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Rising Hunger: The muddle in America

Bhuwan Thapaliya - 11/30/2007

When talk turns to America, the world is almost as full of self-described "realists" who believe that there is not an iota of problem in America, and the nation is an emblem of paradise. It is indeed rich, powerful and even the poor masses enjoy numerous benefits because of vast economic opportunities but everything is not rosy in the United States as it looks to the eye of the beholder. In reality, the facts are diverse.

"More than 35 million people in America (whose total population is somewhere around 294 million) went hungry in the year 2006," according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Household Food Security report.

"More than one is ten people in the United States go hungry," according to the report.

And the official report suggests that hunger is rising and it is rising fast in America, the word’s most affluent nation and the world’s only super power.

Judging by the statistics, that’s a high percentage of hunger in America. Furthermore, it has been revealed by the report that 10.4 percent of all the U.S adults and 17.2 percent of all children suffered food insecurity in 2006.

These are not good signs for America and certainly not a good sign for that part of the world which depends heavily on American food assistances.

Statistics such as these presents before us the real picture of America and it justifies that there is some sort of insecurity in America too. But these statistics hardly reflects the situation that people are really in.

But, then, what does Hunger really mean? Are they talking about absolute hunger or relative hunger? And how can/should it be addressed? Perhaps these questions are coming to our mind now.

Unfortunately, I have not seen enough public debate on them in the past or in the present in the United States of America.

Some analysts are not disheartened by this Food Security report. According to them, American hunger is far different than the African hunger or Asian hunger, where the vast majority of the poor people live.

"In America they suffer from food insecurity whereas in Africa and Asia they suffer from food deficiency. And there is a mile between insecurity and deficiency," according to one school of thought.

They are right in some way, but not in every way. Yes, absolute hunger is at its zenith in Africa and Asia, whereas the nature of hunger in America in most cases is relative. But as the hunger in America is rising( where one in five U.S children either went without enough food during the course of the year according to the Food Security report), there are every chances of American hunger being absolute in the near future too.

Anyway, hunger is hunger. Whether it’s absolute or relative. It is a hydra headed disease.

So, a much serious stance is needed to curb the American hunger problem before it breaks into a vicious circle. Today Black and Hispanic households are suffering, with food insecurity rates of 21.8 percent and 19.5 percent respectively as per the report, but tomorrow it could be White, Asian or any other households.

Considering this America need to do more to make sure that its people have access to nutritious food by upgrading and expanding pro-poor proven programmes that helps such as Federal government’s Food Stamp Programme that provides food stamps to more than 26 million people every month via tokens in place of cash.

Meanwhile, Is American hunger related to poverty? Yes, it is. "As costs for food, energy, and housing continue to rise and wages stagnate or decline, households are finding themselves increasingly strapped, "Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Centre, was quoted as saying by the media.

Poverty and hunger it seems are interrelated in America. Census Bureau reported that overall, some 36.5 million people were deemed poor in 2006 and it coincides with U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Household Food Security report which revealed that "More than 35 million people in America went hungry in the year 2006."

That leaves a question of how America will fight its domestic hunger. But as long as Iraq war lasts and the economy stays off course, the horizon looks reasonably dark. What now? For the time being, the greatest uncertainty surrounds American socio-economic stability.

To sum it up, if hunger aspects are not addressed in timely manner, it could undermine social stability, and extremists may find the niches for social and political fragmentation in the country.