Trust the federal government to attack a problem by replacing one good word with four fuzzy ones.
“Hunger,” for example. The Washington Post reports that this year, the Agriculture Department has decided the word “hunger” is insufficient to describe the estimated 12 percent of Americans who don’t have enough to eat. So in its annual report on the subject, it’s going with the phrase “very low food security.”
Just doesn’t have the same ring, does it? Maybe that’s why some anti-hunger groups call the change “a huge disservice” to those who lack food.
It doesn’t do much for the language either. Imagine Scarlett O’Hara vowing, “I’ll never experience very low food security again.”
Posted by Dave Knadler
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39 Comments
Finally the Bush regime is trying to use a phrase that is more scientifically accurate. It means a lot coming from a regime that edits scientific findings for being too scientific. This is Bush’s Christian way of combating hunger, just change the phrase. Maybe his mom taught him that, the same bitch who said the Hurricane Katrina victims never had it so good when they were living in shelters.
The thing is, those who show low food security over a continuous curve which is not monotonic decreasing may experience an constant increase in nutritional imbalance which, in extreme cases, can lead to negative life.
Dave: You say 12% of Americans are going hungry because somehow, someway in our society, they don’t get enough to eat. Maybe.
But what you didn’t say is, in my humble opinion (IMHO) — about 1% of Americans get the optimum amount of food. The remaining 87% of Americans, if my math is correct (”second derivative!” quoting another WE blogger mathematician), are virtual food hogs.
So, lets just say NO to that third meal and snacks every day — we just don’t need them.
I wish they would do a study into how many “hungry” Americans have cell phones, computers and DVD players, rent movies, play video games, and smoke cigarettes.I think most of us would be suprised. It’s not that Americans are going hungry because of a lack of resources, it’s more a lack of priorities.
OK, Dave, what ever happened to the “fair and balanced” journalism you have always held dear. You herald the claims of some anti-hunger groups that this change is a “huge disservice” to those who lack food. But what about the claims of the pro-hunger groups? Don’t they have a right to be heard? Groups like “Food Undermines Clean Kitchens” may be a tiny voice of reason today, but they’re growing … tomorrow they could be a movement. And who knows, in a few short years, Million Muncher Marchs, Operation Starvation picketing Dillons — the potential is boundless! :)
See? This is how you dilute a problem or make it go away entirely without actually doing anything at all!
First you muddy up the language. “Negative food security” means just what to the average American? THEN you get folks not affected by the problem to blame the victim for not suffering enough! Voila! Absolution from caring about your fellow man!
This reminds me of the Reagan years when he wanted to classify Ketchup as a fruit – remember?
Just because you call hunger by a different term does not make hunger any different. In this country of excessive wealth, there should never be one person go hungry.
For all the Religious Right’s ranting about the country’s moral values – where are they in this hunger problem?
Food pantries and Soup kitchens (shelters) seem to be packed with supplies everytime I turn around in my community.I don’t see how this could possibly be a real issue in this country.A certain percentage of people are always going to be unemployed, hungry, or addicted to something or criminals by personal choice. I’d put this figure in the 5% range.That’s democracy. It starts with choices and personal responsibility. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink it.
Why do those with ‘very low food security’ also weigh more? Because the cheap foods are loaded in fat and calories.
I hate that some feel you should be totally without anything fun just because you can’t afford to buy food every month. Most of the things I have came second hand or as gifts.
I just came from the store last night, and for two weeks of household supplies and food, I spent 277 for a family of four.
That’s with no junk food except two bags of chips. My monthly food/supplies bill exceeds my house payment. And we make 3 times minimum wage combined.
When you stand in line behind someone in Dillons who weighs at least 300 pounds, “puchasing” soft drinks, chips, Ding Dongs, cookies, and so on by the basketful with a Vision card, all the while jabbering on a cell phone … it tends to curb one’s enthusiasm to reach out a helping hand to those “less fortunate”. Not sure how this will turn out to be the conservative’s fault, but I’m fairly sure some “enquiring mind” out there will show me.
“Not sure how this will turn out to be the Conservatives fault, but I’m fairly sure some “inquiring mind” out there will show me.”
that’s easy all this and that about stem cells and abortion but once they get here they’re on their own. I don’t think anyone is advocating a free ride but come on now.Jobs going overseas illegals competing for what can’t be outsourced. Some people are gonna get screwed and it’s not always their choice.Could happen to you keep an open mind.
It is a humorous term, but the reality most of the hunger in America is self-inflicted. Sure, there are pockets of hunger in isolated areas, but for the most part, hunger is a family management issue.
When mom or dad spend all the money on their favorite habit (drug of choice, fashion, electronics) and leave the kids a refrigerator with slimey bologna and stale bread, then there is an issue.
I would say there are more hungry kids in the USA than adults, street people (adults) not withstanding.
“The remaining 87% of Americans, if my math is correct (’second derivative!’ quoting another WE blogger mathematician), are virtual food hogs.”
What is accelerating/decelaring? I don’t get it.
The last I checked, hungry people pay taxes, and are equal citizens under the law. That’s the bottom line that all the patronizing, factually-unsupported crap tends to forget.
You might ask private charities if they’d like all government food assistance to the poor to end.
Morg: Very seriously, and blaming no one here but myself, you have completely lost me on that one. What stem cells and/or abortion have to do with “very low food security” escapes me. Help me out here, friend ?
“Not sure how this will turn out to be the Conservatives fault, but I’m fairly sure some “inquiring mind” out there will show me”
Sorry about the rant rm-was not really directed at you, was thinking about am talk radio blaming the dems for every problem afflicting mankind when I wrote that. I’ll stop before I confuse you further.
morg,
I understand what you were posting. First, referring to stem cells and abortions, the pro-lifers are more concerned with a “baby” in the fetal and pre-fetal stages, but aren’t concerned with one after birth. Whether that baby is fed, clothed, has a roof over its head, medical care, etc.
The last of it is more a “walk in my shoes” kind of thing. I like to call it “don’t knock it until you’ve had to live it.”
Thanks, friend … makes it clearer, and “been there, done that !!”
I don’t know about that! I consider myself prolife, but I also care about children who are already in this world. I may work to prevent abortion, but I also work to do what I can for children when I have the opportunity. Why is everything always perceived as a choice between one thing and another? Why can’t I be pro-life AND care about children after they’re born?Why is it always so black and white?Another question…if you’re pro-choice, does that mean you don’t have any responsibility for the children that are already here? Or does your opinion that unwanted children just shouldn’t be born let you off the hook?
As far as the hunger issue, no one in this country should have to go hungry, there is plenty for everyone. If people in this country are going hungry, it’s usually because of abuse or neglect on someone’s part.I had a situation like that this week. One of my new clients is leaglly blind, diabetic, and mildly retarded. He has no phone and depends on the kindness of his neighbors to get to the store. He has a payee (his nephew) who handles his money and it’s pretty obvious that the payee takes advantage of his money. When I went to see him last week, he had no food in the house and no money at all to buy any. His payee, who has total control of his money, pays his rent and gives him $15 a week to buy food and live on. As far as I can tell, there is over $200 per month from his social security that is unaccounted for. Needless to say, that’s all about to change and there will be an abuse and neglect report made to SRS.That’s how people in this country go hungry, like someone who is disabled and without anyone they can trust, or children who are at the mercy of their drug addicted or abusive parents, or the severely mentally ill person who isolates himself and has no one to help him. Hunger in this country exists, but usually because there is a breakdown in the system that’s been put into place to help those who can’t help themselves.If we want to do away with hunger, then we have to look at the underlying social problems and deal with those first.Food giveaways do nothing for the child who goes to bed hungry because his parents would rather get high than buy food.
Very true mary. I think education is needed; too many people never learned a thing about nutricion. Thus we see not only ‘undernourished’ but ‘malnourished.’ (Of course, I should talk – I consider caffeine to be one of the four major food groups!)
I think, “Not quite full” or “marginally undernourished” has a better ring to it. Hmmmm, maybe I should get a copyright and sell it to Bush’s “Ministers of Propaganda”.
Mary there are some out there who are truly pro-life in every sense of the word, and you’d not be the ones we’re referring to when we say anti-choicers usually end their “prolife” stance at birth.
I know a woman who came full circle, so anti-choice at one time that she actually started her own chapter. She said combined with something that happened in her own life (I’m going to assume she needed an abortion), AND that the people whom she had ties to, she said there was nothing prolife or factual about them. So she broke away from them, and now she does house pregnant girls who have nowhere else to go. I think that is truly a good thing.
No, we pro-choicers believe in helping the kids who are abused, neglected and hungry. One of my most avid pro-choice friends is a foster mother. I’d love to do that someday too.
Show me a liberal who doesn’t believe in helping the poor, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one.
Oh hell, EVERY liberal wants to help the poor. There is no argument there from most anyone.
However, that “help” comes in the form of taxpayer money.
Back on topic here…
Anyone that says cheap food has to be unhealthy food…or that GOOD food hasa to be expensive – is just plain wrong.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are among the most affordable and most healthy in the store.
Do yourselves a favor and step away from the chicken nuggets and build yourself a healthy salad.
Mary,You’re sounding a lot like the people who justify welfare cuts with tales of “welfare queens” and “welfare Cadillacs.”I admit, I’ve seen a few welfare Cadillacs- they were 20yrs old, running on 3 cylinders, belching smoke, and the right front fender was a different color, but yes, they were Cadillacs.Maybe some poor people are buying dope instead of groceries, but the vast majority lead an awful lot harder life than you ever will! It takes a lot of hard work, not to mention ingenuity, to be both poor and alive in this country.Try it some time!
Golf do you even shop for your family?
Salad ingredients: Lettuce 1$ (lettuce has 0 nutritional value)Carrots 1$ cukes 1$ tomatoes 1$dressing 2$. And that’s basic salad without ham, eggs, croutons..
Total 6$ for your very basic salad that will last approx 1 day if you eat two meals with a family of four.
Compare to Spaghetti, 3$ hamburger, .50 noodles, 1.50$ jar of spaghetti sauce. (with no extras like parmesean cheese)
5$ and you can probably eat FOUR meals at 4 per family. And it’s more filling.
Ah, yes, the old archconservative rule: When you can’t make a relevant observation, make a personal attack.
News flash, Nutty Golfer, what pmom is saying is nutritionally correct. If you’re on a tight budget, salads aren’t going to cut it. Balanced diet aside, the only way that approach become economical is if you are either (1) feeding an army or (2) found some magical way to keep vegetable from rotting.
None of which, of course, anything at all to do with your illogical “portion control” rant.
One fascinating aspect of these discussions is the heavy-handed social engineering implicitly endorsed by critics of anti-hunger programs. As if these people were somehow a lower class of human being, to be punished and managed like errant children, or, more accurately, misbehaving pets.
Nanny government is a criticism usually aimed at liberals. Mary, I guess, is at least living up to the stereotype.
BTW, Mary, you might keep in mind that those with mental health issues are a bit more likely to live in circumstances where, say, benefits are stolen rather than properly used (I believe that’s why we have EDP investigators). A handful of anecdotes does not, however, prove a point about the recipients in general, particularly absent any explanation as to why they should be different from the general population.
I have found that buying fresh fruit and veges is quite expensive. That said, I still buy them because I happen to like them.
If people learned to prepare food it would do a lot to cut costs; particularly if the person is working. Where it gets intractible is with the person stuck in a minimum-wage job – then has neither time nor money to be able to create decent meals.
and you obviously haven’t a freaking clue about food or shopping for it. Portion control? If I can make spaghetti stretch for two days family of four, you should think about how much that really is dipsheet.
Excuse me, Jed! I know what it’s like to struggle with not having enough money for food or untilites, I remember buying soap one bar at a time and laying awake at night wondering how in the heck I was going to buy Xmas presents for my kids. I was too proud to ever ask for any hand out, so believe me, we went without a lot while my kids were young.I work with the poor everyday, and often things are not like the media would have you believe. Like I said in my previous posts, I see poor families all the time with big screen TVs, DVDs, and cell phones, who spend money on movies, video games, and almost all of them smoke and many of them drink alcohol or use drugs. The ones who I really see suffering are the ones with mental illness or cognitive impairment that keeps them from accessing the system or allows others to take advantage of them. There are too many people in this country have their priorities screwed up, maybe they make really poor choices, or maybe they simply lack common sense.That’s the reality of this country, and if you don’t believe me, go to work with me sometime. It’ll open your eyes for sure.
As far as good food that’s really cheap, try rice and beans… a great source of protein, low fat, and a little goes along way. I used to fry up a whole bunch of chicken wings for my kids, they were really inexpensive and to this day it’s still one of my favorite meals. Potatoes are also cheap, nutritous and you can top them with almost anything and make a meal out of it.A bag of Doritos cost more than a 5lb bag of potatoes.
Maybe it’s my definition of poor that sets me apart from many of you. I believe if you have food, a roof over your head, shoes on your feet, running water, heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer, and people around you who love you and care about you, then I can’t think of you as “poor”.I know plenty of people who lack some or all of these things, to me those are the ones who are “poor”.In other countries, they would laugh at what most people in this country consider “poor”.
Mary,Funny, I’ve spent most of my life around poor people, having been there myself, and I have yet to see a big-screen TV there! A few have pay-as-you-go cell phones, but only because Ma Bell cut them off. I suspect your clients were suckered in by the rent-to-own scammers- that’s where most of their money goes.Beans and rice, I remember them well, and still eat them occasionally. Luckily, I usually had a stove that worked (although my family of five did live for a year with only a hotplate), and knew how to cook. I’ve known a lot of poor people who didn’t have a working stove or refrigerator, thanks to their friendly neighborhood slumlords, and didn’t know how, or were just too tired, after a day of doing whatever it took to survive, to cook. Cooking while poor is a different experience too, having to constantly adapt recipes for whichever ingredients you don’t have.The myth that poor people have lots of time on their hands couldn’t be further from the truth. Working for slave wages involves slaving for long hours and scrounging afterwards to find enough to pay the rent and still eat. Add children to that, and the hopelessness, and there’s no energy left!You say you remember being poor, but your total lack of empathy makes me think you don’t really remember. Or are you so burned out from working with poor people that you just can’t care anymore?
“air conditioning in the summer”
Ahem. . .Okay, it’s way late, even here. I should probably shut the hell up.
Congrats, Mary, I’ve met your conditions. During some of the rougher periods of life (ironically, some of the productive periods of my collegiate schooling), I had no AC. It sucked.
Pinto beans take forever to cook (and not very good), and other beans are fairly expensive. It basically comes down to the notion that those people over there don’t deserve any help from the government that their votes and tax dollars support.
For which you have offered zero empirical support.
I’m very empathic to those who suffer. But that doesn’t change the fact that many people lack common sense or have their priorities mixed up. That’s just reality. I feel bad for them, but all the food drives in the world won’t solve their problems.There will always be those who are living below the poverty level and it doesn’t have as much to do with bad luck as it does with bad choices. When someone chooses to not get an education, have their kids too young, or if they choose to do drugs or alcohol, then their life is going to be a struggle, no question about it.
By the way, navy beans are really inexpensive and taste really good if you add just a little ham and pour them over a slice of bread. That was my favorite meal growing up, besides my mom’s chicken and homemade noodles. Low fat and lots of protein. My mom learned a lot about cooking really cheap because she went through the depression and they had to make do with whatever they had. Talk about people living in poverty…lots of people went to bed hungry back then.
I remember being in a rental slum that had a hole in the kitchen roof that you could literally see sky through, a stove that blew sparks across the kitchen, and BOILING in a pan of water a chicken pot pie on the stove to heat it up just so I could eat the mush. Augh.
All I really want is enough money to pay the bills every month and health insurance and maybe take a vacation every five years or so.
And Mary did you know a thing of ham hocks (HOCKS!) costs almost 4 bucks now!
I do like ham and beans occasionally, but dang!
I never disagreed that poor in America is not the same as poor in other countries, but you won’t get your kids taken away for living in squalor in other countries either. And most kids HAVE to have computer access at home just to make it in school.
Everyone on the Earth occasionally makes “bad choices,” Mary. That would include your mother’s family (interesting how exclude them from your sweeping generalities, and in the very next post, no less).
Hey, I recently made a VERY bad choice: taking on bait on that stupid bean comment. Would you like to dictate some recipes too? We can call it “Mary’s law.”
Why are you so angry, Rage? To talk about the reality of the American culture shouldn’t be a reason to be ridiculed, I’m just stating what’s obvious to me.You’re right, EVERYONE makes bad choices. For some, it’s an opportunity for a great lesson, and for others, it’s a way of life. All I know is that you can’t give someone a better life, they have to have the motivation to make life better for themselves. It’s Ok to support them, give them a hand when they’re down, cheer them on, but you can’t do it for them. If we had that kind of power, no one would be homeless or hungry.I have traveled a lot, so I tend to compare other countries to our’s. We live in such a safe bubble here, there is no country in the entire world like the USA. We have everything and all the opportunity to make our life whatever we want it to be, as long as we have average or above intelligence and good health. For those who don’t, we have the best social services in the world.No, it’s not perfect here, but the average lifestyle here outshines anything I’ve ever seen beyond our borders.I’m sorry you take it so personal that I believe people are capable of being responsible and that we do better when we’re challenged and empowered to overcome our own problems. That’s where true self-esteem comes from. When you do for someone what they need to do for themselves, you contribute to their sense of worthlessness. I believe Americans have become too complacent plus we’ve developed a keen sense of entitlement. Many people like you don’t appreciate what we have here, because like you, they have never experienced what true poverty is.