A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that the myth propagated by politicians and the media that the severe economic slump that began in 2007 has ended is false[Jon Britt1] . The USDA reported that food-stamp use rose 2.4 percent in the U.S. in May 2013 from a year earlier, with more than 15 percent of the U.S. population now receiving benefits.
Although growth of the program, called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, has slowed, over 47 million people receive food stamp benefits, or nearly one in six. Washington, D.C., has the largest share of its population relying on food stamps at 23 percent followed by Mississippi at 22 percent. Oregon, New Mexico, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky have rates higher than the national average, with one in five people receiving food stamps.
Another report, issued in 2010 by advocacy group Share Our Strength, showed that three out of five teachers claimed to have students coming to school hungry at least once a week. Many of these students were enrolled in free meals at their schools or in their community, but it was not enough. More than half the teachers surveyed—63 percent—reported purchasing food for hungry children in their classrooms.
Hunger in the United States is not due to a scarcity in food production. According to the United Nations World Food Program, enough food is produced to provide nourishment for every person on Earth. Around the world, the greatest obstacle to adequate nutrition is the ability to purchase it.
Under capitalism people often go hungry if they cannot afford food. The growing numbers of hungry people are of little concern to large farm owners enjoying federal subsidies. When “too much” is produced, prices drop, crisis ensues and planting—along with harvesting—is cut back. About 7 percent of U.S. farm fields go unharvested each year, and when there is a surplus in the market for a particular food commodity, that figure can rise to 50 percent.
Monopoly corporations dominate
In the United States, monopoly corporations dominate food production like most other industries. Family farms have been almost entirely replaced by corporations with access to more capital, more technology and more labor. Like farmers all over the world, U.S. family farmers find themselves increasingly unable to compete with massive corporations.
Food, which should be a basic human right, is a commodity produced solely for profit under capitalism. Only under a socialist system—a planned economy focused on providing for the needs of people—will hunger truly be eradicated. The fear of such a systemic change is what maintains programs like the food stamp program. If people were allowed to starve, there would be riots in the streets. As the social safety nets like subsidized housing, health care, child care and food stamps continue to be eliminated or cut back, the specter of socialist revolution becomes more real.
Meanwhile, as poor and working people struggle to double the minimum wage, maintain and expand needed social services, and win government-funded jobs programs financed by taxing the rich, gains can be made for near-term relief, while laying the basis for the more basic changes we desperately need.
