Starving in the U.S.A.

Posted on November 16, 2009 by jck

The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track.

Household Food Security in the United States, 2008

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7 Responses to Starving in the U.S.A.

  1. Karla says:
    December 22, 2009 at 3:28 am

    This is absurd. Just wondering out loud here but who wants to put money on the size of the overlap between the group of Americans “suffering” from obesity and the group claiming a lack of dependable access to adequate food? We’re talking about low income America here right? We’re not bemoaning starving rich people and it’s no secret that obesity doesn’t exactly correlate with affluence so pardon the confusion but are poor Americans too fat or too thin?… or both?

    When exactly was the last documented case of someone actually starving to death in the USA? If someone gets locked up in a closet without food for weeks on end – that doesn’t count and neither do psychological eating disorders or child neglect. Actual, down to my last dime, exhausted all my resources, charity and government assistance starvation ??

    I’m sure lots of folks are hard up and I don’t mean to sound cold hearted but do some research on the dust bowl and the Great Depression in the 1930′s in this country – now there was some honest and desperate starvation. Not a lot of fat people in those old ‘Hooverville’ photos. Some people who lived through those times are still around you know… I’m reminded here of a character on ‘Larry David’ who dismisses a Holocaust survivor’s terrible story in favor of his own “hardship” on the ‘Survivor’ reality show to the shock and dismay of the other people in the room. Everything is relative I guess.

    Basic nutritious food in the US right now is cheaper than it has ever been in the history of humanity. Things like rice, beans and even (with a little effort) fruits and vegetables can be had in sufficient quantities to feed a family for one day for $10… easy, much less in many cases. It a’int lobster Newburg but it will keep you full and healthy.

    Are some people homeless? or have chronic cash-flow problems? or have seven kids to look after with no adult help? or are somehow too clueless to figure out how to boil water? – of course and that’s a shame, but those things have nothing to do with affordable food availability and shouldn’t lead to any conclusions about starving in the USA. Good Grief.

    If you don’t buy this argument go find someone who is from or has lived in a country with real food scarcity and tell him this ‘Starving In The USA’ story and you know, get a dialogue going. He/she will probably rupture an intestine laughing at you.

  2. Cassandra says:
    November 19, 2009 at 5:54 am

    This is of course published by the USDA – the “owner” of the Food Stamp (and WIC and other food security programs). Any skeptic who has the slightest sympathy with organizational or bureaucratic politic models would be forgiven for pondering the percentage contained therein of “Talking their own book”.

  3. mangy cat says:
    November 17, 2009 at 1:52 pm

    49 million americans starving
    and all in u.s.a., none in latam
    viva chavez! viva lula! et al

  4. jck says:
    November 17, 2009 at 10:28 am

    Tim:
    You are absolutely right, it’s not that bad when one looks closely at the numbers and the short history of the survey, but imho, one of the richest country on earth should do better than that.

  5. Tim Worstall says:
    November 17, 2009 at 10:08 am

    Well, yes, but the government started keeping track in 1995. And this is our first big recession in the last 14 years: it’s not really all that surprising that there’s a rise in food insecurity then.

    Another way or reading the numbers is that around 1% of households were food insecure at any particular time (as they note) which by any historical or current global standard is actually an unbelievably good result.

  6. glory says:
    November 16, 2009 at 10:55 pm

    http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/11/walmart-quote-of-night.html – “There are families not eating at the end of the month,” said Stephen Quinn, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Wal-Mart Stores, and “literally lining up at midnight” at Wal-Mart stores waiting to buy food when paychecks or government checks land in their accounts. cf. http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9734/foodstamps.jpg

  7. K G says:
    November 16, 2009 at 8:08 pm

    What a failure the US is…