Does the US need a Secretary of Food

a reply to: Annee

Food stamps definitely work. (Of course anything is subject to abuse, but most parents just want to feed their kids).

If food stamps worked there were be very little hunger in our country. There is a disconnect somewhere.

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Edumakated

See as soon as the first homeless person gets sick from getting left over food from a business with deep pockets, you will have some blood sucking lawyer filing a lawsuit. It isn't worth the risk.

It's not a matter of left over food. The milk the farmers were pouring out was not left over. The fruit rotting on the vines were not left over.
We have enough food in the US. We have so much freaking food, I don't think anyone could argue with that.

The question is how do we get food to those that need it most.
Some mentioned EBT etc. If that truly worked why are there so many people in food lines?
Like the article says, there are a lot of people falling through the cracks.

There are two issues here...

In the cases you are mentioning such as farmers destroying milk, it is because the US subsidizes farms and often times pays them to cut production and not grow food. This goes back to getting rid of government farm subsidies.

The other side is the natural waste that occurs from efficient production and markets. Again, the reason this food is often destroyed instead of distributed to the needy is due to liability, nothing more.

There are other issues such as "food deserts" where poor areas may not have good grocery stores. however, the issue here is locating a business in a ghetto is fraught with high costs due to theft, etc.

Yes.

Love this.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Annee

Food stamps definitely work. (Of course anything is subject to abuse, but most parents just want to feed their kids).

If food stamps worked there were be very little hunger in our country. There is a disconnect somewhere.

Yes. In government there’s usually “gaps” (for lack of better terminology at present).

But, that is not Food Stamps not working.

a reply to: JAGStorm

A food Czar creates more bureaucracy which only adds to the inefficiencies in the system that create the problems above.

How is a Czar going to change the laws on liability? Those aren't in his purview. How will a food Czar do anything about the US demanding farmers cut production to maintain artificially high prices which results in food waste? Again, that's not his call.

And food deserts are a by product of an area's culture more than anything else. If a business operates at a too high a liability because of rampant crime and now threats of looting in some places, it simply doesn't operate. The people who live there sort of do it to themselves. Food Czar isn't changing social norms.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Edumakated

In the cases you are mentioning such as farmers destroying milk, it is because the US subsidizes farms and often times pays them to cut production and not grow food. This goes back to getting rid of government farm subsidies.

The other side is the natural waste that occurs from efficient production and markets. Again, the reason this food is often destroyed instead of distributed to the needy is due to liability, nothing more.

There are other issues such as "food deserts" where poor areas may not have good grocery stores. however, the issue here is locating a business in a ghetto is fraught with high costs due to theft, etc.

Two beautiful examples of food waste, and one of food need.
Are we saying that can never be fixed?
Maybe a Food Czar is needed to help implement those changes, because
it sure hasn't happened yet.

It generally can't be fixed at federal level...

Any charity needs to be as local as possible.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Annee

Food stamps definitely work. (Of course anything is subject to abuse, but most parents just want to feed their kids).

If food stamps worked there were be very little hunger in our country. There is a disconnect somewhere.

Food stamps work but there will always be people who fall through cracks for various reasons.

The other issue is that government tends to operate in a manner which sometimes is disconnected from reality. For example, welfare discourages people from being married. Why? This creates the single mother problem we have now. Why is government denying benefits to a woman who is married? Why is it taking so long to change this rule?

the other problem I see is that goverment measures how many people need help, not how many people don't need help. For example, success to government is feeding more people.... whereas I'd think success is not needing to feed as many people because that means people are self-sufficient.

The issues of liability, and problems with the current systems have been brought up. These are valid points. We need to look at what these points have in common and that is Liberalism. I don't want to hear anyone saying that I shouldn't bring politics into this since one of the main causes is POLITICS. One of the posts brought up "a deep pockets company" being sued if someone gets sick from donated food. It is a valid point. Say a large food company donates fifty cases of frozen chicken breasts to a food bank a few weeks before their expiration date. The chicken is handed out and ten people get sick from bad chicken. The chicken was perfectly fine, when it was donated. It doesn't matter if the problem was that the food bank or the people receiving the chicken didn't store it properly, causing the problem, the trial lawyers are going after the company that donated it. The reason why I say that this is political, is that it would be very easy for the government to protect the donating company, but, they won't. Trial lawyers donate heavily to the Democratic party. All you have to do is to look at today's news and see that one of the sticking points holding up the COVID stimulus is legal protection for some companies. If the company knowingly donated bad chicken, then there should be no protection for them other than that they should be protected.

Now that brings us to problems with the current system. It has been mentioned that only healthy food should be purchased with Government assistance. Ok. Who determines what's healthy? Should there be restrictions on how the food is prepared? What if you can't get to anyplace that sells healthy food? That leads into so called "food deserts". I live near a major city and hear on the news about the problem of "food deserts". Then I hear about certain stores being denied permits to open stores in the "deserts". Then I hear about the few stores that do open in the desert, having to close due to robberies, retail theft or they are looted and burned during a "peaceful protest". When I call this out for what it is, I am labeled a racist. Now you also have a push for certain crimes not to be prosecuted (retail theft). Now you have the exact same people, the so called "neighborhood leaders" whining about the food deserts, denying permits to stores, promoting "peaceful protests" and pushing for not prosecuting certain crimes. To a person they are members of the Democratic party. Throw in the public sector union employees who run "Government assistance", the majority of whom are Democrats.

Are you starting to see the problem? Prove me wrong.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

there is cabinet position that have that has this covered, and a agency that is suppose to over see it.

it's called the US Secretary of Agriculture, and the agency that is in charge of it is USDA. the current program is what everybody knows as SNAP ( Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program )

From what I've read on USDA it sounds like it is very rural leaning. Maybe that is the problem. Does it really
reflect the problems citizens face today. Like Edumakated mentioned, food deserts...


www.investopedia.com...

President Abraham Lincoln founded the USDA in 1862, when about half of all Americans lived on farms
In addition, the USDA works to improve the economy and quality of life in all of rural America.

The USDA’s programs help provide the following services, among others: broadband access in rural areas; disaster assistance to farmers, ranchers, and rural residents

One of the USDA's main tasks is in the area of rural development, especially rural housing.

I went out and bought a freezer with my stimulus check — to take advantage of what I’m receiving in Food Stamps.

I buy very little in the way of snack food.

There is a definite cultural issue of horrific eating habits in some areas.

Schools need to push harder to educate these children on nutrition. Culture is the hardest thing to change.

My grandson’s school district is providing free lunch, breakfast, and extra food snacks to anyone under 18 through COVID and winter break. And they’re really good lunches & nutritious snacks. Not crap.

a reply to: Annee

It is a shame that you are one of the few that gets it. No disrespect to you Annee. In fact the exact opposite. I know families, where there kids get the free breakfast and lunch at school and then there is a program where a backpack of food is sent home on weekends. In the meantime the family is collecting Welfare and EBT, but, all that the kids get are the breakfasts, lunches and what's in the backpack. The rest is used for other things. The parents actually get a shopping list, got to the store, buy the food and then sell it to the person who gave them the list.

Why did I think of "Brawndo" when I read this OP?

a reply to: Edumakated

The other side is the natural waste that occurs from efficient production and markets. Again, the reason this food is often destroyed instead of distributed to the needy is due to liability, nothing more.

that just doesn't apply to the growing/prodution of it ,it also applies to the end product after being prepared.
my mother use to work for a hospital in the food service department, she told us about the changes that were made some years ago.

when she first started, they were allowed to keep food refrigerated for 4 days. they were also allowed to donate food that was left over form the cafeteria side of the kitchen to homeless shelters and other charities that were on a list. as time went on all left over food is thrown out. she wasn't sure if it was a new law or if it was as you say a insurance liability thing.

one of the biggest or use to be haven't checked it out in a while is the hospitality industry. there were some stories for awhile about dumpsters full, winding up in the landfill.

the only i can find now in a quick search that point out how about much the pig farm gets there.

The fifth-generation farm feeds its pigs around 20 tons of pasteurized food that is wasted from the local area and surrounding states every day.
Even Pigs Need to Eat During the Coronavirus Pandemic

20 tons a day could feed a lot of people. create a way to freeze and ship it to shelters and food banks. hell people buy frozen food everyday from the store.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
The issues of liability, and problems with the current systems have been brought up. These are valid points. We need to look at what these points have in common and that is Liberalism. I don't want to hear anyone saying that I shouldn't bring politics into this since one of the main causes is POLITICS. One of the posts brought up "a deep pockets company" being sued if someone gets sick from donated food. It is a valid point. Say a large food company donates fifty cases of frozen chicken breasts to a food bank a few weeks before their expiration date. The chicken is handed out and ten people get sick from bad chicken. The chicken was perfectly fine, when it was donated. It doesn't matter if the problem was that the food bank or the people receiving the chicken didn't store it properly, causing the problem, the trial lawyers are going after the company that donated it. The reason why I say that this is political, is that it would be very easy for the government to protect the donating company, but, they won't. Trial lawyers donate heavily to the Democratic party. All you have to do is to look at today's news and see that one of the sticking points holding up the COVID stimulus is legal protection for some companies. If the company knowingly donated bad chicken, then there should be no protection for them other than that they should be protected.

Now that brings us to problems with the current system. It has been mentioned that only healthy food should be purchased with Government assistance. Ok. Who determines what's healthy? Should there be restrictions on how the food is prepared? What if you can't get to anyplace that sells healthy food? That leads into so called "food deserts". I live near a major city and hear on the news about the problem of "food deserts". Then I hear about certain stores being denied permits to open stores in the "deserts". Then I hear about the few stores that do open in the desert, having to close due to robberies, retail theft or they are looted and burned during a "peaceful protest". When I call this out for what it is, I am labeled a racist. Now you also have a push for certain crimes not to be prosecuted (retail theft). Now you have the exact same people, the so called "neighborhood leaders" whining about the food deserts, denying permits to stores, promoting "peaceful protests" and pushing for not prosecuting certain crimes. To a person they are members of the Democratic party. Throw in the public sector union employees who run "Government assistance", the majority of whom are Democrats.

Are you starting to see the problem? Prove me wrong.

I wasn't going to go there, but glad you did...

a reply to: Edumakated

Not to mention the system is designed to create dependency.

There is no weaning off as people move into self-sufficiency. The system is designed such that if you make even a dollar more than the cut-off threshold, you don't get benefits of any kind. So someone who needs the program and someone designated as too wealthy could literally only be making about a dollar's difference in total income.

That makes zero sense.

And for someone trying hard to make it on their own, the leap to self-sufficiency is difficult to achieve when you're in danger of losing maybe a a couple hundred in benefit if you get a dollar's worth of raise at your current job.

a reply to: ketsuko

Pretty much. The only time when I was a kid that I knew what dinner was going to be was holidays and my birthday, that's about it. Every other day of the week, who knew, mom and dad never kept a schedule of what the meal of the day was. Could be something they made, could be take-out, could be the parent taking care of me was working late and I had to make my own food, which is a great skill to teach kids as it helps them considerably when they finally move out.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: M5xaz

How can there be, seriously?

You have Welfare already, AND FOOD STAMPS specifically for that purpose !!!
But the "recepients" of that aid just fence it for cash and/or drugs..

....no "Czar" can fix those stupids...

You somewhat answered the question. Welfare and Food stamps don't work.
I've never thought payment was a good thing.

If you need food, you get food, healthy food etc.

Even then, establishing a government bureaucracy to distribute food will just FAIL.

Recipients will try to sell the food.



Some people CANNOT be helped, unless institutionalized for the REAL problem, drug/mental illness....

....but our fearless Leftists forced governments to close nearly all residential mental institutions in the 1960s, patting themselves on the back doing it for being so "progressive" (while in actuality exponentially increasing human misery, the socialist way), while those mental patients just ended up on the streets....

It should be a secretary of Infrastructure which would cover food distribution and production.

a reply to: Willtell

That would be Sec. of Transportation.

a reply to: JAGStorm

the USDA is in charge of SNAP across the whole country, and administrated by the states. urban and rural.

from the USDA own website,

Overview
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program) is the Nation's largest domestic food and nutrition assistance program for low-income Americans.

The Nutrition Title (Title IV) of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Act), signed on December 20, 2018, reauthorizes SNAP, maintaining the program’s basic eligibility guidelines and work requirements while providing additional funding for enhanced employment and training activities. It also increases funding for grants to promote healthy eating and establishes projects designed to reduce food waste in commodity donations to food banks and other emergency food providers. For more details, see Nutrition.

Economic Research Service United States Department of Agriculture


the formula needs to be refigured,

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Willtell

That would be Sec. of Transportation.

Yeah, you're right, the SEC OF trans includes some infrastructure, but I don't think food.
Maybe that's under commerce or HEW.

Maybe a better idea is to have an infrastructure czar.

The Trans sec may be more to do with how things run, not how they should be increased and made better, though they may have that included in their program.