Mr. Chair, in my travels, I have seen levels of poverty that I know many members in this House would like to address, but it is important that to ensure we address them in such a way that it enables them to eat, not just today, tomorrow and next month, but a year, five years or ten years from now. Consequently, we were proud to respond immediately to the appeal by the World Food Programme. It asked for an increase of 26% and Canada responded with an increase of 28%.
I also saw that many of those who live at the poverty level do agriculture in order to feed their families. It has been said that tying one's food aid says more about wanting to helping one's own country than wanting to help people in other countries. When we took office, only 50% of food aid was untied. This government has gone forward and completely untied 100% of food aid. This means that food can now be acquired more locally, regionally and support local farmers and producers in those countries and regions.