United States to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food Amid Global Crisis

According to a report published today by The Atlantic, President Trump’s administration has ordered the destruction of nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food rations (high-energy biscuits), purchased by USAID for approximately USD 800,000.

These rations, which could feed around 1.5 million children for a week in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, are currently stored in Dubai and are about to expire. The administration has decided to incinerate them, at an additional cost to U.S. taxpayers of approximately USD 130,000.

This decision is part of a radical restructuring of the U.S. foreign aid system, which included an executive order issued in January and the absorption of USAID into the State Department—under a new entity called DOGE. This overhaul has caused serious bureaucratic bottlenecks and brought humanitarian aid distribution to a halt.

Despite official promises—including those from Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May—that the food rations would be distributed before expiring, approval procedures were never triggered and shipping requests went unanswered.

Humanitarian Impact and Context

This loss represents only a fraction of the 60,000 tons of emergency food stuck in warehouses in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai, and Houston due to aid program cuts.

According to experts, the delay in food distribution could result in millions of preventable deaths from malnutrition—an estimated 58 million people around the world are facing severe food insecurity.

This incident exposes a deep crisis in the U.S. foreign aid infrastructure, with direct consequences for the world’s most vulnerable populations. The buildup of expired food represents not only a massive financial loss but also a moral and ethical failure in a time of global emergency.