Washington Post- Nov. 17, 2009:
The nation’s economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people — including almost one child in four — struggled last year to get enough to eat.
At a time when rising poverty, widespread unemployment and other effects of the recession have been well documented, the report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides the government’s first detailed portrait of the toll that the faltering economy has taken on Americans’ access to food.
The magnitude of the increase in food shortages — and, in some cases, outright hunger — identified in the report startled even the nation’s leading anti-poverty advocates, who have grown accustomed to longer lines lately at food banks and soup kitchens.
#28, brm,
That’s not what this was about. The report said “hungry.” That doesn’t sound right.
Why not read the effen article.
…
(my empphasis)
There is nothing like irresponsible people preaching others be responsible.
#24, Guyver,
20, No one is forced to eat junk food.
True. Nor do we force them to eat at all.
As your second paragraph points out very well, we don’t force food producers to provide nutritional food. Yet if you ask any producer if their food is healthy they will tell you yes.
I think we agree that empty calories are not good. We might not agree that not everyone is equal when it comes to brains or nutritional comprehension.
… Vitamin Water are both owned by Coca-Cola
Paying for water is extremely stupid in my opinion. Just because they say it has vitamins is the disingenuous tactic I point to above. Even worse is the “fruit cocktail” in the juice section.
27, Go to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or the organic aisle of most grocery stores for the things you’re seeking.
Speaking of ridiculously cheap food (watch the video): http://tinyurl.com/yk3c5bg
31, We all must eat. In the end, every person makes choices. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. We all have different priorities. What I do not want happening is that I am financially penalized for my eating habits due to government-run health care of all things. And before you say I’m going overboard, NY is already discussing having a sugar tax. Why stop there? Mexican and Soul food are high in fat. Should we tax more heavily on those foods when and if we go to a system like that since people who heavily eat Mexican / Soul foods will likely develop health conditions prevalent to those diets?
Food companies like any company will spin things on a positive note for their products. They will tell you that their food is healthy / healthier based off of either it being:
1. No fat / low fat (i.e. candy)
2. sugar-free (i.e. diet soda)
3. 0g Trans Fat (i.e. foods with less than 0.5g of trans fat per serving)
4. Lower Calories (i.e. smaller serving size)
5. Vitamin enriched (enriched flour products)
Most people don’t spend much time what they shove down their pie hole.
I’m not disagreeing with you on your point of Vitamin Water. That being said, I don’t think there’s that much of a difference in the cost of manufacturing Vitamin Water as opposed to Coca-Cola. I merely pointed out that products being marketed as “healthy” are now owned by corporations not necessarily known for healthy products (except maybe for Dannon).
The food industry is slowly but surely offering information over what the country of origin is for many food products. However, the food industry refuses to cite which of their products are genetically modified. On the flip side, the non-GMO products go out of their way to bring to your attention that they are non-GMO.
Most people quite honestly don’t care. They go by taste (sugar, salt, MSG, etc) and price. Most people won’t eat fresh produce on a continual basis. Most people would never buy a Vita-Mix nor shop at Whole Foods. Does that mean we need to babysit them? I say no, but if and when universal health care goes through, I suspect peoples’ personal freedom of choice will be slightly penalized for the “greater good”.
#1
Benjamin said… rant … ideology … rant … I hate poor people … rant … rant
#2 as for food prices: (store brands only)
Location: local Wal-mart in Midwest
a). $3.31 gal of milk
b). $2.99 loaf of bread (plain multi-grain)
c). $3.38 ground beef
d). $5.00 boneless chicken breast
e). $1.22 stuffing and, or potato mix
f). $2.50 bag of Mac Apples
g). $3.76 bag of grape fruit
h). $3.31 Mac and Cheese
i). $1.38 Broccoli for Mac and Cheese
j). $1.28 can of soup (only two types for <$1)
k). $2.50 least expensive 6pak of brats
l). $2.00 least expensive buns
Maybe if all the fucking Chinese families in San Francisco stopped going to the food banks on a daily basis, there would be enough for everybody.
Who gets 8 hours sleep? I seem to be running on six.
Yeah we eat a lot of refined starch and sweets. This stuff will kill you or make you a diabetic with clogged arteries and that will kill you…You by healthy choice and most of the calories are white rice.
If you starve when you are a kid you don’t have as many fat cells that want to be full as a fat kid does when they grow up…
32, Fusion,
In the end, I prefer to take much more responsibility over what I eat. I try to avoid as much processed / packaged / refined foods as possible which pretty much means I pretty much shoulder the burden of food prep / cooking.
That being said, 52 things you can make with a Vita-Mix: http://tinyurl.com/yfdywjr
“If there aren’t enough Twinkie’s in the house – does that mean food is scarce?”
The number of Twinkies in the house, be it zero or an infinite number, has no bearing on the amount of food in then house because Twinkies ARE NOT FOOD. Read Twinky Deconstructed and then tell me if you want to eat that crap.
Do you know that 600,000+ people in Detroit don’t have a single grocery store where they can buy real food, and fresh vegetables? Why do you think all of these inner cities are building farms in vacant lots? It’s not because it’s easy to find healthy food there, I guarantee.
Junk-food binge alters gut microbes in less than a day: http://tinyurl.com/ycwyzpj
There’s no starvation in America, just people who don’t want to eat healthy.
You can still buy many foodstuffs in bulk at ridiculously low prices, but nobody wants to spend the time cooking it.