"The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according to a government report released Monday that shows particularly steep increases in food scarcity among families with children. In 2008, the report found, nearly 17 million children — more than one in five across the United States — were living in households in which food at times ran short, up from slightly more than 12 million children the year before. And the number of children who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million."
My uncle lives in Phoenix. One of the things that always struck me about people living in remote, arid regions is that once the price of fuel reaches a certain level that it will probably never fall below, the price of food, which must be largely shipped in or expensively irrigated, will rise astronomically.
Then again, try explaining this to people who live in the desert but insist on having grass on their lawns.
Arizona gives me the heebie-jeebies.
It's a total Cheat Death scenario, and you can pretty much pick your spot west of the 100th meridian. AZ, like the 95% of the West, lives off irrigation--and they grow shitloads of food.
The problem is water, and it is the great hulking behemoth of Drought/Overuse Apocalypse that is close to absolutely ignored as a matter of national/global policy.
OK, HG: Now need to get in touch with you off-thread re: our cooking show (see downthread).
And here I am single and child free, constantly throwing out food that's gone bad because I don't feel like eating it in time.
Oh shit that reminds me I need to cook something with lots of eggs in it tonight.
Yep. Eggs, produce and cheese are the most common stuff that I end up tossing out.
The trick is buying smaller amounts of things, more frequently - buy enough produce for one or two meals. I go shopping on Sundays and usually Wednesday I pick up what I will need for the rest of the week, based on if I'm going out to dinner with anyone, or working late and likely to get something out.
I've asked the cheese guy at Fairway to make smaller slices and balls of cheese. I freeze what I can, but I still throw out tons of shit. I do however pity the chicken that lived and died to only rot away in my fridge.
Helpful tip: the person at the cheese counter at Whole Foods will cut the cheeses down to absurdly small proportions.
I'm sure Walmart has a solution for any food issues.
did you know?.. when some groceries expire sometimes they just turn into different kind of products that can still be useful
Conveniently, the Gosselins always leave me without an appetite.
in other news, my investment portfolio had a slight increase this year of 42%, buoyed by trades in the euro, which rose a slight 57% against the dollar.
This and an obesity epidemic, too! What a country! Am I right or am I right?
When this is what's affordable
http://www.slashfood.com/2009/09/28/burger-king-to-sell-quarter-pound-double-cheeseburger-for-1-dollar/
it is entirely possible!
This is sad but true. However to be Pollyanna Healthfood for a sec, you can also make a hella soup with water, cheap meat and veg. Oh that's right: no one has time or knows how to cook any more either. Sigh.
I am an excellent and frequent cook and promoter of soups and stews!
HG: We need to develop a cooking show for The Poors based on soups and stews! (They are 70% of what I eat...)
Um, *cough*, soups and stews--not The Poors.
Me too! Food stretches far when you drown it. Plus it freezes nicely. except i've never defrosted soup to eat it so the brick just sort of gets tossed out. do you guys have recipes? do you roast bones and go hardcore?
I develop TV shows for my job, this is not out the realm of possibility. I'm pitching a cooking show right now!
Mary, I have some bombass recipes if you care to email me.
or I also just added you on FB.
OOOH! Fun. OK. Because I actually do really want recipes. I have bay leaves.
Please post previously mentioned recipes sometime. I love soup (I make a mean potato soup).
The math is confusing me and making my head hurt!
So are they saying that if you are one of the 49 million "Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food" or are one of the 12 million children "living in households in which food at times ran short" you may not be "outright hungry"?
Cause only 1.1 million children are said here to be "outright hungry" Is that true even if your family is "dealing with food shortages" or your household has"low or very low food security"? (from Dept of Ag chart in the Washington Post article)
I've been a child with "very low food security". And that, believe me, makes you hungry, even outright hungry.
The Department of Agriculture can't fool me with those fancy phrases. I think they did give me a whole new understanding of "experience distant" language though.