Interesting article hidden away in the NY Times today. Celia Dugger writes about the striking reduction in the amount of food aid in the Third World this year. The gist of the article is not that the US is cutting back on it's commitment in terms of dollars, but that those dollars buy 35% less food then they did in 2006. Her sources suggest that there will be a similar drop in buying power over the next two years.

This is yet another domino in the global food cost inctrease being driven by high oil prices and probably more quickly by the rapidly increasing cost of corn on the world market. The corn price increase is of course due to the drive in the US to use corn for fuel instead of food.

Couple this with the US insistance that American farm products be shipped over-seas and then sold to finance the buying of food relief supplies, and you have a recipe for increased world hunger rather than hunger relief. The entire article can be read here.