Global Hierarchy of Disruptive Food Aid

While it seems counterintuitive, the global hierarchy of international food aid plays into both racial and class hierarchies. One normally associates the word “aid” with philanthropy and altruism when in reality, international food aid is a lasting impact of colonialist economies. The origins of food aid are often credited to U.S. President Harry Truman, who stated in his 1949 Inaugural Address, “[we must make] the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial processes available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas…Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas” (Patel 97). This speech was considered a founding document for the concept of “development” in neoliberal internationalism demonstrating how the foundational values of the process of development were not humanitarianism, but security policy. Food aid programs were born not of America's superior charity but of “part of a policy mindset that linked international trade, military power, and redistribution” (Patel 98). Therefore, the foundation of food aid is built out of America’s racial and class hegemonic discourses.