Are Americans Really Starving?

[Kosh]

Super obesity as the guy in the pic raises an ethical question: if having too many kids is an ethical issue, isn't being too fat as well? If eating the portion of food of many people, isn't that akin to having too many kids?

Why shouldn't you be able to eat yourself to death?

Ethics involved with too many kids is it's a drain on limited resources. Same with being too fat, you're eating the food that could feed other people. Isn't about personal freedom or your health. It's comparing the ethical concern.

There's no such thing as "too many kids". The whole point of this thread is that there is an abundance of resources. The "Population Bomb" Leftist myth of the 1970's turned out to be a colossal lie. Not only have we not starved as the world population keeps growing, but we're producing even more food and getting that food more efficiently to every corner of the globe. We're feeding ourselves better than ever in human history, not only in this country, but all over the world.

About 2 of the 7 billion people right now are suffering from malnutrition and/or starvation. There isn't an overabundance of food in the world so much as the US hoardes most of it, then throws away a significant portion of it. We're gluttons and greedy apathetics wastes of skin. Could eliminate world hunger giving just what we throw away.

Yes many on the far left say such things, yet no one wants to talk about why these people are starving.

There is plenty of food to go around, however the UN in many cases relies on the governments of these countries to get the food where it needs to go. Those governments don't always get the food to the people.

So your false premise shows that you run on a narrative not reality..

 

[Kosh]

Another part fo the problem is our desire to eat meat. If we quit eating meat, the dozen or so pounds of vegetables and grains fed to raises each pound of meat could be used for human consumption instead. We'd be healthier as a result. And not having so many animals globally would have a significant positive effect on the enviroment loosing all the methane produced by burps and farts.

No the problem is that we accept steroids in the meat, eating meat is not the problem it is what the government allows to go into that meat that is.

Although since CO2 has been classified as pollutant, just think every time you breath out you are polluting the planet.

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

During the 1980's, we were exposed to heart breaking images from Ethiopia and asked to help. What never got discussed is how these food shortages are caused. Africa is not inferior to any other part of the globe in its ability to raise enough food to feed its people, but civil strife and warlords use hunger as a weapon to control populations, hoarding and controlling food supplies. War is the shortest route to starvation, not "overpopulation" (there's no such thing), or systemic inability to grow enough food.

 

[airplanemechanic]

Why shouldn't you be able to eat yourself to death?

Because before you get there, you're going to cost other people a hell of a lot of money trying to keep you alive.

 

[pismoe]

no one starves in America unless they do it to themselves through drugs , drink or mental illness . Like an old russan woman said to me , she said that even Americas homeless walk around with a chicken leg in each hand .

 

[Camp]

The people who starve in this country are the most vulnerable ones who have no control over access to food resources available to them. Children go hungry because they have irresponsible parents. It doesn't matter if the parent waste food allotment funds on junk food and spends it all the first week of the month or if they misuse it on alcohol and drugs, the kids end up being hungry for lack of food. The most efficient way to make sure children don't starve or go hungry is the school lunch program where society can get the most bang for the buck by providing healthy food to kids who might otherwise never see healthy nutritional food. At the same time it solves the problem of abuse and irresponsible parents.

 

[guno]

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

Why shouldn't you be able to eat yourself to death?

Because before you get there, you're going to cost other people a hell of a lot of money trying to keep you alive.

And that's how the Left uses socialized medicine as a justification to control people's lifestyles. Bloomberg is on the cutting edge of this, and there's much more to come. But the problem is socialized medicine, not people's lifestyles. If people had to pay for their own care, they might take better care of themselves.

 

[guno]

The people who starve in this country are the most vulnerable ones who have no control over access to food resources available to them. Children go hungry because they have irresponsible parents. It doesn't matter if the parent waste food allotment funds on junk food and spends it all the first week of the month or if they misuse it on alcohol and drugs, the kids end up being hungry for lack of food. The most efficient way to make sure children don't starve or go hungry is the school lunch program where society can get the most bang for the buck by providing healthy food to kids who might otherwise never see healthy nutritional food. At the same time it solves the problem of abuse and irresponsible parents.

Relationship Between Poverty and Overweight or Obesity
Relationship Between Poverty and Overweight or Obesity Food Research Action Center

 

[Zander]

Why shouldn't you be able to eat yourself to death?

Because before you get there, you're going to cost other people a hell of a lot of money trying to keep you alive.

Fat people should be euthanized, to save taxpayers money.....

 

[Kondor3]

Mostly this myth is pushed by feedingamerica.org a group that, like any global warming "cause" solicits funding by getting people to believe a myth...

Disagree.

Hunger in America is real enough.

Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest National Food Bank Network, headquartered in Chicago) is a worthwhile organization.

The website for the national office can be found at... U.S. Hunger Relief Charity Feeding America and their full list of regional food banks (large metro-scale food donating, warehousing and re-distribution centers) can be found at... Find Your Local Food Bank Feeding America ... with member food banks (big warehouse) in cities such as...

Chicago... Providing food for hungry people while striving to end hunger in our community - Greater Chicago Food Depository

New York... City Harvest - Rescuing Food for New York s Hungry

Los Angeles... Home

Dallas... North Texas Food Bank NTFB.org - North Texas Food Bank - Feeding America

Raleigh... Welcome - Food Bank of Central Eastern North Carolina

Portland... Home Oregon Food Bank

And on and on and on... nearly 200 large-scale (regional) food banks, spread across the entire country, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Each of these Major Foodbanks is huge... many spanning an entire city-block or more...

Each of these, in turn, supply scores - mostly hundreds - of local-area neighborhood mini-foodbanks, church and other food pantries, missions, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, school lunch feeding programs, and local vocational teaching kitchens, urban farming and food gardening operations, and a host of other social services...

Including health inspectors and sanitation-compliance auditing staff who routinely visit and certify neighborhood feeding programs as in compliance with health standards, etc., as a supplement to local health departments, and in order to remain eligible to receive foodstuffs from the regional food bank...

Many such community-level feeding programs and food-supplement pantries, etc., draw some or all of their weekly food inventories through these large regional food banks...

A church food-pantry, for example, might be enrolled as a member of a regional food bank's Member Network, and, as such, is entitled to purchase X number of pounds of food each week from that food bank, for, say, 5-cents or 7-cents per pound.. a ridiculously-low rate, which helps a little, to offset the cost of operating the larger food bank.

Most food banks provide access to not only boxed or dry-goods -caliber food but also meats and dairy and produce products that they would not otherwise be able to afford.

If anyone you know has ever visited a local community food pantry during hard times, to supplement their meager food supply during a period of unemployment or if they do not qualify for food stamps or if their food stamp allotment in their state is ridiculously low or has been exhausted, chances are good, that the food at that neighborhood pantry came in-part from local store purchases and donations, and partly (even largely) from a weekly or semi-weekly supplies-run to the large-scale regional foodbank - a member of Feeding America.

These large regional food banks, in turn, take-in dozens or scores of semi tractor trailer -loads (and a great many delivery-van loads) of donated food, from local-area grocery stores, food distribution warehouses, and local and regional food processors and food manufacturers and food distributorships.

Usually, those donations involve food that is within a couple of weeks (sometimes even days) of their freshness or expiration or sell-by date, and, when such product is pulled from the shelves while still being viable, the choices are to (1) donate the product and obtain a tax deduction, or (2) send it off to the landfill, and write it off.

Decades ago, the first generation of Food Bankers convinced Corporate America (the food-producing element, anyway) that it made far more sense to donate that still-viable product than to dump it, and, over the years, Congress come to agree - providing Good Samaritan laws that eliminate the risk to them of donating such product.

Every truckload that comes in is inspected at the regional food bank, looking for breaks and fractures in packaging or spilled or tainted or contaminated or spoiled product, by teams of both staff and volunteers - separating the good from the bad - and the good stuff is put onto shelves and into gigantic walk-in refrigerators and freezers at the regional food bank, awaiting the next round of community-agency Shoppers to arrive, and to take that product back to their own local pantries, soup kitchens, and the like.

Companies like Kraft Foods, General Mills, and hundreds of other large-scale food companies donate millions upon millions of pounds through the national office in Chicago, which brokers the deals and arranges logistics to ship the donations to multiple member food banks within reasonable driving distance of the donating facility, and those same companies also donate directly to the regional food banks, on a similar and even larger scale - millions upon millions upon millions of pounds of donated food each year.

It's what keeps (probably, a majority percentage of) our neighborhood pantries and mini-food banks and missions and shelters and the like, stocked with enough food to help many of those in the most need, who are otherwise oftentimes forced to choose between paying the rent or electric bill, and having at least some nutritious food on the table.

And, in times of emergency - hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc. - where the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, etc. - set up shelters and feeding operations - they oftentimes coordinate with both the Feeding American national office and regional food bank(s) in order to obtain large-scale food inventories quickly and effectively.

Oh, it's a nonprofit, and it's not all Goody-Two-Shoes and Sunshine even within the operation of that niche charity marketplace, but it's one of the better examples of privately-initiated and privately funded and privately operated poverty-relief organizations still on its feet in the country, and it does far more good than harm, for the poorest amongst us.

For what it's worth...

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Why shouldn't you be able to eat yourself to death?

Because before you get there, you're going to cost other people a hell of a lot of money trying to keep you alive.

Fat people should be euthanized, to save taxpayers money.....

I know. Its that same recurring theme.

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

Mostly this myth is pushed by feedingamerica.org a group that, like any global warming "cause" solicits funding by getting people to believe a myth...

Disagree.

Hunger in America is real enough.

Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest National Food Bank Network, headquartered in Chicago) is a worthwhile organization.

The website for the national office can be found at... U.S. Hunger Relief Charity Feeding America and their full list of regional food banks (large metro-scale food donating, warehousing and re-distribution centers) can be found at... Find Your Local Food Bank Feeding America ... with member food banks (big warehouse) in cities such as...

Chicago... Providing food for hungry people while striving to end hunger in our community - Greater Chicago Food Depository

New York... City Harvest - Rescuing Food for New York s Hungry

Los Angeles... Home

Dallas... North Texas Food Bank NTFB.org - North Texas Food Bank - Feeding America

Raleigh... Welcome - Food Bank of Central Eastern North Carolina

Portland... Home Oregon Food Bank

And on and on and on... nearly 200 large-scale (regional) food banks, spread across the entire country, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Each of these Major Foodbanks is huge... many spanning an entire city-block or more...

Each of these, in turn, supply scores - mostly hundreds - of local-area neighborhood mini-foodbanks, church and other food pantries, missions, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, school lunch feeding programs, and local vocational teaching kitchens, urban farming and food gardening operations, and a host of other social services...

Including health inspectors and sanitation-compliance auditing staff who routinely visit and certify neighborhood feeding programs as in compliance with health standards, etc., as a supplement to local health departments, and in order to remain eligible to receive foodstuffs from the regional food bank...

Many such community-level feeding programs and food-supplement pantries, etc., draw some or all of their weekly food inventories through these large regional food banks...

A church food-pantry, for example, might be enrolled as a member of a regional food bank's Member Network, and, as such, is entitled to purchase X number of pounds of food each week from that food bank, for, say, 5-cents or 7-cents per pound.. a ridiculously-low rate, which helps a little, to offset the cost of operating the larger food bank.

Most food banks provide access to not only boxed or dry-goods -caliber food but also meats and dairy and produce products that they would not otherwise be able to afford.

If anyone you know has ever visited a local community food pantry during hard times, to supplement their meager food supply during a period of unemployment or if they do not qualify for food stamps or if their food stamp allotment in their state is ridiculously low or has been exhausted, chances are good, that the food at that neighborhood pantry came in-part from local store purchases and donations, and partly (even largely) from a weekly or semi-weekly supplies-run to the large-scale regional foodbank - a member of Feeding America.

These large regional food banks, in turn, take-in dozens or scores of semi tractor trailer -loads (and a great many delivery-van loads) of donated food, from local-area grocery stores, food distribution warehouses, and local and regional food processors and food manufacturers and food distributorships.

Usually, those donations involve food that is within a couple of weeks (sometimes even days) of their freshness or expiration or sell-by date, and, when such product is pulled from the shelves while still being viable, the choices are to (1) donate the product and obtain a tax deduction, or (2) send it off to the landfill, and write it off.

Decades ago, the first generation of Food Bankers convinced Corporate America (the food-producing element, anyway) that it made far more sense to donate that still-viable product than to dump it, and, over the years, Congress come to agree - providing Good Samaritan laws that eliminate the risk to them of donating such product.

Every truckload that comes in is inspected at the regional food bank, looking for breaks and fractures in packaging or spilled or tainted or contaminated or spoiled product, by teams of both staff and volunteers - separating the good from the bad - and the good stuff is put onto shelves and into gigantic walk-in refrigerators and freezers at the regional food bank, awaiting the next round of community-agency Shoppers to arrive, and to take that product back to their own local pantries, soup kitchens, and the like.

Companies like Kraft Foods, General Mills, and hundreds of other large-scale food companies donate millions upon millions of pounds through the national office in Chicago, which brokers the deals and arranges logistics to ship the donations to multiple member food banks within reasonable driving distance of the donating facility, and those same companies also donate directly to the regional food banks, on a similar and even larger scale - millions upon millions upon millions of pounds of donated food each year.

It's what keeps (probably, a majority percentage of) our neighborhood pantries and mini-food banks and missions and shelters and the like, stocked with enough food to help many of those in the most need, who are otherwise oftentimes forced to choose between paying the rent or electric bill, and having at least some nutritious food on the table.

And, in times of emergency - hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc. - where the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, etc. - set up shelters and feeding operations - they oftentimes coordinate with both the Feeding American national office and regional food bank(s) in order to obtain large-scale food inventories quickly and effectively.

Oh, it's a nonprofit, and it's not all Goody-Two-Shoes and Sunshine even within the operation of that niche charity marketplace, but it's one of the better examples of privately-initiated and privately funded and privately operated poverty-relief organizations still on its feet in the country, and it does far more good than harm, for the poorest amongst us.

For what it's worth...

Wow, that was a HUGE post and nearly all of it not relevant to this thread, but thanks for the bandwidth usage.

The question is, are people really starving in this country? Please show me who's malnourished. Any nearly naked kids in the streets with ribs showing or distended bellies?

It's an American foible to throw around words like "hunger", "starvation", and "poverty" without having any understanding of what those words actually mean, most Americans having never been to a 3rd world country where the people truly experience these dire circumstances. You and the other liars like you are like spoiled teenagers making life and death over their petty, benign plights. You say that people who have cable TV, running water, flush toilets, cell phones, cars, and air conditioning are in "poverty" making a mockery out of the real thing. They aren't in poverty, and they certainly aren't hungry. Every American gets all the food they need and most of us much, much more than we need. And we store the excess adiposity in our hips and belly.

So let's cut the crap. Nobody's going without in this country, even the homeless that show up to these food banks and receive bags of non-perishable food. Nobody.

 

[Mr Natural]

Thanks to the Liberal's " War on Poverty", no one starves in America.

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

Thanks to the Liberal's " War on Poverty", no one starves in America.

But they want to have it both ways. They want generous redistribution programs to alleviate hunger and poverty and yet at the same time claim hunger and poverty have not abated whatsoever....and it's capitalism's fault.

 

[Mustang]

Mostly this myth is pushed by feedingamerica.org a group that, like any global warming "cause" solicits funding by getting people to believe a myth.

You've seen the billboards, heard the radio ads, and seen it on television, this myth that 40 million Americans are going hungry, that millions of children are hungry. And the figures used roughly assimilate to the food stamp and school lunch program rolls, as if anyone who's on food stamps or any child eating a federally subsidized school lunch is starving.

The last time we ever had a genuine problem with starvation is when there was a rash of food shortages affecting the people of the Appalachian Mountains, a problem that was quickly rectified over 20 years ago. It's not like starvation can't happen, it's that in this land of largess and abundance, it's exceptionally rare, nigh to being a non existent issue.

So why is this lie so successful? Could it be because Gruber is right, the American public truly is stupid and prone to believe anything?

You ever see anyone die? Most people either never do or aside from very close terminally ill relatives, they rarely ever do see someone die. That's because death and dying are in essence hidden from view. Why? For a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is that it's an extremely unpleasant experience for the living to watch someone who's dying or close to death. It reminds us of what awaits us all.

With that said, if we accept the premise of your argument, if we don't see it, that must mean that it's not really happening.

I can assure you that there are PLENTY of hungry people in this country who don't get anywhere near the calories they need and want.

 

[Zander]

Thanks to the Liberal's " War on Poverty", no one starves in America.

But they want to have it both ways. They want generous redistribution programs to alleviate hunger and poverty and yet at the same time claim hunger and poverty have not abated whatsoever....and it's capitalism's fault.

Lib/prog/commies want to control people and their choices, ostensibly for "their own good" or the "public good". Jonathan Gruber is a perfect example of the liberal elite....

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

You ever see anyone die? Most people either never do or aside from very close terminally ill relatives, they rarely ever do see someone die. That's because death and dying are in essence hidden from view. Why? For a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is that it's an extremely unpleasant experience for the living to watch someone who's dying or close to death. It reminds us of what awaits us all.

With that said, if we accept the premise of your argument, if we don't see it, that must mean that it's not really happening.

I can assure you that there are PLENTY of hungry people in this country who don't get anywhere near the calories they need and want.

Really? Are they like Mr Snuffleupagus who's always around but I never see him because he shows up when my back is turned by leaves before I turn around? Where are these clandestine "hungry people" that apparently I can't see? Where's the skeletonized Auschwitz survivors that supposedly number in the tens of millions but can't be seen anywhere? Can you even show me a picture of a hungry person? Why can't you Leftists admit that hunger in America is just as mythical as your global warming scam?

 

[Kondor3]

...Wow, that was a HUGE post and nearly all of it not relevant to this thread, but thanks for the bandwidth usage...

It was, indeed, a large post, and entirely relevant to the topic raised by this thread, so spare us your wayward attempts to portray it as anything else.

...The question is, are people really starving in this country?...

No, the question really is: Does hunger exist in America - not starvation, but hunger - and a scarcity of nourishing food, on the tables of the poor amongst us?

And that answer is 'yes' - to an extent, nationwide, which requires a massive private cooperative, 30 years old or more, to help to counter that state of affairs.

Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest), and its 200-ish large-scale regional food banks across the country, locally owned and operated, and joined into a nationwide collaboration for the sake of efficiency and economies of scale, in turn, supply 40,000+ community pantries and feeding programs, nationwide.

...Please show me who's malnourished...

Go do the research yourself. Domestic hunger studies by Feeding America, independent research and academic centers, and the Federal government, including the USDA and the GAO and the OMB and Congress itself, abound, and are available on an annual and bi-annual basis, stretching far back into the 1990s.

...Any nearly naked kids in the streets with ribs showing or distended bellies?...

Nope. Just millions of kids eating one meal a day at home, oftentimes not much more than rama noodles and soup, or a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, etc.

...It's an American foible to throw around words like "hunger", "starvation", and "poverty" without having any understanding of what those words actually mean, most Americans having never been to a 3rd world country where the people truly experience these dire circumstances...

Oh, there's no doubt whatsoever that America's poor are far better off than their counterparts in most of the Second and Third World. Nobody is saying otherwise.

...You and the other liars like you...

Liar?

I would not have insulted you thusly; however, given that you have seen fit to fire the first shot, please kindly go pound sand up your ass, at your earliest convenience.

...are like spoiled teenagers making life and death over their petty, benign plights...

Not life and death. Just making provision for taking care of our own, in large part via the private sector in this instance, without duplicating taxpayer-funded relief efforts.

...You say that people who have cable TV, running water, flush toilets, cell phones, cars, and air conditioning are in "poverty" making a mockery out of the real thing...

Nope. I don't think anybody is saying that. However, you appear to have forgotten to include the 'Every Welfare Queen Has A Cadillac (or Lexus)' argument.

...They aren't in poverty, and they certainly aren't hungry...

Your ignorance and animosity are the stuff that legends are made of.

...Every American gets all the food they need...

Annual domestic hunger studies and large-scale private and academic and government institutions have found and hold otherwise. I'll take their word over that of an ignoramus with an axe to grind, who suddenly has a bug up his ass, upon learning of the existence of, or receiving an invitation to donate to, a legitimate hunger/poverty relief organization.

...and most of us much, much more than we need. And we store the excess adiposity in our hips and belly...

What does this have to do with the existence or nonexistence of domestic hunger on a scale sufficient to warrant such a large-scale private response, over the past 30+ years?

And, within the sampling universe of poor folks, how often is the belly-fat, etc., as much attributable to a low-income high-starches diet, as it is overindulgence due to depression, etc.?

Private responses to such needs are not enabling people to continue in bad behaviors, rather, such responses are designed and executed largely as a helping hand up, rather than out, or to relieve the worst effects of low-income upon the household table.

...So let's cut the crap. Nobody's going without in this country, even the homeless that show up to these food banks and receive bags of non-perishable food. Nobody.

You are obviously an uninformed fool with a bug up his ass.

My condolences.

Besides... this is largely the PRIVATE sector responding to a nationwide problem.

If you don't want to donate, then don't.

Meanwhile, stop venting your spleen against people who are trying to help their fellow countrymen, without putting an additional strain on the taxpayer.

And go educate yourself about the issue of domestic hunger, fer Crissakes, you're embarrassing yourself.

 

[Camp]

You ever see anyone die? Most people either never do or aside from very close terminally ill relatives, they rarely ever do see someone die. That's because death and dying are in essence hidden from view. Why? For a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is that it's an extremely unpleasant experience for the living to watch someone who's dying or close to death. It reminds us of what awaits us all.

With that said, if we accept the premise of your argument, if we don't see it, that must mean that it's not really happening.

I can assure you that there are PLENTY of hungry people in this country who don't get anywhere near the calories they need and want.

Really? Are they like Mr Snuffleupagus who's always around but I never see him because he shows up when my back is turned by leaves before I turn around? Where are these clandestine "hungry people" that apparently I can't see? Where's the skeletonized Auschwitz survivors that supposedly number in the tens of millions but can't be seen anywhere? Can you even show me a picture of a hungry person? Why can't you Leftists admit that hunger in America is just as mythical as your global warming scam?

You can't even interpret and understand a simple life lesson taught to toddlers, yet you are going to school everyone on the long term effects of malnutrition and it's cause and effects on illness, disease and health along with the technical definitions of starvation and malnutrition.