50 Percent Jump in Hungry Children in 2007
First of all, I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a great one. Vegan meatloaf, grean beens with water chesnuts and bread crumbs, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, stuffing. All vegan. Remember, we don't just eat sprouts. Although, why the bad rap for sprouts? That's sproutism.
On to the vegan meat of the blog...
According to MSNBC.com, 691,000 children went hungry in the U.S. in 2007, and one in eight Americans "struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year's sharp economic downturn."
How can this be in one of the world's richest nations? You bet I'm being rhetorical. With all the crap that vegans get about protein, calcium, malnutrition etc. it's interesting to me that the health of this nation in particular is getting worse by the day, and it ain't the vegans. I know there are unhealthy vegans out there, but the percentage of vegans in this country is so tiny, they are not a factor at all when assessing the health of the nation as a whole. But I digress....
The reason wny I bring up the MSNBC article is that it is absolutely disgraceful that we have children going hungry in this country. I realize part of this problem is the economy, and this is a factor in adults not being able to get adequate nutrition as well (let's also include education in that equation). We all know that food costs have skyrocketed. My family spends 200-300 dollars a week on groceries. We buy 100% organic, and mostly produce. It's cheaper in this country to eat crap t.v. dinners. Meat and dairy are subsidized by the government. I read last year that if beef weren't subsidized, it would cost about 30 dollars a pound for the consumer.
So, OK, food costs are high...but here's something to consider:
1. Eighty percent of grain grown in the U.S. and about half the fish hauled in are wasted to grow billions of animals big and fat enough to be profitably slaughtered, or to produce dairy products and eggs at the high levels demanded by consumers. And over ninety percent of the protein in this grain turns into methane, ammonia, urea, and manure that pollute our air and water. A conservative estimate is that the amount of land, grain, water, petroleum, and pollution required to feed one of us the Standard American Diet could feed fifteen of us eating a plant-based diet. (World Peace Diet, Will Tuttle)
2. Researchers estimate that 2.5 acres of land can meet the food energy needs of twenty-two people eating potatoes, nineteen people eating corn, twenty-three people eating cabbage, fifteen people eating wheat, or two people eating chicken or dairy products, and only one person eating beef or eggs. Everyone on earth could be fed easily because we currently grow more than enough grain to feed ten billion people.(World Peace Diet, Will Tuttle)
Read that last line again....Everyone on EARTH could be fed with the grain we currently grow and feed to animals who are, in effect, tortured because 'I could never give up cheese, I just love it too much.'
Children are going hungry.