceo-of-concern-worldwide/

Donations from the US can go to:  https://concernusa.org/

https://concernusa.org/search-results/?q=sudan&page=1

Mali Faces Famine

As of early 2026, Mali continues to face a deep nutritional crisis. While there has been long-term incremental progress in reducing chronic malnutrition (stunting), acute malnutrition (wasting) remains at emergency levels, particularly in the conflict-affected northern and central regions.  Mali is among six countries at highest risk of famine or catastrophic hunger in early 2026.  The UN estimates 5.1 million people are in need.

Because of the conflict there have been more than 800 incidents of access denial of aid to people in need in 2025, which has included violence against aid workers.  Mali  borders the Sahara desert and is prone to drought and malnutrition.

Acute malnutrition among children nationwide averages 11.6%, which is well above the African regional average of 6%.  Within Mali, crises areas include Ménaka (22.2%) and Gao (19.3%), where malnutrition rates have surged far past the WHO’s 15% emergency threshold.

An estimated 1.5 million children are acutely malnourished, with over 314,000 cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition, which is the most life-threatening form.

Militant activity and “blockade tactics” in the North and Center have disrupted local markets and restricted access to agricultural fields, making food both scarce and unaffordable.

See:  https://www.fao.org/4/t2860t/t2860t02.htm