State Department addresses decision to destroy 500 tons of emergency food

[groundloop]

Source: ABC News

The State Department is defending its plans to destroy approximately 500 tons of taxpayer-funded emergency food resources, arguing that it represents only a small portion of the food aid the U.S. distributes each year.

The high-energy, nutrient-dense biscuits have been stockpiled at a Dubai warehouse for months and are set to expire this month, officials familiar with the situation confirmed to ABC News earlier this week.

In a press briefing Thursday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce defended the decision to destroy the food stores, telling reporters, "If something is expired, we will destroy it. It's a matter of whether or not it's safe to distribute."

"We, as an example, distribute roughly 1 million metric tons of food aid every year, which is reflective of the American people's generosity," Bruce said, adding that "500 metric tons represents less than 1%" of the food aid the U.S. distributes annually, and that the stores in question had been stockpiled in "the event of an emergency."

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/state-department-addresses-decision-destroy-500-tons-emergency/story?id=123837748

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I call BullShit.

[bronxiteforever]

1. I am sure it is a lie.

I don’t trust or believe a goddamn word that comes out that administration.
The cruelty is the point and Rubio the Repugnant would surely approve of destroying good food if it would make someone suffer.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. There are people RIGHT NOW

who could use that food. RIGHT NOW in Gaza. In South Sudan. In Syria. In Congo. But Rubio would rather destroy it that let them have it.

What would Jesus do? NOT THAT.

[Bayard]

4. If you're starving,

You're not going to worry if food is a few days past its expiration date. How long has this stuff been sitting around?

I'm sure, "the event of an emergency," includes people starving.

[slightlv]

6. There are people HERE in the U.S. as well...

instead of burning it, why wasn't the food distributed among needy U.S. citizens, if trump is so hellbent on letting "Foreigners" starve? Some cut him off from his big macs and KFC. Give him three days without them. By then, he might understand what hunger in the belly feels like. I doubt he'll ever feel or understand what hunger of the mind and soul feels like - he'd have to have those before he could deprive them!

[SouthBayDem]

9. I'll remember this next time

I hear "we need to cut foreign aid so that more resources can go to help American homeless veterans".

[slightlv]

10. This is a particular pet peeve of mine.

I'm a veteran. I'm in fairly good shape for being one. But I know, personally, others who were not as lucky as me. The charge was that the U.S. would take care of every veteran for the sacrifice they made in serving this country. So, what the f*ck are all these private agencies doing gigging money on the lowdown from everyone? Veterans reduced to the crying infomercials of abused animals and kids with cancer. It just really jacks my jaws. Even if we were not injured, every single one of us gave up a spate of our freedom to protect this country. And the govt just keeps going back on its promises, leap by gallop, denigrating our service all the while.

[SouthBayDem]

11. First, thank you for your service.

Second. I truly despise how politicians who never enlisted (or in the case of the current CinC, dodged the draft by suspicious means) social climb over the backs of veterans.

Regarding “private agencies”, that in action is the conservative belief that private charity can distribute social welfare more efficiently than government.

[Vinca]

3. Besides wasting food intended for hungry people, it's destroying taxpayer dollars that paid for the food.

They might as well be making a bonfire of our hard-earned dollars and torching it.

[flying_wahini]

5. Where will they send it, really?

[Jilly_in_VA]

7. To the incinerator

Or a burn pit. Not what JESUS would do!

[mackdaddy]

8. Ther real problem is the administration made an intentional decision to let it rot in the first place,

Rather than sending it to its intended destination of starving kids that needed it.

This was willful fraud, wasted and abuse in furtherance of the Trump/MAGA agenda.