Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T22:23:40.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Food aid: For or against?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

François Grunewald
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For or against food aid? When looking at the pictures of famine and malnutrition that abound on the small screen, this question may seem at best incongruous and at worst inadmissible. And yet it should be taken at its face value—provocative and stimulating, intended not to discourage but rather to sharpen our minds, for behind this simplistic question lie some real political stakes, some genuine issues of humanitarian ethics and some fascinating methodological problems. Our task here should perhaps be to single out the “operational” angles and then to reply to the questions “When”, “Why” and “How” food aid should be provided, and finally to the question “How can we do without it?”. As the global balance between supply (food resources) and demand (the needs) breaks down, access to these resources becomes more and more difficult for an increasingly large sector of the population, while at the same time the enormous stocks of the 1980s have melted away. Food aid has therefore become a rare commodity, to be used judiciously and in the most appropriate manner.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 36 , Issue 315 , December 1996 , pp. 589 - 608
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexandratos, N., World agriculture: Towards 2010. An FAO study, John Wiley & Son, Chichester, 1995, 488 pp.Google Scholar
Altersial, , “Nourrir autrement: pari pour une démarche appropriative”, Technologies et développement, GRET, Paris, 1981, 255 pp.Google Scholar
Anderson, M., Rising from the ashes: Development strategies in times of disaster, UNESCO/Westview Press, Boulder, 1989, 338 pp.Google Scholar
Barraclough, S., An end to hunger: The social origins of food strategies, Press, London, 1991, 283 pp.Google Scholar
Bessis, S., L'arme alimentaire, La Découverte/Cahiers libres, Paris, 1985, 286 pp.Google Scholar
Brauman, R., “Food aid: Were we duped?”, in Reader's Digest, 12 1986, pp. 58–64.Google Scholar
Broche, F., Au bon chic humanitaire, Première Ligne, Paris, 1994, 249 pp.Google Scholar
Bugnion, F., Le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge et la protection des victimes de la guerre, ICRC, Geneva, 1994, 1438 pp.Google Scholar
Burreau, J., Éthiopie, un drame impérial et rouge, Ramsay, Paris, 1987, 315 pp.Google Scholar
Chonchol, J., “Le défi alimentaire”, Essais en liberté, Larousse, Evreux, 1987, 272 pp.Google Scholar
Crise agricole et crise alimentaire dans les pays tropicaux, Journées de géographie tropicale, CNRS, Bordeaux, 1986, 375 pp.Google Scholar
Curdy, A., Relevance of supplementary feeding programmes for refugees, displaced or otherwise affected populations, paper presented at the WFP Conference in Machakos, 1994, 17 pp.Google Scholar
Curtis, D. et al. , Preventing famine: Policies and prospects for Africa, Routledge, London, 1988, 250 pp.Google Scholar
Dumont, R., L'Afrique Noire est mal partie, Le Seuil, Paris, 1964, 245 pp.Google Scholar
Dumont, R., La croissance de la famine, Le Seuil, Paris, 1975, 280 pp.Google Scholar
Emmanuelli, X., Les prédateurs de l'aide humanitaire, Albin-Michel, Paris, 1991, 250 pp.Google Scholar
Evaluation of the ICRC and Netherlands Red Cross emergency programme in the south Caucasus, ET Consultants-UK, London, 1995, 110 pp.Google Scholar
Fryer, J., L'aide alimentaire: un marché de dupes, Publicetim, Geneva, 1981, 91 pp.Google Scholar
Georges, S., Comment meurt l'autre moitié du monde, Laffont, Paris, 1977, 256 pp.Google Scholar
Grunewald, F., Alarme précoce, aide d'urgence et développement, quelques idées pour une stratégic, Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, Bangkok, 1986, 57 pp.Google Scholar
Grunewald, F., “Stratégies paysannes à la rescousse de l'autosuffisance”, in Affaires Cambodgiennes, L'Harmattan, Paris, 1989, pp. 149–174.Google Scholar
Grunewald, F., Quand les pluies reviendront: aide d'urgence, rehabilitation et développement, paper presented at seminar entitled “Développement, il y a urgence”, Lyon, 11, 1993, 13 pp.Google Scholar
Grunewald, F., “From prevention to rehabilitation. Action before, during and after the crisis: The experience of the ICRC in retrospect”, International Review of the Red Cross (IRRC), No. 306, 05–06 1995, pp. 263–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ICRC Report on the protection of war victims, International Conference for the Protection of War Victims, Geneva, 1993, reproduced in IRRC, No. 296, 09–10 1993, pp. 391–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beyond survival: Agricultural and veterinary rehabilitation programmes, ICRC, Geneva, 1994, 12 pp.Google Scholar
Preservation of biodiversity in times of war. Report of the first international workshop, ICRC, Geneva/Luanda, 1995, 20 pp.Google Scholar
Famine: A man-made disaster: A report for the Independent Commission for International Humanitarian Issues, Zed Press, London, 1985, 166 pp.Google Scholar
World Disasters Report, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva, 1996.Google Scholar
Jackson, T., Against the grain: The dilemma of food aid, OXFAM, Oxford, 1982, 132 pp.Google Scholar
Legum, C. et al. , La come de l'Afrique: questions nationales et politique internationale, L'Harmattan, Paris, 1986, 268 pp.Google Scholar
Longhurst, R., Country experiences in famine mitigation, OFDA/USDA, Washington, 1992, 29 pp.Google Scholar
Nutrition guidelines, Médecins sans frontières, Paris, 1995, 190 pp.Google Scholar
Mourey, A., “Approche nutritionelle des actions d'assistance du CICR en situation conflictuelle”, Revue de médecine militaire et de catastrophe, Vol. 66, 1989, pp. 22–33.Google Scholar
Muchnik, J., Technologies autochtones et alimentation en Amérique latine, Altersial, ed., GRET, Paris, 1981, 215 pp.Google Scholar
Perrin, P., War and public health: Handbook, ICRC, Geneva, 1996, 446 pp.Google Scholar
Petris, R., La conversion des industries d'armement ou comment réaliser la prophétie de l'épée et de la charrue, FPH, Paris, 1993, 82 pp.Google Scholar
Rau, B., From feat to famine: Official cures and grassroots. Remedies to the African food crisis, Zed Books, London, 1991, 214 pp.Google Scholar
Ruffin, J. C., Le piège humanitaire, J. C. Laters, Paris, 1986, 340 pp.Google Scholar
Samatar, S. S., Somalia: A nation in turmoil, Minority Group Report, London, 1991, 33 pp.Google Scholar
Sautier, D. et al. , Mil, maïs et sorgho: techniques et alimentation au Sahel. L'Harmattan, Paris, 1989, 171 pp.Google Scholar
Sivin, G., Sécurité alimentaire et marchés céréaliers au Mali, Università degli Studi della Calabria, Catanzaro, 1987, 44 pp.Google Scholar
Shawcross, W., The quality of mercy, A. Deutsch, London, 1984, 464 pp.Google Scholar
Food aid: A suitable instrument for food security? Report of the EU workshop, Solidarités agro-alimentaires, Paris, 1995, 32 pp.Google Scholar
Adjustment with a human face: Protecting the vulnerable and promoting growth. A study by UNICEF, Vol. 1, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987, 319 pp.Google Scholar
Assisting in emergencies: A resource handbook for UNICEF field staff, UNICEF, Geneva, 1988, 526 pp.Google Scholar
Annual reports, WFP, Rome, 1990–1995.Google Scholar
Remédier à la faim dans un monde d'abondance: nouvelles perspectives pour l'aide alimentaire, WFP, Rome, 1995, 34 pp.Google Scholar
Measuring change in nutritional status, WHO, Geneva, 1984, 101 pp.Google Scholar