Inequalities

Tag: food

  • Benefits, food banks, and denial

    A blazing row erupted earlier this week with the publication of a charity research report on food banks – the latest in a series of blazing rows on food bank use in the UK.  At stake was the claim that food bank use is related to issues with the benefits system, a claim that has […]

  • Stretching the Food Dollar During the Great Recession

    American families pinched by the recession that began in 2007 made cuts in their budgets on purchases ranging from cars to television to new homes. Less visible, but no less important, many families changed their food purchasing habits. Research by the United States Department of Agriculture shows that food purchases declined by around 5 percent […]

  • How the Other Half Eats

    Folks, today you can find my blog post “How the Other Half Eats” on one of my favorite food blogs theeatenpath.com. I make the argument that Occupy Wall Street is opening the door to a national conversation about inequalities in our food production system. Give it a read and give me your thoughts!

  • Poverty in the Age of the Xbox

    This is the first in a series of three posts that looks at the measurement and politics of poverty in the United States As I reported last week, the poverty rate in the United States in 2010 soared. Under the official poverty line there are now more than 46 million individuals living in poverty. In […]

  • What Does it Mean to be Poor?

    Dismal news. As was widely reported this week, the official poverty rate climbed again in 2010 to 15.1 percent – the highest level since 1994. The already inflated 2009 rate was 14.3 percent of individuals. The report also revealed that median income slipped by more than 2 percent in 2010. Further straining families, the rate […]

  • How Did Americans Become Super-Sized? How Do We Get Skinny Again?

    There are countless proposals to reduce obesity in the United States, but causal links are difficult to establish. Fairly and effectively targeting low-income populations is an unresolved challenge. Turn on the television in the United States and you will quickly learn that many people are fat, and most would like to be skinnier. Contestants on […]

  • Poorer households are worse off than we think

    This seems like a good week to talk about the cost of living. On Tuesday, the UK Coalition Government put up VAT (sales tax) from 17.5% to 20%, which it somehow tried to spin as a ‘progressive’ move. This comes at the very time that petrol and food prices are rising – and this is […]

  • Some quirks about measuring material standards of living

    Large social surveys in most countries now include questions about whether the household is able to afford basic necessities and can meet all of its resource needs. In the United States, these measures are called “hardship” indicators, and in Europe they are called “deprivation” measures — the distinction may seem merely semantic