Opinion: Mailbag: Hungry for food diplomacy
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Our continuing series and special feature on food diplomacy draw some reactions. One reader says we need to be careful not to kill anybody by dropping frozen turkeys from great heights:
I don’t think anyone has problems with United States helping them. I think that they just dont like the fact that they drop food to them instead of providing them through a better way such as using ships or aircrafts. Dropping food from high altitude can endanger the lives of the people living in the area the food is being dropped. United States is doing a good job by helping them but they should use some other method as it can also cause harm to the people instead of helping them. Moizza Rajan
One way of avoiding dropping turkeys from great heights might be to deliver foodstuffs using ground-based automobiles:
Yes, I do believe that the U.S. can feed a hungry world. The U.S. is a very powerful country that can help other countries that are in need. They can help by sending packages of food to other countries by airplane or sending trucks of food for them. The U.S. can also talk and share ideas with other countries government to find out other ways they can assist people that are in need. They could also discuss ways on how they could help each other if thats what other countries would like. I think that the U.S. is being good by trying to help other countries with food, but they need to figure out a better and safer way instead of just dropping the food. Any Chavarria
And finally, a plea to let the charities handle the feeding themselves:
Yes, I believe that the US can feed itself, yet the world as well. The world can not feed itself. I think we can help by sending food to the countries that can’t help itself. I think the best way we can do this is to encourage more private organizations by using our taxes. If the government is in charge of sending money to the poorer countries, they would receive less because of the government bureaucracy. Therefore, I am lead to believe that private organizations, funded by the government, would be the best solution to this issue. To help the American people, the government should always set up conditions to where businesses can always grow and get started. Caitlin Conran