Food aid has become a contentious issue in recent decades, with sharp disagreements over genetically modified crops, agricultural subsidies, and ways of guaranteeing food security in the face of successive global food crises. In Hunger in the Balance, Jennifer Clapp provides a timely and comprehensive account of the contemporary politics of food aid, explaining the origins and outcomes of recent clashes between donor nations?and between donors and recipients.She identifies fundamental disputes between donors over "tied" food aid, which requires that food be sourced in the donor country, versus "untied" aid, which provides cash to purchase food closer to the source of hunger. These debates have been especially intense between the major food aid donors, particularly the European Union and the United States. Similarly, the EU's rejection of GMO agricultural imports has raised concerns among recipients about accepting GMO foodstuffs from the United States. For the several hundred million people who at present have little choice but to rely on food aid for their daily survival, Clapp concludes, the consequences of these political differences are profound.

Jennifer Clapp is CIGI Research Chair in International Governance and a professor in the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo. Among her recent books are Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment (MIT Press) and Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance (MIT Press). She is co-editor of the journal Global Environmental Politics.

Marc Cohen is Humanitarian Researcher at Oxfam America. His research focuses on the links between humanitarian emergencies and climate change, protection of civilians in situations of armed conflict, and humanitarian assistance reform. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the international development program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Jennifer Clapp's profile page

• Runner-up, 2013 Donner Prize (Donner Canadian Foun

Jennifer Clapp has forensically dissected post-Cold War international food aid policy with remarkable thoroughness and presented it logically, concisely and accessibly in Hunger in the Balance, a fact all the more admirable for the slimness of the book. It offers a substantive contribution to food aid discourse... in addition to serving as a valuable primer for anybody new to the subject.... It is easy to see this book becoming a common reference for students, policy professionals, and researchers.

Journal of International Development

The book brings into sharp focus the conflicts among developed and developing nations over issues such as global food security.... It is written in a clear and compelling way and should serve as an excellent introductory text for those seeking to study the intersection between food production and international relations.

International Affairs

In this lucid, well documented and entirely convincing book, Jennifer Clapp explains how the provision of food aid to hungry people in poor countries has always been (and largely remains) at the mercy of powerful interests in donor countries, above all the United States.

Global Change, Peace, and Security

Clapp investigates the forces that have shaped international food aid from its inception during the 1950s through the present. From tied versus untied food aid to issues associated with genetically modified organisms, local and regional purchase (LRP), and monetized food aid, Clapp exposes the particular policies and institutional contexts of donor nations that impact recipient nations and food aid processes.... Highly recommended.

Choice

Though there is a wealth of research considering the economic effects of food aid on both donor and recipient countries, Hunger in the Balance seeks to explain trends and changes in food aid politics as they relate not only to donor and recipient economies, but policies, corporate interests, and the food itself.... Hunger in the Balance takes on complex political ideas and applies them in a clear and cogent way.

Contemporary Sociology

Clapp helpfully reviews the debates surrounding food aid and the changes in policy by the major donors?the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, and Australia, generally in that order?that have led to a decline in overall aid since the mid-1980s and a trend toward more emergency assistance.

Foreign Affairs

The author presents a succinct and full assessment of modern food aid, discussing its nature and specificity. In this book on the policy of aid giving she defly avoids ideological arguments and opinions, focusing instead on an objective analysis of the influences involved.

Political Studies Review

In her new book, Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid, Jennifer Clapp lucidly and concisely deconstructs the evolution and current orientation of the international food aid system. Deftly navigating how donor nations attempt to reconcile individual economic and political interests with (a) evolving norms concerning aid effectiveness and (b) the need for adequate and sustainable aid flow, this volume will undoubtedly serve as a benchmark in food aid scholarship for years to come.

Agriculture and Human Values

Even experts steeped in the details of food aid policy debates will learn things from this extremely perceptive and carefully researched account; I certainly did. Clapp clearly and meticulously explains the ideological, institutional and interest group dynamics behind evolving food aid debates. She flags interesting emerging issues... [and] clearly lays out the analytical basis for each perspective on why food aid has been so politicized and some of the testable implications of each theory.

Journal of Developmental Studies