Editing Humanitarian aid (section)

=== Food aid ===
Food aid is a type of aid whereby food that is given to countries in urgent need of food supplies, especially if they have just experienced a natural disaster. Food aid can be provided by importing food from the donor, buying food locally, or providing cash.

The welfare impacts of any food aid-induced changes in [[food prices]] are decidedly mixed, underscoring the reality that it is impossible to generate only positive intended effects from an international aid program.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}} Although food aid constitutes a significant part of humanitarian assistance, evidence also suggests that it can initiate or amplify violent conflicts in the recipient countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Koppenberg |first1=Maximilian |last2=Mishra |first2=Ashok K. |last3=Hirsch |first3=Stefan |date=2023-11-01 |title=Food aid and violent conflict: A review and Empiricist's companion |journal=Food Policy |volume=121 |pages=102542 |doi=10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102542 |issn=0306-9192 |doi-access=free}}</ref>  

==== Changed consumption patterns ====
Food aid that is relatively inappropriate to local uses can distort consumption patterns. Food aid is usually exported from [[temperate climate]] zones and is often different than the staple crops grown in recipient countries, which usually have a [[tropical climate]]. The logic of food export inherently entails some effort to change consumers' preferences, to introduce recipients to new foods and thereby stimulate demand for foods with which recipients were previously unfamiliar or which otherwise represent only a small portion of their diet.<ref name=":32">{{Cite report |url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/289062/files/a-ag301t.pdf |title=Food Aid's Intended and Unintended Consequences |last=Barrett |first=Christopher B. |date=1 March 2006 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.1142286 |location=Rochester, NY |language=en |ssrn=1142286 |s2cid=19628562}}</ref>

Massive shipments of wheat and rice into the [[Sahel|West African Sahel]] during the food crises of the mid-1970s and mid-1980s were widely believed to stimulate a shift in consumer demand from indigenous coarse grains – [[millet]] and [[sorghum]] – to western crops such as [[wheat]]. During the 2000 drought in northern [[Kenya]], the price of [[changaa]] (a locally distilled alcohol) fell significantly and consumption seems to have increased as a result. This was a result of grain food aid inflows increasing the availability of low-cost inputs to the informal distilling industry.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Barrett |first1=Christopher Brendan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0ebgfiiMn0C |title=Food Aid After Fifty Years: Recasting Its Role |last2=Maxwell |first2=Daniel G. |date=2005 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780415701259 |language=en}}</ref>

==== Natural resource overexploitation ====
Recent research suggests that patterns of food aid distribution may inadvertently affect the natural environment, by changing consumption patterns and by inducing locational change in [[grazing]] and other activities. A pair of studies in Northern Kenya found that food aid distribution seems to induce greater spatial concentration of [[livestock]] around distribution points, causing localized [[rangeland]] degradation, and that food aid provided as whole grain requires more cooking, and thus more fuelwood is consumed, stimulating local [[deforestation]].<ref>McPeak J.G. (2003a) Analyzing and assessing localized degradation of the commons. Land Economics, 78(4): 515-536.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McPeak |first=John G. |url=http://crsps.net/resource/fuelwood-gathering-and-use-in-northern-kenya-implications-for-food-aid-and-local-environments/ |title=Fuelwood Gathering and Use in Northern Kenya: Implications for Food Aid and Local Environments |date=May 2003 |work=CRSPs |language=en-US |access-date=28 May 2018}}</ref>