The White House is quietly gearing up to address historically elevated food prices as part of President Joe Biden’s war against inflation, culminating in the second White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
Biden announced in May that the conference would be held in September for the first time in more than 50 years.
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“We’ll bring together anti-hunger and nutrition advocates, food companies, local and state governments, and tribal territory committees to lay out our plan to combat hunger and improve nutrition for every American,” Biden said at the time. “It really matters. Too many families don’t know where they’re going to get their next meal.”
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Still, with just one week left until September, the White House has remained extremely tight-lipped about the conference itself, or any policy announcements that might be made during the proceedings.
“We know many are eager to learn more about the planning that has been underway in full force for the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in 50 years, and we look forward to sharing additional details very soon,” one senior White House official told the Washington Examiner. “The conference will serve as an important forum for the public and private sectors to come together to drive toward a coordinated strategy to end hunger and reduce diet-related disease.”
The website for the conference provides little additional information outside of the administration’s desired goal: “end hunger and increase healthy eating and physical activity by 2030, so that fewer Americans experience diet-related diseases like diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.”
The portal also solicits ideas from interested parties and includes a call to help “the Biden-Harris administration in working to end hunger and increasing healthy eating and physical activity by 2030.”
Meanwhile, food prices are taking center stage as one of the two largest inflationary drivers following the summer decreases in national average gas prices. Though the president was correct in claiming that the country saw “zero” monthly inflation in July, the consumer price index still increased 8.5% compared to July 2021.
Food prices jumped 1.2% compared to June and 14.4% compared to the year prior. Furthermore, unlike gas prices, food costs might continue to rise for the public for the foreseeable future. The cost of finished food products jumped 16% in July compared to the year prior, the highest recorded jump since 1974, and economists expect the elevated prices paid by retailers to trickle down to customers in the coming weeks.
The Biden administration has taken significant steps to curb rising food prices over the past 20 months, both before and after the outbreak of war in Europe. The Black Sea region produces the majority of wheat supplies for Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and Russia’s war in Ukraine has driven up global food prices to historic levels since the spring. To date, the U.S. has provided more than $7 billion in aid in response to the global food crisis.
In 2021, the president targeted meat-packing companies and tasked the Justice Department and the Agriculture Department with rooting out anti-competitive practices in the industry. Meanwhile, the administration set aside $1 billion in pandemic aid for small and independent meat and poultry producers. He also allotted $5 billion to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future initiative, a program launched by the Obama administration to fight global hunger and food insecurity in 2010. At the time, Biden also directed $5 billion to the Department of Agriculture for the explicit purpose of fighting domestic nutrition and food security.
Following the Russian invasion, the administration sought to employ the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust to address hunger sparked by the Ukrainian conflict. The trust is a $260 million fund overseen by the USDA that allows the U.S. to buy domestic wheat and send it directly to foreign conflict zones.
According to senior administration officials, the State Department is also “conducting extensive diplomacy to encourage all countries to refrain from export restrictions and excessive stockpiling, which can exacerbate supply challenges and price inflation, and to consider how to expand production of key cereal crops, oil seeds, and associated commodities.”
Furthermore, USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced in mid-August that the U.S. will provide upwards of $68 million in additional funding to the U.N. World Food Program “to purchase, move, and store up to 150,000 metric tons of Ukrainian wheat to help respond to the global food crisis.”
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“This relief is critical. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine was one of WFP’s top suppliers of grain and the fourth largest commercial exporter of wheat. Putin’s war on Ukraine has caused food and fuel prices to spike globally and contributed to staggering levels of food insecurity,” Power added in a statement. “While this additional wheat will be used to help feed people in countries facing severe hunger and malnutrition, much more is needed to help the world recover from the global devastation caused by Putin’s brutal war.”
