Tens of thousands of tons of food purchased through a federal program to feed hungry people overseas is stuck at a warehouse in Houston’s port after President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid, according to an email from an international food agency and an employee with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The pause comes as the Trump administration moves to dismantle USAID, one of the world’s largest government aid organizations. The organization spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year through its Food for Peace program to distribute surplus crops from American farmers around the globe, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Presumably the farmers got paid for these surplus crops. And if USAID is dismantled, there’ll be no-one buying the coming season’s surplus. Lots of farmers must be feeling nervous. Shipping and port companies will also be hit.
It’s like when firms lay off workers to save money: those people are also customers, who now don’t have money for new furniture, restaurant meals, a new car, whatever. There’s a ripple effect from “saving money”.