Hunger and Poverty - Make Our Nation Healthy Again

As a country we spend billions of dollars in healthcare-related costs on preventable diseases like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Advocate prioritizing policy and personal investments in food systems that grow and market healthy foods on a local level. Buy from your local farmers’ market or grocery store. Cook and sit down to eat with your family at least once every day. Join or start a food policy council in your community.
~ from Ten Things to Reduce Hunger and Provide Good Food For All in The Nation ~

You know that a nation has screwed up priorities when junk food is cheaper than organic food! One would think that nutrition would win out over sugar-laden, fat-stuffed, artificial muck, yet that's not the way things work!

And we know WHY it doesn't work that way. It's all about profits. Crappy food is cheaper to produce than quality food. Pesticide-soaked crops are both cheaper and easier to produce than are those farmed utilizing time-honored organic methods.

People who live in poverty can't afford to be discriminating food consumers. With very limited budgets, you try to buy the greatest quantity for the least amount of money. Too often, this means loading up on processed foods.

Of course, eating this crap day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year exacts a toll. It means you won't be half as healthy as you could be. Since many people who live in poverty also can't afford preventive medical care, it means an army of people who will suffer from all sorts of preventable illnesses and, too often, premature death.

All this to enrich the wallets of the very few!!

To read the introduction to this mini-series, go here.