In a Foreign Policy opinion piece, John Norris, executive director of the Sustainable Security program at the Center for American Progress, examines how "[t]he Obama administration could revolutionize aid and save billions ... with fairly minor changes to how we deliver food assistance abroad." He states, "For all its good deeds, the Food for Peace program has also long supported some of the most obviously ridiculous practices in the entire international development portfolio," and discusses the concepts of "cargo preference" -- a law mandating "that 75 percent of all U.S. food aid be shipped aboard U.S. vessels" -- and "monetized aid" -- the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to purchase farm commodities, usually in the American Midwest" that "are shipped extraordinary distances at extraordinary costs on U.S.-flagged vessel."