The concession sales program supports trade and development. The main objective of the sales component is to provide food aid to targeted developing countries in order to stimulate economic growth. The 1996 Farm Bill amended Title I loans to allow the USDA to enter into loan agreements with private companies in addition to its government mandate. As a result, the new purpose of the program entitled I was to prioritize areas that had the potential to become commercial markets for agricultural commodities in the United States. The law was originally conceived by the future administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), Gwynn Garnett, after returning from a trip to India in 1950. The bill is unusual in that it has given the FAS the opportunity to enter into agreements with foreign governments without the approval of the U.S. Senate. [4] [12] Johnson stressed that the Food for Peace program was the cornerstone of U.S. foreign aid and that he intended to review the program to strengthen its foreign policy direction.

While he believed that the United States should expand food aid on humanitarian grounds, Johnson also called for food aid agreements to be conditional on the recipient country`s ability to implement the necessary agricultural reforms. The self-help provisions, applied to both the PL 480 agreements and other aid aid aid for aid, would contribute to the economic development of recipient countries by strengthening their agricultural sectors. The Food for Peace Act of 1966 (PL 89-808) required that the PL-480 agreements contain a language describing the steps a recipient had already taken or planned to take to increase food production and improve storage and distribution. Johnson followed the revisions at the same time as he announced a “war on hunger” aimed at accelerating agricultural production, improving food, eradicating disease and curbing population growth. It remained for the United States to show leadership and re-create the internal reforms of Johnson`s large global company. Johnson also understood that food aid served diplomatic purposes and strengthened U.S. strategic interests. In order to strengthen the foreign policy direction of Food for Peace, he followed the transfer of the functions of Director of Peace of the White House to the Department of Foreign Affairs, where the Director was to serve as special assistant to Secretary of State Dean Rusk.