Malnutrition And Food Aid Programs: A Case Study From Guatemala Page: 38

CHAPTER III

AN OVERVIEW OF FOOD AID AND FOOD AID PROGRAMS:
PL-480, AN EXAMPLE
The impact of food aid is felt primarily in Third World countries
where such aid influences the direction of socioeconomic and political
development and affects or shapes development goals, policies and
strategies as well as the means by which they are attained. (Manners
1968, and Carnack 1978, support similar views.) It has been argued
that the extent of food aid to certain individual countries is such
that it is a significant force in the development of recipient nations
(Heady 1962). However, the amount of food aid to individual countries
varies greatly and, therefore, the degree to which the impact is felt
varies also. On the other hand, food aid critics have pointed out
that there is a conflict between the short-run nature of food aid and
the more pressing long-term strategies of development (Lapp& and
Collins 1977; Lappe, Collins and Kinley 1981). Furthermore, not only
do underdeveloped countries feel the effects or consequences of food
aid, but developed countries, typically the donors of such assistance,
are also affected both economically and politically by it. The pur-
pose of this chapter is to examine the claims made for and against food
aid and food aid programs.
As an introduction to the following discussion of Public Law 480
food programs, some background information on the issues of food and
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