I use the "food stamp metric" as a primary gauge of American politics and the economy. "Politics" because every nation is only 3 meals from revolution (and 9 meals from the abyss - not that I think America is that close on this regard). "Economics", because food is a basic necessity - if one can't afford food its a safe bet they are destitute.
While the numbers have soared during the recession, the path was cleared in better times when the Bush administration led a campaign to erase the program’s stigma, calling food stamps “nutritional aid” instead of welfare, and made it easier to apply. That bipartisan effort capped an extraordinary reversal from the 1990s, when some conservatives tried to abolish the program, Congress enacted large cuts and bureaucratic hurdles chased many needy people away.
Seems GWB, a Republican, overturned a number of initiatives of the 1990's that limited access to the program (this is no criticism of then President Clinton who also worked to expand the program, but it was GWB that did the heavy lifting).
The next program we desperately need will be installing greenhouses, mini-dairies, gardens, and chicken coops in housing projects and poor neighborhoods (and similar help to the rural poor) to help these people help themselves. I have traveled fairly extensively in Central and South America's Third World countries. The people there have no "government safety net". But they did have plenty of food. My son and I did a 2 week hiking and camping trip through the Peruvian Andes a few years back. We stayed a couple days in an Indian town where they spoke Quechuan, a native language, rather than Spanish. The locals lived in small, 1 room houses that were surrounded by their gardens and livestock. The men and boys played soccer every night (we played, too, but the 8000 foot altitude was a little tough on my then 43 year old legs), and the women socialized together while working cloth. Our guide told us that there was nearly no divorce or crime. The people were, by our standards, poor but they looked healthy and happy. There was no TV, even in the Inn where we stayed (speaking of which... the Inn was something out of the Flintstones - the rooms where mortared fieldstone and the beds mere platforms to keep you off the fieldstone floor. Though there was no heat or AC, we were comfortable under inch thick Alpaca wool blankets. There were 2 lightbulbs per room, and one was in the bathroom. Hot water could be had for a shower by appointment only). There was music. Everywhere, there was music.
It just wouldn't be that difficult to plant an orchard, dig raised beds, keep chickens and dairy animals. In raising and maintaining this, the people would learn useful skills that they then might use in commerce. It has to start somewhere. Unless we want another generation coming of age thinking that food comes from a government "credit card". A credit card that might not be there for them.
Libertariananimal (at) gmail (dot) com
15 comments:
Sounds dreamy, and might come to pass in absence of anything else. But my upper-middle class. overfed, white, suburban growing up tells me this is still "Shangri La" at best and unworkable at worst. Most people have a real problem with "going backward." :)
B,
True!!! Depending on ones perspective. Going backward or something different?
peace
hey, why are those men playing soccer instead of helping the women do that working cloth thing??!! ;)
I'm afraid all this reverting to the old ways is going to leave all the women with all the grotty painful work to do--not that we don't do that now.
Just a totally anecdotal, random observation. :)
thanks for your blog,
Shamba
My husband and I had this conversation after reading World Made By Hand and having Jim Kunstler over for tea after a talk he did at our relocalization group. I have to disagree with the idea that that peak oil will lead to a revival of woman's roles, at least as those roles are defined as demeaning and second rate. My husband is quite aware that, although he does a lot of the heavy lifting around here to produce a good deal of what we eat, without my skills in the kitchen, a lot of that food would rot and none of it would be as delicious. We see the comng changes as an opportunity to give new meaning to the work of preserving and preparing food. When food becomes the standard of wealth, the hand that stirs the gravy will rule the world.
Adjusting behaviour is one thing, but adjusting aspirations is entirely another. Kids still want the good job, big ego-house, fast car and all the perks (and there'll probably be lots of trouble when they realise its off the agenda). Hard to see New Yorkers volunteering for greenhouse duty in the New Utopia!
Shamba:
It was my observation that the women were socializing and enjoying themselves, much as my 86 year old likes to knit after dinner - just something to occupy her hands while she kibbitz's away.
It seemed to me that the men worked at odd jobs women watched over the kids, while both worked around the home.
It seemed a small, but happy, world.
Bur:
I don't think that putting productive food capacity close to populations with high food stamp consumption is "going backward". In fact, I think it would be a fantastic step in the right direction.
When I was a kid up until about 10, I would spend a month each summer at my grandmothers house on South Hamberg St In South Philly. Their was a butcher shop down the street were the animals were still ALIVE as of that morning. There was a guy that pulled a fruit, vegetable, and bread cart with a horse and he bought his stuff from the truck farms which were not that far away.
The point is that teaching people a useful skill while putting control of their lives BACK in their hands is hardly "Shangri La". Much of it is less than glamorous work, but we all need to eat. And we need to provide this education to the 1 in 4 children growing up in these circumstances.
Kathy:
Here! Here! I would not want to run our little outfit without my wife. My wife tells me what we need to grow, more of this, less of that, and does most of the preserving Neither one of us had ANY idea hot to do ANY of this just 5 years ago. Today, all of our meat, milk, and eggs come from the backyard barnyard with very little purchased grain for feed, almost all of the vegies, and ALL of the potatoes & sweet potatoes (easy as pie!). Without my wife taking care of the end product we would waste most of it.
I think the issue is helping to re-energize people with some REAL hope, not the Jesse Jackson BS variety.
Give these people an opportunity to grow their own, keeping what they need and letting them sell the excess. My bet is that there inner capitalist and sense of enlightened self interest would be rekindled instantly. Look what happened in Cuba when the Castro regime allowed people to sell there excess produce. Poof! No more food shortages.
GWB tweaked the bureaucracy to make food stamps cool...good on him. Michelle Obama's gardening PR...digging up the White House lawn for a community garden and then being photographed diggin', plantin' and pickin'.
Given the stigma of field work from the slave days, this is a good and huge PR move for the Obamas.
I was up north over the holiday, and my mom gets a lot of cable channels. I was surfing, and came across a trailer for a new MTV reality show coming out, called Teen Mom.
I'm not kidding.
One of the teen moms said something like, "I would never have lost my virginity to someone if I knew he was such a jerk..." The trials and tribulations and joys of single, teen motherhood.
We are not going in the right direction yet.
The Teen Mom link above is click-able, by the way, in case you think I was joking.
I'm one of the only Americans with a memory. I knew it was too good to be true. I remember Bush vetoing increases to SCHIP.
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House on Wednesday voted to override President George W. Bush's veto of the $289 billion farm bill that expands public nutrition programs for poor Americans but does not cut subsidies for wealthy farmers as much as Bush demanded."
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSWBT00902120080521
Euphemisms are so Politics - Patriot Act, Clean Skies Initiatives. Changing names of something doesn't impress me.
Mr. Jeffers how do you reconcile your Libertarian beliefs with the expansion of government safety nets/spending? And aren't we all just than left arguing for the government to spend on those programs that each of us holds dear?
Hi Pub:
No, we are not going in the right direction yet...
Abraham:
Thank you for that quote, I will use it in a future post - perhaps I believed some propoganda... would not be the first time.
We are STUCK with safty nets for some time... we need ideas to move folks away from them... it was only an idea. I once held elective office as a councilman in SLeepy Hollow NY. A humbling experience.
I do not have all of the answers. But getting folks now on nutritional assistance to learn some new skills AND provide for themselves might have some legitimacy.
Abraham:
Now that I googled it... Bush DID expand the program, and was trying to cut programs to wealthy landowning farmers...
Feel free to correct me...
Self sufficiency is the key. Every time you do something for someone that he ought to be doing himself, you cause damage. Please see "Blind Side." It is a good movie. Look at the horrible conditions Mike Oher came from. That horrible social rot would not be possible without free food, free housing, free medicine. Do I know how to stop it at this point? NO! But it is truly hell on Earth.
We could do better.
Regards,
Coal Guy
I highly recommend the "Of Two Minds" blog by Charles Hugh Smith, if you aren't already familiar with him.
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