Food Insecurity In America

Hunger in America can be hard to recognize. With how the economy is now, the effects of hunger are more severe. Many Americans are relying on food stamps and private organizations to help with this crisis. Millions in this nation are currently suffering from hunger in America. Half of that being from job loss. More than 12,000,000 children suffer from food insecure hunger because of limited or uncertain access to nutritious food. About 900,000 are hungry in the three- country Detroit metropolitan area alone. The hardest hits are the elderly, the unemployed, immigrants, and the mentally and physically impaired.

In this critical response to the article America’s Food Crisis and How to Fix it by Bryan Walsh. I am going to talk about how animals are being harmed and are given antibiotics to keep them from becoming sick, where the farmers put all the waste from the animals, and how people could fix it.

American society has grown so accustomed to receiving their food right away and in large quantities. Only in the past few decades has factory farming come into existence that has made consuming food a non guilt-free action. What originally was a hamburger with slaughtered cow meat is now slaughtered cow meat that’s filled with harmful chemicals. Not only that, the corn that that cow was fed with is also filled with chemicals to make them grow at a faster rate to get that hamburger on a dinner plate as quickly as possible. Bryan Walsh, a staff writer for Time Magazine specializing in environmental issues discusses in his article “America’s Food Crisis” how our food is not only bad for us but dangerous as well. The word dangerous

1. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2012, there were 46.5 million Americans in living poverty and the official U.S. poverty rate was 15.0 percent. (U.S. Census Bureau)

As of the 2016 census, approximately 323.1 million people reside in the United States of America. 14.5% of those Americans living in poverty, meaning that 45.3 million Americans are affected by poverty, an immense increase from 8 million in 2008. 97.3 million people who occupy the U.S are considered low income and 41 million people struggle with hunger in the United States. 1 in every 2 people are considered poor or receive low income. Poverty is not equal among various demographics, for instance, in 2015, 12% of men lived in poverty in the USA, and 14.8% of women lived in poverty and among non-citizens the poverty rate is 22.8%.

According to the USDA's Economic Research Service, the food-insecure are those families in America that at times didn't know whether they had or could find enough food to meet their needs. This was due to the lack of money or other resources, such as government assistance or community food banks (USDA ERS - Food Security in the U.S.). In it's most recent study, the Economic Research Service found that as of 2013, 80.5 percent of families in the U.S. were food secure, leavinf over 49 million people food-insecure (USDA ERS - Food Security in the U.S.). Of that 49 million, nearly 9 million children lived in food-insecure households (USDA ERS - Food Security in the U.S.).

In 2010, 17 million US households were food insecure. Of those households, approximately 5% reported very low food security (Coleman-Jensen, et. al., 2011). 21% of surveyed students in Hawaii were food insecure, while 15% had low food security and 6% had very low food security (Chaparro, et al., 2009). Oregon State University conducted its own study, which revealed 59% of students surveyed were food insecure at some point in 2013 (Patton-Lopez, 2014). Additionally, a study conducted at two community

According to Feeding America, statistics show that 43.1 million people in the United States in 2015 are in poverty, including 14.5 million children. When we think of that number of people in poverty we know that living in poverty directly relates to food insecurity. A slightly higher number of people are food

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 46.7 million Americans live in poverty equivalent to 14.8 percent of the population.

This year in Georgia 18.7% in Georgia are food insecure. That's way above the national average of 10.48%. This is due to mass amounts of unemployment, which leads to poverty, than to food insecurity. There are approximately 1.87 million people in Georgia that are unemployed. The last count was in 2011 and the rates went through the roof, causing this process over again. Georgia mountain food bank provides service and food to many food insecure people that are sadly victims to this. Forsyth county has 14,940 people alone that are food insecure, this is shocking because Forsyth county is one of

With the various reading this past week, I believe the government is doing enough, as much as they can to aid in the issue with food insecurity among its citizens. There are so many programs that cater to families and individuals in need. Especially women and children. Social welfare program, such as W.I.C, TANF, General Assistance, food pantries run by the government, etc. all work in efforts to eliminate food insecurities in homes across America. I believe the government is not at 100% percent responsible of the high percentage of food insecurities in America. People and families are at fault as well. I believe life is full of choices, when people do not make the right choices, or problems happen within a person life, such as losing a job or losing a loved one. This losses have high impacts at forcing families and individuals into food insecurities and tough spots in their life. The government should not be held responsible I believe for foreseen occurrences within a person’s life.

In 2014, approximately 5.7 million people over the age of 60 were food insecure which comprises 9% of the entire senior population. This number is projected to increase by 50% by the time the youngest of the Baby Boom Generation reaches age 60 in 2025. It has been proven that food insecure seniors are at an increased risk for chronic health conditions where 60% of the aging population experience depression, 53% report a heart attack, 52% develop asthma, and 40% report a congestive health failure (Feeding America, 2016). Recognizably, for seniors in poverty, protecting themselves from food insecurity and hunger is a lot more difficult than the general population. For instance, researchers conducted a study that focused on the experience of food insecurity among the elderly population. They took a sample of 46 elderly households from three large cities in upstate New York utilizing purposive sampling. Older adults were recruited via subsidized housing programs, churches, congregated and home-delivered meals programs, and a Latino community worker. The elders varied by age, sex food programs used, spousal status, and mobility. The final sample comprised of 25 Latino older adults living in one large city, 28 non-Latino elders residing in two large cities. They found that most of the time, food insecure older adults did not have the means to afford the right foods for health and they did not have the capability to prepare food (Wolfe et. al, 2003). To slowly combat the issue of this insecurity, Title III Grants to State Formula of the 2016 OAA Reauthorization Act accounts for geographic changes in the older population. The bill regulates the formula for the Title III supportive services, assemble meals, home-delivered meals as well as preventive service programs. The formula

In 2013 almost 86% of households in america were food secure. This means that 14.3% of households in America were food insecure (meaning they were not able to provide food for themselves). 5.6% out of this 14.3% had extremely low food security. This means that these households had no money or resources available to acquire food. Although this amount of people being food insecure may seem high it has been slowly declining. In 2011, the amount of households that were food insecure was 14.9%. This decrease might seem very small, but in reality it means that thousands of households are now food secure.

To measure the food insecurity and to develop a survey instruments USDA experts reviewed all the research literature in1992.In 1994 USDA Food and Nutritional service sponsored a national conference on food insecurity measurement and research in which academic experts, private researcher and experienced staff of the federal agencies presented their views and concerns regarding measurement of food insecurity and reached at an agreement that will be implemented to measure the food insecurity.

While approximately 35 million live in poverty in the United States. It is one of the top four countries with highest rates of child poverty, without government assistance. In 2005, 17.6% of American children lived in poverty. The U.S. has more poor people per capita than any other industrialized country, and children are the most affected demographic group. In the United States, 12 percent of the population live below the poverty line.