The destruction of the food, which could have fed 1.5 million children, will cost an estimated $130,000 to American taxpayers.
The Trump administration is planning to destroy a massive amount of emergency food.
Nearly 500 metric tons -- roughly 1.1 million pounds -- of emergency high-energy biscuits are set to be incinerated on President Donald Trump's order, The Atlantic reported on Monday, July 14. The food, which USAID bought near the end of the Biden administration, could feed 1.5 million children for a week, the outlet reported.
The decision comes months after the Department of Government Efficiency dismantled USAID -- after that, no funds or resources could be moved without approval from the new heads of American foreign assistance, per The Atlantic.
The Trump administration's reluctance in distributing the food lies in the State Department's assertion that providing food as part of foreign aid could benefit terrorists, NPR reported in April. The biscuits were initially intended for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, per The Atlantic.
The responsibility to distribute or salvage the biscuits has fallen into many hands since then, the outlet reported. First, Pete Marocco -- who served in many areas in Trump's first administration -- had the authority to put the biscuits to use; then the responsibility passed to law student Jeremy Lewin, and most recently, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio assured members of the House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee in May that the biscuits would be distributed before spoiling -- but the directive to destroy the biscuits, reviewed by The Atlantic, was reportedly already in place at the time of Rubio's message.
At present, the biscuits are sitting in a warehouse in Dubai and nearing their expiration dates. The Atlantic reported that the biscuits couldn't even be used for animals' consumption under United Arab Emirates' policy.
Inaction within USAID leadership not only led to the waste of 500 metric tons of food created and funded by American farmers and citizens, the outlet reported -- the destruction is also expected to cost an estimated $130,000 to U.S. taxpayers, according to a statement from Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.
"For years, USAID has purchased millions of tons of food from American farmers, sending American-grown products to save vulnerable children around the world," DeLauro's July 16 statement read. "There is no greater example of waste than spending taxpayer dollars on lifesaving aid and then refusing to deliver that aid for so long, it spoils and must be incinerated."