[US]”Food Stamp Recipients Face “Hunger Cliff” as Deep Cuts Take Effect
The more than 47 million people who receive food stamps in the United States will see a decrease in their aid beginning today as a temporary boost from the 2009 stimulus expires. Dubbed the “hunger cliff” by critics, the drop will reduce monthly food stamps for a family of four by $36 each month. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, food stamps will now average less than $1.40 per person, per meal next year. The decrease comes two days after lawmakers opened talks on a farm bill that will likely cut food stamps even more. One-in-seven people in the United States rely on food stamps.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic…
“Food bank reliance in the UK triples, says Oxfam…
…The report was backed by the Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest provider of food banks. The trust said more than 350,00 people required help from its food banks during 2012, almost triple the number who received food aid the year before. But the new study says that the true number may be more than 500,000 as the scale of the problem is not being effectively monitored.” BBC
According to the European Federation of Food Banks: “In Europe, 80 million people live below the poverty line and among them, 30 million suffer from malnutrition. (Source: Eurostat and European Congress of Experts on Nutrition, 2009). … In 2012, the European Food Banks distributed 388 000 tons of food, equivalent to 776 million meals, to 5,4 million people in partnership with 32 000 charitable organisations and social services.
It is estimated that a fortune of USD $21 trillion is stashed away in off-shore accounts aka Tax Havens. The Tax Justice Network in its 2012 report said global tax revenue lost to tax havens is between USD $190 billion and $255 billion per year.
This is not only about material comfort but also about life expectancy. As we know very well by now, poverty kills, in Africa, in Europe in the Americas, everywhere. Austerity is a form of Economic Violence, because there is no need for it but is imposed to increase concentration in fewer and fewer hands.
This week Vandana Shiva delivers in The Guardian a masterclass in Economics, describing the connections between GDP, poverty, the environment and wars. The symptoms of the crisis are already with us, but together with the climate change deniers, the economic debacle deniers and the impending human catastrophe deniers prefer to look the other way.
There is a window of opportunity when change can be produced in a nonviolent way, and that is now. When large masses are hungry and angry they don’t say please.
