food questoin

["Gregoire de Nowell (ci-devant)" <GN842@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Someone, in response to Blumenstock, said that apart from civil
war regions there was not hunger in the world.

A recently published article in the Troy Record (not usually
known for opposing hegemonic discourse!) on hunger in Rennselaer
County (wherein Troy lies) found that there were about 1500
homes in which children routinely went to bed hungry and another
4500 which were at risk for same.

The study was the "upstate new york urban/rural" part of what
apparently will be a nationwide survey.  The article said that
typical food expenditure for a family of four earning $1000
a month was about $340, the same as rent; that works out to
about 80c per person per meal.

Since this is an average figure, it follows there must be
some families where the figure is even lower.

I have found that many middle class people don't have an
accurate idea of how much they spend on food.  It is a
question of interest to me and I have been pretty meticulous
in keeping records of my own domestiuc situation.  My wife
and I spend about $270/mo on food for two, and we're not
buying the most expensive fish or beef, though olive oil is
not in the class of luxury item.  In fact we eat veggie
several days a week.  We also dine out about once a week
not counting lunches or breakfast.    If we took all meals at home
the monthly food bill would probably be in the range of
$325-$350.  That would work out to approximately $10
a day or $3.30 per meal, four times the figure given
in the Troy Record for poor people.

Whoops--that's an error, divide by two.  $5 per person per
day or about $1.70 per meal, double the Troy Record figure
for poor folks.

(I see above I meant to write, "olive oil is NOW in the
category of a luxury item)

I have looked pretty carefully at how one might put together
a meal for 80 cents.  For example, a three egg omelet and
homefries would fit the bill.  Basically such a diet would
have to go long on starch and stick rigorously to the cheap
proteins.  Many fruits and veggies would be problematic.

But remember we're talking about average expenditure; the
standard deviation was not reported.  We must assume there
are people trying to make it on 40 cents a meal.  I think
that would be a real problem, and I conclude that what we
read from the soup kitchen people, etc., is in fact the
case, that there is hunger in the United States, and that
curtailment of the food stamp program will make it worse, not
better.

It goes without saying that such hunger is a pure social
artifact and unnecessary from the point of view of total
calories produced by the food-production apparatus.

greg nowell