Today is not a good day to be picking up food from a food pantry, or receiving a meal from a soup kitchen. Due to the increasing cost of food, more and more people who need assistance, and less government donations, food pantries and soup kitchens across the United States are facing a crisis.
“This is as bare as I have ever seen the shelves,” said Melissa Travis in a press release on the People's Resource Center web site.
LMB recently wrote about farm subsidies in the US and the damage they do. They affect the major ingredients and prices of the food we buy.
there are five crops which receive huge, huge payouts from the US government: corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, and cotton. None of these five are all that nutritious (particularly the cotton), while healthier produce like broccoli and carrots and such get almost no subsidies.
The result? According to Pollan, “real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (a k a liquid corn) [he means corn syrup] declined by 23 percent.” Calories are cheap and nutrients are ’spensive.
