Comments by "Harry Stoddard" (@HarryS77) on "Trump Proposes Eliminating Fresh Food For Poor People" video.
-
EDIT: For muh grammar.
Darren First, actually, you're wrong. According to the USDA, 40 cents of every SNAP dollar are spent on basics, 40 on sundries like rice, dairy, beans, pasta, and 20 on sweets like soda and dessert. https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/ops/SNAPFoodsTypicallyPurchased-Summary.pdf
In regard to food deserts, the problem is a bit more complex than you're letting on. Food deserts do not only create a scarcity of fresh, nutritious food, but they create habits of unhealthy consumption.
Where food shelters have been set up to serve communities that have no nearby stores, activists and organizers have found that the community is slow to respond to the availability of fresh food in part because that would require a change in eating habits. People become used to eating high fat, salt, and sugar foods, which are very addictive, cheap, and easy to prepare. Food deserts allow these foods to become pervasive, and once there, they're hard to replace; impossible without addressing the broader issue.
People in food deserts need access, education (what's in season, how much to buy, nutrition profiles), and training in how to prepare fresh food. There are plenty of unhealthy (high fat, salt, sugar) foods sold in cans. Limiting access to only canned food won't necessarily fix the food-related health issues of the poor, but it will attach greater stigma and sense of shame while restricting options for those that want it.
This totally dumbass plan to cut money (but increase "defense" spending) is just another case of Republican hypocrisy. They cry incessantly about government intruding into people's lives and the evils of more bureaucracy, but then turn around and suffocate disadvantaged people with more and more bureaucratic supervision. Fuck. them.
5
-
5
-
5
-
3
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
1
-
1
-
1