The NY Times ran an important op-ed yesterday by Susan Shepherd, a pediatrician and medical advisor to Doctors Without Borders.
The core of her message is that as the farm bill progresses through
Congress, we should focus not only on the quantity of food that is
produced and that we export for relief to underdeveloped nations, but
on its quality as well.

Dr. Shepherd describes the difficulties
in treating children who are victims of severe malnutrition,
particularly in areas like Africa and South Asia where milk and clean
water can be scarce.

The US and other international donors
current supply fortified blended flours for moderately malnourished
children. Much better and more accessible nutrition is available
through a ready-to-use food called Plumpy’nut
(or Plumpy). But Plumpy costs a little more, and current UN and US
guidelines restrict its use to the 3% of children who have already
decended to the most acute malnutrition.

Ten years ago, a French pediatric nutritionist affiliated with the World Health Organization, Andre Briend,
developed Plumpy’net, a high protein and high energy food bar comprised
of peanut paste, vegetable oil, milk powder, powdered sugar, vitamins
and minerals, that can be prepared locally and that has a two year
shelf life in an unopened package. Children can be treated at home
rather than in hospital settings, a critical advance. They receive 2
packets a day. Delivered in combination with Unimix, a vitamin-enriched
flour for making porridge, a 2-4 week treatment costs $20 and can allow
90 percent of severely malnourished children to recover. 

One of the lessons of Jeffrey Sachs’ book, The End of Poverty,
is that we now have the tools to stabilize the billion people who
remain in extreme poverty, so that we can then help them onto the
bottom rungs of the economic ladder, where they have a chance to
prosper.

Despite its current economic gloom, America remains a
center of prosperity in a volatile world. Think of the goodwill we
could create if we resolved to couple our aid with the best we we’ve
learned in food science and other disciplines. The creation of Plumpy
is a shining example of what’s possible, and the work of Doctors
Without Borders and other relief organizations an inspiration for how
we can cultivate peace in the world.