Analysis Of The New Face Of Hunger By Tracie Mcmillan

The reading for this week is an article called “The New Face of Hunger” by Tracie McMillan. It discusses how the American interpretation of the “face” of hunger (the types of people hunger affects, their lifestyles, and locations) is a far different image than what the actual hungry population looks like in the United States. This false image contributes to the growing problem of food insecurity in America. To show this new “face” the author incorporates the real experiences of American families. Additionally, the author highlights how individuals and families in states of food insecurity find it difficult to escape their predicament due to the challenges of an impoverished lifestyle as well as U.S. food policy. The article began with a story about middle aged mother, Christina Dreier, and her family's living situation in Iowa. In their household, the stress of when the next meal might come is a constant fear, even despite her husband's full time job applying pesticides at commercial farms. With a near minimum wage salary, bills must go unpaid so that the Drier’s can continue …show more content…
The author argues that the government is actually a huge contributor to the lack of cheap nutritious food in the nation. The government puts $11 billion towards agricultural products like corn and soy that are incorporated into highly unhealthy processed foods. This is compared to the only $1.6 billion that goes towards nutritional specialty crops like fruits and vegetables. The priorities of government spending are reflected in commercial sales prices, where healthy foods are priced higher than low value junk food. For a low income family the choice between eating something that is unhealthy outweighs going without food entirely, so they continue to eat poorly. If something doesn’t change, hunger in America will continue on