crossposted at Five Before Chaos

You may remember a few weeks ago, I wrote about the new farm bill, more specifically how the subsidies for Big Corn and Soy make it so the least healthiest foods are the cheapest, and how this ties into our nation’s poorest people having problems with obesity and other diet-related problems. In keeping with that theme, have a look over at this piece at Tom Paine, where it talks about how four members of Congress tried to live on $21 of food per week, the average weekly food stamp allotment. It’s not pretty, and once again, it puts the problems of the nutritional challenges that the poor in this nation have to face:

“No organic foods, no fresh vegetables, we were looking for the cheapest of everything,” McGovern said in an interview with The Washington Post at a Washington supermarket. “We got spaghetti and hamburger meat that was high in fat-the fattiest meat on the shelf. I have high cholesterol and always try to get the leanest, but it’s expensive. It’s almost impossible to make healthy choices on a food stamp diet.”

It does not help that some of the cost estimates of the USDA recommended meals seem out of date. A chili recipe that calls for three-quarters of a pound of ground beef, beans, celery, onions and seasonings is priced at $3.87 for four servings. But the lowest-priced ground beef, with 20 percent fat, was selling this week for between $2.99 and $3.59 a pound at two major Washington supermarkets.

After about three days on their food stamp diet, Lisa McGovern wrote, “We’ve been eating so minimally-concerned that we won’t have enough food to carry us through to Tuesday. I can see an impact on our energy levels, even in just these few days. When Jim got home around 10 last night, he just seemed a little `flat.’ He’s usually very animated when recapping his work day, whether it was good or bad. But the lack of fuel seemed to drain that from him a bit.”

It goes without saying that it’s sickening that we have billions of dollars for unnecessary wars and tax breaks for polluters, when there are people struggling to put food in their mouths. I guess it just says a lot about our priorities as a nation. You can also read one of the congresspeople’s blog about the experience here.