Why Gutting USAID Will Hurt America

1 billion children immunized.

2.2 billion malaria cases prevented 26 million lives

saved from AIDS.

For 60 years, USAID,

America's Foreign Assistance Agency has fed the hungry

and prevented disease worldwide.

40% of total global humanitarian aid came from the US

with two thirds of that coming from USAID.

Recently, president Trump and Elon Musk all

but gutted the agency as part

of their so-called America First policies.

But in our globalized economy, the data suggests

that slashing upwards of 90% of USAID's budget

or $60 billion may have unexpected blowback here in the US,

contributing to rising food prices,

making us susceptible to epidemics at home

and damaging the livelihoods of many Americans,

especially farmers in the heartland.

Wired pinpointed some critical food

and medical cuts to USAID

and placed their impact on the health

and wealth of everyday Americans on the grid.

This was the headquarters

of the USAID offices in DC.

Google Maps list the office as permanently closed.

Only a few hundred out of the agency's 13,000 employees

will retain their jobs,

but when they were in business,

USAID wasn't spending American taxpayer funds

only on foreigners as many claim.

80% of the companies that had contracts

with the agency were American.

USAID was investing money back into the pockets of as many

as 50,000 American contractors employed by universities,

nonprofits, and aid organizations.

This map will give you an idea of just

how many American institutions were partnering with USAID

before the cuts.

From Columbia University's research center,

helping countries plan for climate change to a partnership

with the Coca-Cola company, improving access to water

and sanitation services,

USAID money funded American universities, businesses

and charities to the tune of $28 billion annually,

only 0.7% of the total federal budget that fed a multitude

of programs aimed at promoting global health, democracy,

and other foreign policy aims of the US

because so much was affected.

We can't cover it all in a single video,

so we'll be focusing on the two most critical aspects

of USAID, Food and Health.

A huge USAID program, Food for Peace,

bought surplus food from American farmers

and delivered it to countries in need,

benefiting over 4 billion hungry people worldwide

since 1954.

So when malnourished children received much needed

breakfasts in Afghanistan or families

and famine prone Sudan lined up

for a meal from an emergency kitchen.

41% of that food was sourced directly from American farmers

who were paid about $2 billion annually,

$2 billion bought everything from Iowa Soybean oil

to Oklahoma Wheat, Kansas lentils produce from Virginia

and Georgia Peanut products including a nutritional pace

that's a powerhouse for Friday hunger.

The products were then sent around the globe by USAID

and its contractors, but by mid-February,

just days after the cuts began,

$489 million worth of food assistance

and over 500,000 metric tons.

American grown food already paid for

by USAID remained stranded in ports

or in transit with a significant portion

at risk of spoiling.

In Larned, Kansas,

the Pawnee County Cooperative Association reportedly had

1.5 million bushels of sorghum,

a key grain in cereals in storage, with no one to buy it.

Port Houston had 235,000 tons

of wheat stranded in warehouses according to local sources,

as well as 30,000 metric tons of cornmeal, pinto beans,

lentils, rice, and vegetable oil.

Similar issues reportedly impacted ports in Boston, Miami,

Norfolk, Savannah, New York, Chicago, and Lake Charles.

At Ports in Kenya,

nearly 200 million in emergency food aid

remained undelivered,

contractors and local USAID staff responsible

for getting the food which had already

been bought and paid for.

From the Kenyan ports

to the South Sudanese people did not receive payment due

to the USAID pause.

In South Sudan, about 7.1 million people,

more than half the population require food assistance

with 1.6 million children at risk of acute malnutrition.

South Sudan lacks basic infrastructure like paved roads,

making aid delivery expensive and inefficient.

For example, PGE is a remote area in South Sudan

that humanitarian workers can only access

by taking a two hour flight,

followed by a four hour canoe journey,

then a six hour trek through a swamp.

As a result, those suffering will not receive this food.

The food will go to waste

or possibly be stolen from the docks.

According to the World Health Organization,

which the Trump administration tries to discredit.

At any given moment,

733 million people are experiencing food insecurity

somewhere in the world.

To combat hunger back in the US,

scientists are studying things like the

resilience of specific crops like wheat and peanuts.

17 food science research labs

housed at various American universities,

including Kansas State University,

the University of Nebraska

and Purdue University received millions

of dollars from USAID's Feed the Future Program.

But due to the cuts they've had to pause their research.

The Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois

has laid off 30 employees

and expects to close down if funding isn't restored.

They worked with farmers in Madagascar

and Nigeria, as well as Pakistan, India,

and Indonesia to breed soybean varieties that are resistant

to diseases like soybean rust.

Research like this benefits American farmers

by helping them prepare

for crop diseases we see everywhere in the world.

For example, knowing how

to best grow crops in drier hot conditions will be more

crucial in a world increasingly touched by climate change.

Without this research,

farmers everywhere will be left ill-equipped

in the face of a heating planet.

Let's talk about rising food prices.

What many don't realize is that USAID has helped keep prices

of some products in check for Americans for years

by supporting the production

of specific agricultural commodities like chocolate, coffee,

spices, and even rubber in developing countries.

How? Well, let's take coffee as an example.

The US coffee industry contributes 1.6% to the US GDP

and supports nearly 1.7 million American jobs.

For years, USAID partnered with US coffee companies

and small farmers abroad in places like Africa, central

and South America and Indonesia to combat crop diseases

and improve coffee supply chains by providing digital tools

and training to coffee breeders with a goal

of increasing capacity,

ensuring that US coffee businesses had access

to a stable and high quality supply.

With the USAID cuts, this is no longer guaranteed

and prices may spike similar programs in the Ivory Coast,

Ghana and Ecuador, where cacao grows were in place

to ensure America's supply of chocolate flows.

Cacao is critical to the candy industry,

which supports at least 70,000 American jobs in Maryland.

Spice Giant McCormick and Company has benefited

from a USAID partnership

with the Ohio based Cooperative Business Association

or CBI to enhance spice production in Indonesia.

This program rehabilitated abandoned plantations,

built new ones, and improved yields of vanilla bean, nutmeg,

cloves, cinnamon, black pepper,

and of course, pumpkin spice.

CBIs local affiliate Agri Spice Indonesia

supplied well priced spices to a variety

of McCormick products.

Also in Indonesia,

USAID has helped Royal Lestari Utama,

a company owned by Michelin,

get a loan for its sustainable rubber plantation,

which feeds the US tire industry,

particularly in South Carolina.

These are just a few examples of how

by strengthening supply chains

and improving productivity in developing countries,

USAID funded programs maintain the availability

and affordability of key raw materials

for US industries whose products then turn out to be cheaper

for American consumers.

Now let's turn to the impact of USAID cuts on health Up

to a million lives were saved

in 2016 when a famine in the Horn of Africa

was predicted and responded to

by the famine early Warning Systems network refused net

using data analysis of weather

and armed conflicts to predict famines

and distribute food aid.

This successful system was paid for by USAID

and largely run by Chemonics,

a private DC based international development firm cuts

by Doge have led to the program going offline.

Chemonics has furloughed 88%

of its US-based workforce Experts warned

that without FuseNet humanitarian response efforts will

be less effective.

Leading to more hunger and instability around the globe

and food instability in developing nations has been closely

linked to increased file and extremism.

In northeastern Nigeria, the jihadist terrorist group,

Boko Haram offers meals to attract potential recruits.

There are also reports from 2017

of ISIS lowering unaccompanied child refugees out of Syria

with food and cash.

Since we're talking about ISIS,

the USAID cuts affect payments

and support to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic forces

or SDF who manage camps holding ISIS members

and their families.

Around 10,000 suspected ISIS fighters are imprisoned

in 28 jails across northeastern Syria

with the largest being the Al-Sina prison in Hisaka.

US and Syrian officials have warned

that weakened security here could lead to an ISIS revival.

Clearly dismantling or even pausing USAID programs

not only weakens humanitarian efforts,

but also undermines American national security

and foreign policy objectives.

Let's turn our attention to the impact

of USAID cuts on our health.

The Trump administration revoked

over 10,000 global health grants from USAID

and the State Department

that played a significant role in global disease prevention.

These included outbreak surveillance,

which means global collaboration to detect

and respond to emerging infectious diseases.

The Global Bird Flu Pandemic is currently spreading

throughout the US.

USAID funded avian flu surveillance

in 49 countries around the world

that involved collecting samples from farms with high levels

of poultry mortality and testing them,

notifying farmers of results,

monitoring migratory birds

and the cross-border poultry trade,

and sharing all of that collected data.

The USAID cuts have ended that program,

which is bad news because the response

to bird flu experts warn requires global cooperation.

The previous outbreak in 2014 cost the American poultry

industry approximately $1.6 billion.

The case of an Iowa man who died recently of LASA fever

after visiting in West Africa is proof

that infectious diseases from other continents

are just an international flight away.

Uganda is facing its eighth Ebola outbreak

with the first confirmed case being a nurse in Kampala

who died on January 29th.

The outbreak involves the deadly Sudan Street.

However, contact tracing

and traveler screenings in Uganda have been disrupted.

Why?

On February 26th, Elon Musk admitted

that Doge accidentally canceled

USAID's Ebola prevention funding,

but assured us once they discovered the error

that it was quickly restored.

However, as I reported for wired the following day,

emergency waivers meant to sustain some

of USAID's humanitarian programs,

including those focused on Ebola have been ineffective.

In part because most USAID staff have been laid off leading

to delayed responses to Uganda's Ebola outbreak

with America now refusing to meet the moment

in regards to Uganda's latest Ebola outbreak.

CBS has reported that Russia has launched a mobile lab there

to assist with outbreak containment and alarmingly.

A new unidentified hemorrhagic fever has emerged

in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is claimed over 60 lives

and made over a thousand people ill.

Historically, USAID played a key role in identifying

pathogens by funding the testing

of virus samples in laboratories.

Dismantling USAID made this particular illness

harder to investigate.

One way to combat infectious diseases on the rise

around the world,

such as cholera and Afghanistan, polio in Yemen

and dengue across Central America

and the Caribbean is vaccines

and they don't just save lives.

Vaccines also save money.

According to a study by John Hopkins University,

every dollar spent on immunization yields a $16 return

by reducing the cost of illness treatment.

In an additional analysis

that considers the wider economic impact of illness.

Every dollar spent on vaccinations could save $44

according to the CDC.

The USAID funding freeze has halted at least one notable

vaccine development program, a $45 million award

to the South African Medical Research Council,

which aims to end HIV in Africa.

In late January,

a group of researchers from eight African countries plan

to initiate a phase one clinical trial

for two experimental HIV vaccines,

enrolling dozens of volunteers in South Africa,

Kenya, and Uganda.

If this vaccine is found to be safe and efficacious,

it could help prevent millions of lives

of South Africans that are currently being lost.

There are no FDA approved HIV vaccines in the US yet,

so new vaccines that are developed overseas

could be promising contenders

for the first HIV vaccine in the US too.

That study is now on hold indefinitely

since the funding no longer exists.

According to a report from the Guardian,

an estimated 500,000 South Africans could die

because of this blow to crucial research, plus the removal

of other USAID funds, which assist in the diagnosis

and dispensing of antiretroviral medications

which keep infected patients alive.

Another way to stave off illness is prevention.

And in the Amazon basin, USAID was on the forefront

of initiatives to control malaria in Brazil, Columbia,

Ecuador, Guana, Peru, and Surinam.

Through the Amazon malaria initiative,

USAID funded tailored interventions

to region specific needs

with funding cutoff in employees furloughed.

The trust in Goodwill USAID has worked hard

to grow has been thwarted,

and once trust is lost, it's hard to build back.

In 2023,

there were an estimated 597,000 malaria deaths worldwide,

mainly in Africa, with children under five,

constituting 76% of the deaths in this region.

These food and health program cuts are just a fraction

of the story of what USAID dismantling ultimately means

for our country and the world.

Experts say that abruptly cutting off this work will kill

untold numbers of people around the world.

There are some people within the US who are unmoved by

how disastrous this choice will be

for people across the globe.

They say our dollars are better spent solely

on domestic projects,

but this viewpoint fails to consider

how interconnected we are

and how deeply damaging it will be

for Americans if our country is considered

a callous rogue state.

The US turning its back on humanitarian aid in such

a sweeping and abrupt way is also an out

and out win for China,

a country that is still eagerly pursuing

international development projects as a way to win power

and influence abroad.

They've already invested over $1 trillion in infrastructure

as part of their own USAID.

Ultimately, the cuts

to USAID will have unexpected impacts on the livelihoods

of Americans and make the US less safe.

The full impact is only beginning to unfold,

so stay updated with our continuing coverage on wired.com.

Thanks for watching on the grid.

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