Top stories from DAWNS Digest
US Senate Approves Food Aid Reforms
This is definitely a step in the direction of a more effective food aid (as opposed to US subsidy) program. “Senators adopted an amendment by voice vote to a wide-ranging farm bill Monday that would slightly boost dollars to buy locally-grown food close to needy areas abroad. Currently, most food aid is grown in the United States and shipped to developing countries, an approach the Obama administration says is inefficient. The Senate farm bill would allocate $40 million annually for a local purchase program – an increase from current dollars, but still a small portion of the $1.8 billion spent on food aid. The amendment would boost that to $60 million annually.” (AP http://yhoo.it/13BzX2v)
Echoes of Bangladesh in China Poultry Plant Disaster
China’s worst industrial accident in years may spur some change. “Survivors described workers, mostly women, struggling through smoke and flames to reach doors that turned out to be locked or blocked. One worker, 39-year-old Guo Yan, said the emergency exit at her workstation could not be opened and she was knocked to the ground in the crush of workers searching for a way to escape the fire Monday. ‘I could only crawl desperately forward,’ Guo was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. ‘I worked alongside an old lady and a young girl, but I don’t know if they survived or not.’” (Houston Chronicle http://bit.ly/13BA65Z)