Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich is slamming the Trump administration over its plan to destroy 500 metric tons of U.S.-purchased emergency food. The high-energy biscuits, originally meant for children in crisis zones, are set to be incinerated after delays left them sitting in a Dubai warehouse until their expiration.
“1.5 million children could have eaten for a week,” Reich said on X recently. “Now, taxpayers will spend $130K for it to be destroyed. This isn't just inefficient – it's cruel.”
Delays, Silence And Missed Warnings
According to a recent report by The Atlantic, the biscuits were purchased near the end of the Biden administration for about $800,000 and were intended for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The biscuits are nutritionally dense and are often used in disaster and conflict zones. But since January, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting nearly all foreign aid, career U.S. Agency for International Development staff reportedly said they were blocked from shipping the food.
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Federal workers warned for months that the food would go to waste, but, according to The Atlantic, they received no response from Trump-appointed leaders now in charge of American foreign aid.
Despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio telling Congress in May that food aid would reach recipients before expiring, The Atlantic reported that the destruction order had already been issued weeks earlier.
The United Arab Emirates, where the biscuits were stored, has strict rules that prevent expired food from being repurposed even for animals. Once the biscuits expire, their nutritional value deteriorates quickly, making them useless.
Taxpayers will now not only absorb the $800,000 cost of the purchase, but also the $130,000 required to incinerate the food.
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The issue extends beyond just the biscuits. According to Reuters, USAID warehouses still hold more than 60,000 metric tons of emergency food, including cereal, oil, and high-nutrition pastes for malnourished children. Many of these supplies were meant for regions like Sudan and the Horn of Africa but remain stuck due to bureaucratic gridlock and a lack of experienced logistics staff after layoffs.
Government Breakdown
Reich recently warned of a broader breakdown in government function and priorities. “The U.S. government is no longer able to protect us from real hazards, such as flash floods, because it’s shifting funds to fake hazards, such as a non-existent immigrant crime wave,” he wrote for AlterNet.
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He pointed to recent staffing shortages at National Weather Service offices in Texas, which he claims were caused by the Trump administration and have left communities vulnerable during severe flooding.
He also criticized the Trump-backed spending package, which he calls the “Big Ugly Bill.” Reich claims it slashes Medicaid and food stamps while funding “another giant tax cut for the rich, along with 10,000 more [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents and a gulag of detention camps.”
According to Reich, we're being forced to choose between “a government that protects us from real dangers or a police state.”
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