Food Insecurity Is A Fact For Millions Of Americans

Food insecurity is a fact for millions of American every day in our country. Children, adults, and the elderly of all races, living in poverty or in lower middle class families, are at a higher risk of not having enough to eat. The United States, in 2012, used roughly 40% or 915 million acres of all US land as farmland (USDA 2014, 1), yet as a nation we cannot feed all of our people. The American government subsidizes commodity crops, such as corn, wheat, and soy more than any other type of crop in the United States, (This does not include the subsidies directly paid to the meat and dairy industry, which is a whole other paper!). Government subsidies are less common for the production of fresh fruits and vegetables. Government subsidies encourage farmers to grow commodity crops instead of growing fruits and vegetables for consumers at competitive prices creating food insecurity. The cheap production of commodity crops force families in the lower middle class and poverty to choo se a diet of processed food, which are less nutritious than fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains causing many of the health problems that we see in the population today. According to the USDA website in 2015, 12.7 percent, or 15.8 million of American households were food insecure. A food-insecure household is a household that had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough nutritious food for all the members in a household due to a lack of resources (Coleman-Jensen, et al.Show MoreRelatedGerontology Agencies within Georgia1612 Words   |  7 PagesSection I. Food Insecurity Aging Society: The United States is experiencing social issues related to food insecurity and hunger. Current research states that older adults are especially vulnerable to food insecurity. 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