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Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry
Washington Post ^ | 11-16-2006 | Elizabeth Williamson

Posted on 11/16/2006 10:23:16 AM PST by Cagey

The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience "very low food security."

Every year, the Agriculture Department issues a report that measures Americans' access to food, and it has consistently used the word "hunger" to describe those who can least afford to put food on the table. But not this year.

Mark Nord, the lead author of the report, said "hungry" is "not a scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being measured in the food security survey." Nord, a USDA sociologist, said, "We don't have a measure of that condition."

The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans -- 35 million people -- could not put food on the table at least part of last year. Eleven million of them reported going hungry at times. Beginning this year, the USDA has determined "very low food security" to be a more scientifically palatable description for that group.

The United States has set a goal of reducing the proportion of food-insecure households to 6 percent or less by 2010, or half the 1995 level, but it is proving difficult. The number of hungriest Americans has risen over the past five years. Last year, the total share of food-insecure households stood at 11 percent.

Less vexing has been the effort to fix the way hunger is described. Three years ago, the USDA asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies "to ensure that the measurement methods USDA uses to assess households' access -- or lack of access -- to adequate food and the language used to describe those conditions are conceptually and operationally sound."

Among several recommendations, the panel suggested that the USDA scrap the word hunger, which "should refer to a potential consequence of food insecurity that, ......

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


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To: hophead
I understand your sentiment but you are wrong. There are many hungry children in the US. Most if not all are born to poor mothers without fathers and the mothers are spending the welfare $$ on crack and clothes. They really don't give a damn about their kids.

Sorry. I don't buy it. There are no starving children in the U.S. They are not severely malnourished as in Africa.

21 posted on 11/16/2006 11:32:46 AM PST by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote.)
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To: Alouette
You don't keep a drawer of snacks in your cube?

I'm not sure what's more dangerous. Having nothing to eat when I'm hungry, or always having something to eat when I'm not.
22 posted on 11/16/2006 11:35:16 AM PST by July 4th (A vacant lot cancelled out my vote for Bush.)
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To: July 4th

I used to skip lunch at work, now I make sure to bring a sandwich, yogurt and fruit every day.

If I have a snack or a water bottle every three hours I don't get hungry or get pounding headaches, and when I come home from work I don't eat everything in sight.


23 posted on 11/16/2006 11:41:59 AM PST by Alouette (Psalms of the Day: 119: 1-96)
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To: Cagey

I lack food constantly. Where the hell is my handout?


24 posted on 11/16/2006 11:45:56 AM PST by Killborn (Pres. Bush isn't Pres. Reagan. Then again, Pres. Regan isn't Pres. Washington. God bless them all.)
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To: Alouette

Oh yeah, I drink water like crazy. Best way to keep from feeling like crap, imho. I rarely skip lunch, but I never bring my own - there are plenty of cheap takeout places within walking distance. Problem is, today I'm in a teleconference, and while I'm not actually doing anything except listening right now, I can't really run out for 10 minutes. Oh well, FR is sustenance.


25 posted on 11/16/2006 11:46:30 AM PST by July 4th (A vacant lot cancelled out my vote for Bush.)
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To: Cagey

We have the fattest poor people in the world. Diabetes rages through this population and costs the country billions annually. If there is one thing we don't have to worry about, it's starvation among poor Americans. That said, I wonder how many of those cited in this article are actually not Americans, but illegal aliens who haven't gotten on the gravy train as yet.


26 posted on 11/16/2006 11:51:37 AM PST by kittymyrib
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To: Alouette

From my wife's People magazine, it looks like there
are a lot of women starving in Hollywood, CA.


27 posted on 11/16/2006 12:03:25 PM PST by tumblindice (Get ready for a long spell in the minority.)
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To: Alouette

Eating a water bottle makes about as much sense as throwing away the core in a banana.


28 posted on 11/16/2006 12:08:33 PM PST by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: July 4th
Oh well, FR is sustenance.

OOH. I like that one. I'm stealing it!

29 posted on 11/16/2006 12:15:59 PM PST by Stegall Tx ("FR is sustenance." {July 4 on 16 November})
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To: hophead

And as soon as someone reports the family to any government agency, or the kids go to the hospital they get into foster care and get plenty of food.

I agree with another poster - the only ones who are might be going hungry are the kids who are too young to do anything about it themselves and whose family and community are turning a blind eye to them.


30 posted on 11/16/2006 12:20:32 PM PST by cinives (On some planets what I do is considered normal.)
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To: kittymyrib

BINGO!
even 30 yrs ago Bill Buckley used to say the only hungry people in America are those on diets, LOL


31 posted on 11/16/2006 12:22:02 PM PST by nascarnation
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To: hophead; Alouette; Cagey

Absolutely correct. Welfare kids are the bottom rung of the ladder in their families. The only reason they get shots is because the state takes off $25 for each child who isn't current. And another $25 for each kid whose attendance isn't within district limits. And another $25 if doctor visits aren't current. Etc.


32 posted on 11/16/2006 12:28:33 PM PST by Froufrou
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To: Cagey
The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans -- 35 million people -- could not put food on the table at least part of last year. Eleven million of them reported going hungry at times. Beginning this year, the USDA has determined "very low food security" to be a more scientifically palatable description for that group.

This paragraph has me confused. 35 million folks reported that they didn't have food in the house at least part of last year, but fewer than one third of that group said they ever went hungry? What did the other 24 million do when they "could not put food on the table at least part of last year"? Ya think they might have gone shopping or headed out to McD's or something? I mean, if they didn't have food in the house but didn't go hungry, something must have happened.

The United States has set a goal of reducing the proportion of food-insecure households to 6 percent or less by 2010...

11 million "hungry" divided by 300 million Americans = 3.6%. Mission Accomplished!!!

OK, I'm being a jerk here, but my Mother occasionally offers to teach the younger women in her community how to comparison shop and use coupons. I think she has had one person take her up on the offer, and then only for one trip to a grocery store. I give my aging food to the food bank down the street before it expires, but I think the recipients would be better off in the long run if we taught them to shop rather than just giving them stuff.

33 posted on 11/16/2006 12:28:46 PM PST by Stegall Tx ("FR is sustenance." {July 4 on 16 November})
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Comment #34 Removed by Moderator

To: Cagey
"food insecure"

Another stupid lib catchphrase. Come to the midwest and see if you can find any people who look like they're "food insecure". This "hungry nation" lie Big Media is trying to push is a pile of garbage...no pun intended. The fact is the poorest third of the nation is the fattest.

35 posted on 11/16/2006 12:47:51 PM PST by driftless2
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To: Gingersnap
"people are fat"

A few years ago my local lib rag ran a front-page story about reductions in the numbers of food pantries for the economically challenged in the area. They produced some woman who supposedly now had a tough time finding free food. She was so fat she could hardly fit into the photo. Looking at her made me wonder if she hadn't eaten all the missing food pantries.

36 posted on 11/16/2006 12:52:14 PM PST by driftless2
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To: Cagey
Hmmm?

A story about the "hungry."

We must be close to Thanksgiving.

37 posted on 11/16/2006 12:53:35 PM PST by N. Theknow ((Kennedys - Can't drive, can't fly, can't ski, can't skipper a boat - But they know what's best.))
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To: Cagey

Then why come all them poor peoples on Maury, Jerry, Judge Judy, and Divorce court are so fat?


38 posted on 11/16/2006 12:54:55 PM PST by Gaffer
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To: Cagey

If someone is HUNGREY in this country they are either mentally retarded, a drug abuser or have a mental illeness or are a child cared for by one of the above. That I believe is a fact. People in the country do not know what the word hunger means which is obvious.


39 posted on 11/16/2006 8:59:01 PM PST by therut
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To: Cagey

I'm starv'n!!!

Hey bitch, I said I'm still hungry!

40 posted on 11/20/2006 4:35:26 PM PST by Andy from Beaverton (I'm so anti-pc, I use a Mac)
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