Harry S. Truman photo

Statement by the President on the Report of the Cabinet Committee on World Food Programs.

July 05, 1947

THE CABINET Committee on World Food Programs, which I appointed last September to coordinate the activities of the United States in shipping food abroad, has submitted a report that should gratify every American.

To meet urgent human needs abroad, nearly 18 1/2 million long tons of grain and other food were exported by the United States in the year ending June 30, 1947. This is the largest total of food ever shipped from one country in a single year.

Our country was blessed last year with the most bountiful harvest in our history. Our farmers worked hard to produce record crops. The food industries, the railroads, the shipping companies, and the Government agencies cooperated to make possible the movement of food on schedule from American farms to foreign ports.

But we must not lose sight of the fact that even the great efforts of this and other exporting countries fell short of meeting the world's urgent postwar needs for food. Many millions of people are still desperately hungry.

The Cabinet Committee reports that crop prospects abroad have been reduced by the severe winter in Northern Europe, and that in the months ahead substantial shipments of food--especially wheat--must be continued.

Within our ability to share our resources, we will continue to do our part to relieve human suffering and to help other countries to help themselves. It is the course we must follow.

The arrangements under which it was possible for us to ship such large quantities of food abroad are, therefore, being continued. I have asked the Cabinet Committee and the Coordinator of Emergency Export Programs to carry on for the coming year. The Assistant to the President will, as in the past, take all possible steps to help expedite this program.

Note: The report in the form of a 4-page letter dated July 1, together with a 3-page attachment summarizing the more important commodity export programs and a table giving preliminary estimates of all food shipments for the year, was released with the President's statement. The report was signed by Clinton P. Anderson, Secretary of Agriculture, who served as Chairman of the Committee, George C. Marshall, Secretary of State, and W. Averell Harriman, Secretary of Commerce.

Harry S Truman, Statement by the President on the Report of the Cabinet Committee on World Food Programs. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232021

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