food stamps in america
following on a theme of economics, poverty and politics, i ran into a news release with a very troubling headline.
Half of all Americans will use food stamps during adulthood, Cornell researcher’s study finds [cornell university press office, august 24, 2004]To be worry-free about having enough food is not the norm in the United States, says a Cornell University sociologist.
“Rather, the need to use food stamps is a common American experience that at least half of all Americans between the ages of 20 and 65 will face,” says Thomas A. Hirschl, professor of development sociology at Cornell who has completed a study of food stamp use.
…
“The patterns that emerged from our analysis are particularly troubling in light of the fact that food insecurity, along with hunger, have been shown to be closely related to various health problems, including an increased risk in the development of chronic diseases, impairment of psychological and cognitive functioning among children and a greater likelihood of self-reporting health status as poor,” report Hirschl and Rank. “The fact that at least four out of 10 Americans will experience food insecurity at some point during their adulthood would appear to represent a significant public health cause for concern.”
of course, it’s important to realize that there’s a pretty big difference between an american using food stamps to pick up some ketchup (that’s a vegetable as well as a political statement and the rest of the world’s concept of “food insecurity.”
even so, we should be able to do better than this.