Soda For The Poor?

photo credit: poolie

There has been a lot of talk lately about people who receive food stamps and the types of food they eat. One “journalist” frauded the government for food stamps, then spent if all on candy and over-priced food as some sort of “proof” that food stamps are bad. His entire case was that because he blew all the money on crap that wouldn’t last a month, then poor people must do the same thing. Or something.

But that’s not the only issue revolving around food stamps. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg is having convulsions over people on food stamps buying soda. How dare the poor enjoy a soda now and then! Are there no workhouses left? Yet, Scrooge is hardly the only one complaining. Almost any where you turn to the right, there are complaints about those damn poor people, needing food, and expecting more than just bread and water and public floggings for daring to be poor.

Certainly, buying soda is a concern. It’s practically nothing but corn syrup and water, with a little flavorings and dye tossed in for good measure. The highly subsidized corn growing industry makes growing corn so easy, that almost every thing you eat has some sort of corn product in it. Usually, in the form of high fructose corn syrup. No matter what you are eating, it all comes back to corn.

Which is where the problem really lies. When you are poor, your food has to last the entire month. You aren’t privileged enough to blow it all on crap then write an article about it and rake in a few hundred dollars more. And those empty calories, fueled by corn, are the cheapest things to buy. You can buy 1 apple, or a handful of over-processed crap. When it’s 3 AM, the over-processed crap will be keeping your kids’ stomachs full so they can continue sleeping.

While that corporate spin is as transparent as 7-Up, critics do have a valid point when they argue that the poor turn to junk and fast food not out of ignorance, but because they are generally easier to obtain than fresh produce and other healthier items — and they deliver far cheaper calories. But part of the economic draw derives from farm policies that — through subsidies that create cheap corn-based foods, including soda and meat — inherently disadvantage more healthful items. – AlterNet

We try to eat fruits and vegetables as much as possible, then grains, and at the bottom of the list – meat. And it’s hard. It is difficult to afford real food, when the crap is so much cheaper and readily available. But that’s hardly the fault of the poor, trying to buy what they can with what they have.

If we want to talk about cutting welfare, how about we start with the major producers of high fructose corn syrup saturated foods? How about we stop giving handouts to the companies that mass market cheap, empty calories? How about we give some funding to the farmers that grow real food, instead of the companies making food flavored corn syrup? Maybe, if these foods were cheaper, the poor could afford to buy them?

Tags: food, food stamps, high fructose corn syrup, poverty, welfare

Summer is a freelance writer and mother of 3, searching for herself amongst the Legos and blocks. After moving a couple hundred miles away from home, and fighting a few dragons, she's figuring out that she needs to be her own biggest fan to get through the world.


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