America's Second Harvest Calls for Strong Nutrition Title in Farm Bill
Second Harvest bills itself as the Nation's Food Bank Network, and has opined recently that hunger in America is one of the nation's most immediately solvable problems, if only the federal programs were in place to grow and distribute the right food.
"35.5 million Americans are at risk of hunger...at a critical time for hungry Americans and those of us who help serve them...There simply may be no food for many families when the rest of the nation gathers to celebrate Thanksgiving and religious holidays...It's disheartening that so many children in this country are unable to concentrate or function at full capacity in school because their stomachs are empty..."The new report by the USDA is just one more testament to why food banks and hungry Americans need Congress to pass a strong nutrition title in the Farm Bill," said Vicki Escarra, President and CEO.
Critics of Farm Bills and subsidized agriculture say that most people suffer from the delusion that federal farm aid is about keeping food more affordable for Americans and lending a helping hand to small, family-centered farms, when it is not about either thing.
They point out that the lower food prices come at the ironic expense of increased taxation-so that, as some studies have demonstrated, in the long run American families are made poorer, not wealthier, by subsidized farming. What's more, some subsidy policies, such as "conservation funding" that awards money to big farmers in exchange for them not farming certain land, acts to push food prices back up anyway.
Food prices are also increased by the "protective" tariffs and trade barriers that the federal government uses to limit the amount of foreign agricultural products that enter into the United States. Some critics of this policy also point out that it drives up food prices for poor or developing foreign nations because their farmers now find it more difficult to sell their produces on the global market with United States and Western European trade barriers in place.
Critics also point to the fact that independent and government studies have also shown that the vast majority of farm subsidy money winds up in the hands of the largest farms. When it is paid out to farms run by small farmers, it usually does not go to them but to their landlords-most small farmers don't own their own land.
Farm Bill critics want to see all subsidies and trade barriers ended. This, they say, will result in lower food prices, increased food supplies, and more money in the bank accounts of all American families.
Original Newswire Source:
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Published by Brant McLaughlin
I am a Writer driven by endless curiosity and a deep desire to waste time creatively. View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentGood point, Ice.
I miss the old family farming days it's good honest work and something a man would take pride in. I only worry about Genetically Engineered crops because corporations are involved in it and who really knows what they will use as a catalyst. But the wat crops were engineered over the centuries through cross species manipulation is acceptible.
Nah, gen-engineered crops are a small miracle. They've already been proven harmless to humans and significantly more nutritious. You've been eating them for quite a while and you don't even know it. Besides, we've been doing crop gen-engineering for thousands and thousands of years--except before the 20th century it was called "breeding" and was more primitive and trial-and-error.___Corporate farms are not bad, but I do love the idea of families doing much more of their own agriculture and of supermarkets making all efforts to buy local.
Terrific article! Great was getting a little passe`, lol. I guess I will have to solve this problem too. Bring back family farming and desolve the corporate farms and do away with genetically engineered crops. There trouble solved, lol.