According to the latest statistics, 43.6 million
people in the United States received food stamps in 2010, without which they would have
been unable to meet their basic nutritional needs. This figure
represents a 14 percent increase from the previous year.
More than 20 percent of the populations of Washington state,
Mississippi and Washington, D.C., depend on food stamps. The sharp rise in food
insecurity is the result of the continuing economic crisis, which has
caused massive long-term unemployment as well as skyrocketing homelessness and
now a rising cost of living, combined with the political effort to shift the burden of the crisis to the working class. It is entirely possible
that food assistance programs will be targeted as Congress hashes out the federal budget.
Only under a system as illogical as capitalism would food,
the most basic human necessity, become unaffordable for tens of millions of
people even though the resources exist to produce and provide enough food for all.
