About 30,000 tons of food is stuck at a port in Houston afterTrump halted foreign aid for 90 days. The food, intended to feed people overseas, is stalled at a warehouse,the Houston Chronicle reported.
The food was being distributed by the Food for Peace program, which is part of the U.S. Agency for International Development, part of the government overseeing aid to more than 100 countries that the Trump administration is looking to shut down.
“The food stuck in Houston totaled more than 31,000 tons and was part of more than 500,000 tons of food valued at $450 million now at risk of going to waste,” writes the Chronicle’s James Osborne. USAID food shipments are also being held up in Boston, New York, and Miami, as well as four other ports.
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The freeze is hurting American farmers. According to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service, American farms supply about40 percent of the food that USAID distributes.
"Purchases of commodities from farmers that power Food for Peace have stopped. Hundreds of tons of American-grown wheat are stranded in Houston right now," U.S. Rep. Angie Craig (D-AR) told the Chronicle. Craig is a ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee.
"This hostile takeover of USAID is illegal and unacceptable and creates uncertainty and instability for the agricultural economy,” she said.
“You’re talking about a direct impact on American products and American jobs,” George Ingram, a senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution, told the Post.
A White House spokesperson told the Chronicle that the move was "ensuring that taxpayer-funded programs at USAID align with the national interests of the United States, including protecting America’s farmers."
Trump "will cut programs that do not align with the agenda that the American people gave him a mandate to implement and keep programs that put America First," the spokesperson said.
“USAID plays a critical role in reducing hunger around the world while sourcing markets for the surplus foods America’s farmers and ranchers grow,” Dave Salmonsen, senior director of government affairs at the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a statement.