Food poverty now bigger public health concern than diet– expert claims - Polidicks

[QUOTE]The prevalence of poverty–stricken families who cannot afford to buy sufficient food is overtaking unhealthy eating as the most pressing public health concern, a public health specialist has claimed. The claim is made in a BBC Panorama documentary to be broadcast on Monday evening which found that over a third of local authorities in England and Wales were now providing funding for food banks, despite government claims that charity food is not a part of the social security system. Julie Hirst, public health specialist at Derbyshire county council, told Panorama the authority had invested £126,000 from its public health budget in food banks. She said: "It's now become an issue of food poverty and some people in the country are not being able to eat at all – and if people can't eat at all, what's the point in trying to get them to eat healthily?" The programme interviews a mother of two who says her family's health suffered after she was wrongly sanctioned for three months after a clerical mix up, leaving them on reduced income. Suzanne Harkins, who lives in Paisley, Scotland, told Panorama: "It was devastating. It got to a point that there was no food in the house and any food that did come in had to feed the two children and my husband and I would go for days at a time without eating. "I was still breastfeeding Mason at the time and I stopped producing milk because I wasn't getting enough nourishment into me to produce milk to breastfeed him[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/03/food-banks-public-health-benefits-panorama[/url]

[quote]"I was still breastfeeding Mason at the time and I stopped producing milk because I wasn't getting enough nourishment into me to produce milk to breastfeed him"[/quote] This is a sentence that nobody should ever have to say, especially in a first world country that has the resources to prevent this.

[QUOTE=Zeke129;44270343]This is a sentence that nobody should ever have to say, especially in a first world country that has the resources to prevent this.[/QUOTE] welcome to the neo-liberal world of endless austerity, enjoy your stay. :v:

[QUOTE=Zeke129;44270343]This is a sentence that nobody should ever have to say, especially in a first world country that has the resources to prevent this.[/QUOTE]Wow.....that's just depressing. Yeah, why the fuck is this happening in a first world country?

Money, greed

liberal conspiracy, move along

And here I thought we were a civilization capable of providing health, nourishment, and knowledge all of its people, to the best of our ability. Unfortunately, we have yet to reach this point. Hopefully we will. Any second now. Eventually. Vague speaking aside, this is terrible. I've had to go to food bank/pantries before. Where I am, atleast, it's a disgusting mess filled with the trash of supermarkets, most stuff is expired, etc. Atleast we have foodstamps here, so my mother can afford food. Dunno if britain has that.

Well, we DO have a site called approvedfood, which sells discounted foodstuffs (not much of it is fresh or highly perishable, though), which if you aren't too picky is good for saving money on food bills. However, in the future we'll probably end up with textured soy products as the most common food, and even something like vat-beef would be some sort of exquisite delicacy. I just hope we get better hydroponics and meat-vats so that we don't all end up having to line up outside soup kitchens for a bowl of soylent broth. Also, isn't Ocado technically a wholesaler? Regardless, those guys do home delivery on affordable groceries, which is where I usually get my stuff from.

[QUOTE=lifehole;44273510]And here I thought we were a civilization capable of providing health, nourishment, and knowledge all of its people, to the best of our ability. Unfortunately, we have yet to reach this point. Hopefully we will. Any second now. Eventually. Vague speaking aside, this is terrible. I've had to go to food bank/pantries before. Where I am, atleast, it's a disgusting mess filled with the trash of supermarkets, most stuff is expired, etc. Atleast we have foodstamps here, so my mother can afford food. Dunno if britain has that.[/QUOTE] Humans have had the capacity to feed more than 7 billion people for a long, long time now. The problem is our economic system that puts profit and greed above the economic needs of people. A free market, hell, even a regulated market, these do not stop the fact that capitalists seek to dominate a society and would rather throw out huge amounts of food (Go to the back of a Costco or Wal Mart, you'll see they have a massive section of the store dedicated to destroying products that did not sell and are starting to rot) than give it away for free to those they exploit.

[QUOTE=12Y/OGIRL;44276520]Humans have had the capacity to feed more than 7 billion people for a long, long time now. The problem is our economic system that puts profit and greed above the economic needs of people. A free market, hell, even a regulated market, these do not stop the fact that capitalists seek to dominate a society and would rather throw out huge amounts of food (Go to the back of a Costco or Wal Mart, you'll see they have a massive section of the store dedicated to destroying products that did not sell and are starting to rot) than give it away for free to those they exploit.[/QUOTE] It's kind of hard distributing food halfway across the world only to see it stolen, hoarded (or destroyed) by warlords who use it to further their own power.

I don't think I would have gotten by if it wasn't for foodstamps and free-lunch programs.

[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;44276589]It's kind of hard distributing food halfway across the world only to see it stolen, hoarded (or destroyed) by warlords who use it to further their own power.[/QUOTE] So what's your excuse for not being able to feed everyone in the USA alone?

For intelligent people food poverty = diet. If all you can afford is junk food which is cheaper than good food, of course will have a crappy diet and thus a health concern.

[QUOTE=Helix Snake;44276850]So what's your excuse for not being able to feed everyone in the USA alone?[/QUOTE] Greed and sociopaths, mostly.

Reminds me on the discovery about some people I've made a short while ago. Acting all high up because someone doesn't have enough money to get enough food. Disgusting.