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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Sick Ayn Randian War Against Everyone Who Isn't Rich
http://www.alternet.org/sick-ayn-randian-war-against-everyone-who-isnt-richEighteen million Americans were food insecure in the United States in 2012. The Great Recession has increased the number of Americans who do not have sufficient food by 30 percent. The fastest growing group of people who need some assistance with obtaining sufficient food to maintain a basic standard of living is the elderly. Approximately 20 percent of American children live in poverty. Food insecurity and hunger leads to a long-term decline in life spans and a diminished standard of living for whole communities.
Last week, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to cut $39 billion from federal food assistance programs. Their vote is more than just the next act in the ongoing politics of cruelty by the Republican Party in the age of Obama. It is a decision that will kill poor people.
In America, discussions of poverty are linked in the public imagination to stereotypes about race, class and gender. The face of poverty is not white (the group that in fact comprises the largest group of recipients for government aid). Instead, it is the mythical black welfare queen, or "illegal immigrant" who is trying to pilfer the system at the expense of hard-working white Americans.
Discussions about poverty are also easily transformed into claims about morality and virtue. While the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is very efficient and involves little if any fraud on the part of its participants, stereotypes about the poor can be used to legitimize the policing and harassment of Americans in need of food support through mandatory drug testing and other unnecessary programs.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)... suffer from food insecurity. http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/news/home_top-news/2576149/Summer-program-served-55000-meals-to-children
But hey, let's leave the obscenity of starving children to be solved by "faith-based initiatives" (I know these generous folks are doing the best they can) and save our tax dollars for more guns and jets and war!
For some children, the free meals they get at school are the ONLY meals they get, which means in the summer the kids are left to starve. In Scioto County they have a backpack program which helps to feed hungry children in summer.
madaboutharry
(40,217 posts)of a Charles Dickens novel.
reddread
(6,896 posts)As much as food stamps and poverty relate to nutritional concerns for millions and millions,
other than those wealthy enough to walk into upscale stores and pay top dollar for "organic"
labeled food,
EVERYONE else is deeply affected by the issues that really are not mentioned in normal discourse.
Here is what the real problem is- Chains like Save Mart were finally permitted to buy out Albertson's
in our area several years ago. This ambitious attempt leading into a severely depressed economy led
to the closing of many stores, including other chains that opened stores at intersections facing each
other, 3 or more in one spot, while never thinking to do business on the poor side of town.
So major percentages of the population had no large grocery stores within several miles.
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch Dressing section, overgrown retail overlords like Wal-Mart and Target moved into
strong positions of distribution, impacting growers, telling them what the price for their produce would be.
This sort of manipulation and those kinds of consolidations were probably illegal in past decades, and certainly
were not permitted in the past.
The price of products in these stores are higher due to reduced competition, enhanced greed and absent oversight.
Buying locally and as directly as you can will be the only effective option/resort.
Look for that to become more difficult as these giants of commerce flex their mu$cle$.