Los
Angeles County is the county with the largest number of people facing
hunger in the United States. The research by Feeding America,
which analyzed data from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, the Census Bureau and other
agencies, reported that “food
insecurity” in LA County, the nation’s most populous county, was
at an outrageous 17 percent.
To put a countable figure on it, this means
that in 2009, 6 million people in the richest country in the world
went hungry, and 1.7 million of these people live in LA
County. Many of those affected by food insecurity are children who do
not qualify for free or reduced-cost school lunches and families who
do not meet the requirements for federal food stamp aid.
The United States has the capacity and
resources available to feed its entire population—it
simply chooses not to. The simple reason is that it is not in the
interest of big agribusiness to do so nor is it in the interest of a
government that is subservient to the capitalists. Production of
food, like any other commodity under capitalism, is driven by the
maximization of profit and not by people’s needs. Food insecurity
in the face of massive layoffs, continued cuts to essential social
programs for workers and an increasingly hostile assault on workers’
rights, benefits and wages is a problem that will only get worse
unless there is movement to fight it.
