UN Agency Vows to Buy From Poorest Farmers.

The World Food Programme on Wednesday announced a significant shift in the way it buys agricultural commodities, saying it will now purchase from the world’s poorest farmers as it broadens its role towards development from emergency aid. [. . .]

The move reflects a growing consensus that food aid needs to change. In a report last July, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an influential Washington-based think-tank, said that the international system of mobilising food relief was antiquated and slowed the response to emergencies as commodities were shipped from far away.

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