Tuesday, May 31, 2011

US Poverty and Global Hunger Rise: Less then Tepid Policy Response to Global Crisis in Human Welfare

By 2011, 14.5% of the U.S. population received food stamps http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34SNAPmonthly.htm


Brewer, James (2011, May 30). Cuts in US welfare programs hit hundreds of thousands of poor families. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/tanf-m30.shtml

"US states are implementing drastic cuts to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, creating further hardships for 700,000 families that include 1.3 million children. The slashing of funding for TANF, the welfare program financed by block grants to states from the federal government, is part of an overall attack on all social programs in the US.

"The impact and scale of the cuts are documented in a May 19 report issued by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a liberal policy group.

Read the report here: http://www.cbpp.org/files/5-19-11tanf.pdf

Watson, Deborah. (2011, March 30). Poverty, homelessness climb among US schoolchildren. World Socialist Website. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/chil-m30.shtml

"In the two years since the onset of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, the number of children living in poverty increased from 14 million to 16 million, the US Census Bureau reports. The US government estimates that 25 percent of children in America will soon be living in poverty.

"...The figure of one in four children in poverty is itself is an underestimation. The figure is based on the official US poverty rate of $22,000 a year for a family of four—a ridiculously low sum for a family to live on.

Johnson, Robert (2011, May 31). Dire Report Predicts Doubling Of Food Prices, And Billions Living With A Shortage Of Water. Business Insider.http://www.businessinsider.com/food-prices-double-oxfam-2030-2011-5#ixzz1NwPMJYFJ

"In Oxfam's new report, Growing A Better Future, the non-profit paints a dire picture of the world's impending food shortage.

"With price increases up to 180 percent on staple items by 2030, the group predicts a "wholesale reversal in human development" throughout afflicted areas.

"The report maintains that half the 180 percent increase in price will be the result of climate change.

"Other factors will include depleting natural resources, a scarcity of land and water, the rush to turn food into biofuels, growing population, and an increase in severe poverty.

"By 2050 more than four billion will live in areas short of water, and by 2030 demand for water is expected to increase by 30 percent.

"The non-profit agrees that increasing production by 70 percent within 40 years, to meet food requirements, will be difficult, but possible. Small farm's, it says, will be the key to success.

READ THE REPORT:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/papers/downloads/growing-a-better-future-010611-en.pdf

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