Obama: The Food Stamp President!
Entries Tagged as 'Hunger In America'
Now the Quake Hit King City!
Did you feel it? Two miles NNW of King City.
map 2.3 2011/11/11 14:46:21 45.427N 122.824W 29.3 3 km ( 2 mi) NNW of King City, OR The USGS has changed the location slightly from King City to Tigard, OR and added the small quake near Jefferson, OR.map 2.3 2011/11/11 14:46:21 45.435N 122.824W 24.4 4 km ( 2 mi) WNW of Tigard, OR map 2.1 2011/11/11 13:31:57 44.761N 123.097W 18.6 8 km ( 5 mi) NW of Jefferson, OR
Peanut Butter Prices Are Rising By 24 to 40 Percent
Beverly says she better stock up!
“The Wall Street Journal reports that wholesale prices for Jif are going up 30 percent beginning in November. Peter Pan will increase its prices by as much as 24 percent in a couple of weeks. Skippy prices are already 30 to 35 percent higher now than they were a year ago, and Kraft Foods Inc., which launched Planters peanut butter in June, is raising its prices by 40 percent on October 31.”
Corn Breaks Out!
Corn broke out of a two-month consolidation under $7.80 and reached a new all-time high of $7.9150 (see three-month chart)
The Financial Times reported “the US Department of Agriculture said domestic stocks of the grain would decline to 695m bushels by the end of August 2012, even less than the critically low stocks projected before this year’s harvest begins in the world’s largest food crop exporter.”
The agency sharply raised forecasts of corn demand in China, where meat purchases are rising alongside incomes.
The forecast further raises fears of food inflation, pinching consumers and fueling concerns for central bankers.
More Bad News: Drought!
The AP reports that “Oklahoma was drier in the four months following Thanksgiving than it has been in any similar period since 1921. That’s saying a lot in the state known for the 1930s Dust Bowl, when drought and high winds generated severe dust storms that stripped the land of its topsoil.”
With food supplies short in many places and prices moving higher, we do not need our bread bowl to be suffering, too.
Corn Prices Impacting Mexicans
The tortilla is a staple of the Mexican diet.
But the price of corn - a key ingredient in tortillas - has soared in the past year.
What Is Wrong In Oregon?
Recently released numbers tell us that 43 million Americans are on food stamps; 43 million! That means that in the U.S. 14.1% of us are getting food stamps. And how does Oregon fare? In Oregon 749,498 Oregonians are on food stamps. That’s 19.6% of us. In the U.S. the year over year gain was 1.8%, in Oregon it’s 2.0%.
How do we compare with the west as a whole?
- Washington - 1,019,791 15.2% 1.8
- California - 3,521,881 9.5% 1.3
- Montana - 120,013 12.1% 1.4
- Utah - 268,216 9.7% 1.9
- Idaho - 219,271 14.0% 3.1
- Wyoming - 35,924 6.4% 0.6
- Colorado - 435,306 8.7% 1.1
- Nevada - 322,950 12.0% 2.5
- Arizona - Arizona 1,050,181 16.4% 1.0
- New Mexico - 399,454 19.4% 3.2
- Oregon - 749,498 19.6% 2.0
Only three states or districts are worse than Oregon: Mississippi, Tennessee and the District of Columbia. I get pissed every election season to see the same Democratic lawn signs in my neighborhood and to see the election returns in Multnomah County go heavily Democratic. I think as badly as our state is doing, just maybe you who vote for Dems might think, “Hey, something is not working. We need to change!” But you never do and this state continues to fall behind the progress of our neighbors and the nation.
Corn, What A Great Chart!
That chart looks like higher prices coming and already, as you can see from the following chart, we are near record highs.
Is inflation coming at us? You ain’t whistling Dixie; like a freight train!
Oregon Excels At Food Stamp Use!
What is going on in Oregon that lands us in the unenviable position of fifth highest percentage of states whose population uses food stamps? According to the WSJ, Oregon has 19.3% of its population on food stamps; 738,702 up 13.2% over last year.
The interesting thing about the company we keep is that only New Mexico in the west is in the top 12 states. With all the fiscal troubles in California, California is not on the list, nor is Washington, Idaho, Utah or Nevada.
Tim Iacono at The Mess That Greenspan Made has the chart.
Food Shortage In America
I continue to believe that America is near a critical time for food supplies and have blogged about Hunger in America. Today, the Government’s food security report showed that as much as 15 percent of US households were suffering from food shortage in 2009.
According to the report, those suffering from severe food shortages include 28 percent of adults who at some point in 2009 did not eat because they cannot afford to buy food, while 97 percent skipped a meal or cut the size of their meal for the same reason.
