[Previous entry: "'We're trapped ... books free our minds'"] [Next entry: "Choking the Internet: How much longer will your favorite sites be on line?"]

12/11/2005:

"American hunger: Are scientists lying?"

...The basics: the Fed has surveyed 60,000 American families. It found 88.1% to be “food secure” – they don’t worry about getting food. But 11.9% are “food insecure” – sometimes they don’t know if they can afford food, but by doing without medications or delaying the rent they avoid hunger. That category is 13.5 million households. Finally 3.9%, or 4.4 million American households, sometimes go hungry for lack of money.

The statistics also show a 14.7% increase in hunger in one year – as we enter another year of recovery from the recession.

The interior numbers show that the South and the West are hungrier, that Blacks and Hispanics are more vulnerable, that households headed by single women are more vulnerable – and, of course, the poor. (1)

America is the biggest food producer of the world. We ship gargantuan piles of it to hungry foreign countries. Fifty four percent of the world’s exported corn is from the United States. (2)

A separate survey last year in Los Angeles found 2.9 million in California suffer food insecurity or hunger – some 10% of San Fernando Valley folks are at risk of not getting enough to eat, and if compared by race, Blacks are most at risk, then Whites, then Hispanics. Among low-income adults the food risk percentages grow huge, with Latinos leading at 38.2%. The poor always say high rents are the single biggest drain on what money they have; the homeless daily have to choose between a motel room and food. In California, food insecurity has increased 16% over two years. (3)

California is the biggest food producing state.
opednews.com