Special Message to the Congress on the Food for Peace Program.

To the Congress of the United States:

I am sending to the Congress the annual report on activities carried on under Public Law 480, 83rd Congress, as amended, outlining operations under the Act during the calendar year 1964. The report outlines in some detail the significant role of the United States through the years in helping to battle hunger in the world. The record is an impressive one.

The Food For Peace program is one of the most inspiring enterprises ever undertaken by any nation in all of history-and every American can be proud of it, without regard to partisanship or political persuasion.

In cooperation with the developing countries, Food For Peace is directly benefiting more people than ever before. And more importantly, the operating agencies are reaching these people with more meaningful programs. Increasingly the emphasis is on using our agricultural commodities to support projects that help eliminate the need for continued food aid. Today about 40 percent of our government's economic development assistance overseas is in the form of agricultural commodities and local currencies received from their sale. To achieve this record, Food For Peace exports reached a new high in 1964 of 18 million tons of agricultural commodities with an estimated export market value of $1.7 billion.

Importance of Nutrition

The Food For Peace program has made a significant contribution to the world attack on hunger and malnutrition--still the most grave health problem of the world. We now recognize that food deficiencies are most serious in infants, the pre-school age and, to a lesser degree, school age children. Not only does malnutrition result in high child death rates and widespread disabling diseases, but research has now established that it produces permanent retardation. of mental as well as physical development. Studies suggest that in some developing countries as high as 70 percent of pre-school children are undernourished or malnourished.

Thus, increasing attention is being given to nutrition in Food For Peace. Its importance is underscored by the fact that, of the 100 million recipients of our donated foods, 70 million are children, including more than 40 million in organized national school lunch efforts.

The Agency for International Development recently authorized funds which will be used, in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, for vitamin enrichment of nonfat dry milk distributed overseas. Experiments will also be undertaken to help developing countries find the techniques and skills needed to process and distribute grain-based high protein foods for children.

Meeting Human Needs

While the effort goes on to increase the nutritional balance in our commodity use, Food For Peace continues to seek the humanitarian goal of using our food to meet human needs:

--During 1964, more than 3 billion pounds of commodities were programmed through U.S. and international overseas relief agencies under Title III of Public Law 480 for donation to 67.3 million people. As part of the Alliance for Progress, "Operation Ninos" school lunch programs in Latin America are currently feeding 13 million children--compared to fewer than 4 million when this special emphasis was initiated only two and a half years ago.

--Food-for-work community development projects are expanding to broaden and strengthen the base of country development. In 1964, 9 million people benefited from programs providing a supplementary wage of food--through Food For Peace--as payment for participation in local self-help projects.

--There were fewer large scale disasters in the world during 1964 than in previous years, which accounts for the fact that Food For Peace was called upon to assist only 4 million victims under Title II emergency relief programs--the smallest number since the inception of the program. However, an additional 1 million refugees benefited from these Food For Peace-supported emergency relief programs.

--U.S. commodities are being supplied to 50 of the 72 projects sponsored on a multilateral basis through the World Food Program. Seventy countries share in supporting these development projects now reaching 2.7 million recipients. U.S. support of multilateral programing is also exemplified by Food For Peace commodities provided to UNICEF and UNRWA.

Developing Commercial Markets

As Food For Peace embarks on its second decade, there is growing indication of the program's substantial contribution to the development of commercial markets for our farm products as well as purely humanitarian efforts. Commercial sales of U.S. agricultural commodities overseas reached a new high of $4.6 billion during this year, more than double the commercial agricultural exports of 1954 when PL 480 was first enacted.

The PL 480 sales programs are designed to strengthen the economies of the recipient countries and thus hasten the day when they can finance their import requirements on commercial terms. Following are highlights of these sales programs:

--Food For Peace exports under Title I (sales for foreign currencies) reached a record high in 1964 of almost $1.2 billion. Shipments amounted to more than 14 million tons, surpassing the previous peak of 13.9 million tons set in 1963.

--Public Law 480-generated currencies are paying U.S. overseas expenses, conserving dollars and strengthening our balance of payments position. Reimbursements to the Commodity Credit Corporation through 1964 by U.S. Government agencies utilizing these currencies totaled almost $1.1 billion. Additional reimbursements also resulted from barter programs as U.S. agencies financed overseas procurement of goods and services with PL 480 commodities. Such reimbursements from both programs totaled over a third of a billion dollars in 1964.

--Our balance of payments position is also benefiting from increased activity under Title IV, long-term dollar credit sales. Almost one million tons of agricultural commodities at an export market value of $93 million, were shipped overseas in 1964 under Title IV, also a new record. Title IV dollar repayments on principal and interest from previous sales are being made in increasing volume. Repayments during 1964 totaled $5.4 million, compared to $2.3 million in 1963•

PL 480 Supports Economic Development

Agricultural commodities continue to serve as one of our principal assets in international economic development, contributing substantially to the total U.S. overseas aid effort.

--Planned uses of local currencies provided in Title I sales agreements concluded during 1964 totaled $580.5 million for economic development--$553.5 million in loans; $27 million in grants. In addition, agricultural commodities sold to foreign governments on long-term dollar credit under Title IV provided financing for economic purposes. These currencies are being used to supplement capital investment funds and technical assistance support in a wide range of industrial, agricultural, and socioeconomic development projects.

--$57 million in local currencies generated by Title I sales of Food For Peace commodities were loaned in 1964 to U.S. and local private enterprise for business development and trade expansion in 11 countries.

Challenge of the Future

These are only some of the accomplishments of Food For Peace during the past year. The program has come a long way since 1954 when it was so generally considered only as a temporary means to dispose of "burdensome" agricultural surpluses. Food For Peace has proved its worth as an important means to meet human need, encourage economic development and support U.S. foreign policy. It has helped demonstrate to the world that human hunger is no longer an inevitable fact of life. Its elimination is within our grasp.

Yet for all of the many efforts and accomplishments by the United States and other richly endowed countries, millions still suffer from some form of hunger or malnutrition. We have long recognized that an insufficient food supply is one of the leading contributors to human misery and political instability. More recently we have begun to recognize that it is also a major deterrent to economic and social development. The resulting loss, in both human and economic terms, is one of the great tragedies and shortcomings of the Twentieth Century.

The long-range solution to the hunger problem rests in improving the productive capacity of the developing nations themselves. In my Messages to the Congress this year on agriculture and foreign assistance, I pointed to the need for increased attention directed to the agricultural sectors of less developed countries--specifically, to help overcome obstacles such as the present deficiency of fertilizer, the lack of adequate government policies in establishing sufficient incentives for the farmer, and the general insufficiency of education so vitally needed to improve farming methods and technology.

Our efforts on these matters must continue. But we must also continue to utilize our own agricultural resources until the day these other countries become self-sufficient. That will be a number of years away--but Food For Peace can shorten this time.

Food For Peace is an important tool for development. It is good international policy and sound domestic policy. Food For Peace is, above all, a program which expresses the great and generous heart of the American people--and is a worthy expression of the compassion always so much a part of America's character. It deserves the continued support of the Congress and of all Americans.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

March 31, 1965