标题译文：布什提议改变美国的粮食援助方式

The Bush administration called for an emergency increase in U.S. aid to alleviate the global food-price spike, as the administration and its allies seek to use the crisis to push for major changes in the way the world community manages the fight against hunger.

President Bush proposed $770 million in aid as soaring prices are bringing what some say could be the worst hunger crisis in 30 years. The money, if approved by Congress, would come on top of $200 million that the Bush administration released two weeks ago for emergency international food aid, and would bring the total for U.S. efforts to combat global hunger to about $5 billion for 2008 and 2009.

With the developed world's attention focusing again on food aid to Africa and elsewhere, debate is likely to sharpen over how it should be delivered. The traditional U.S. approach effectively turns Washington into an intermediary for American-grown food to be shipped overseas at subsidized prices. That may alleviate immediate hunger, but it does little to deal with the fundamental issue: Africa's inability to feed itself.

The head of the United Nations's World Food Program, an American, has been pushing for her program's dollars to flow directly to Africa's farmers and help build the kind of market -- with multiyear contracts, future pricing and the like -- that Western farmers take for granted.

'As America increases its food assistance, it's really important that we transform the way that food aid is delivered,' Mr. Bush said. In his State of the Union address in January, he called for the U.S. to purchase up to 25% of food assistance directly from farmers in the developing world. He said that building up local agriculture is the best way to break the cycle of famine.

Roger Thurow / John D. McKinnon