Directed by Kristi Jacobson & Lori Silverbush
It’s difficult to understand how 50 million people—one in six Americans—can be food insecure in one of the world’s wealthiest countries. The reasons are complex, and perpetuated by our farm policy.
Farm subsidies started during the Great Depression, before agribusiness took over our food system, and were intended to end when the economy stabilized. They never did. In fact, last summer Congress passed new subsidies that will cost taxpayers $195 billion over the next 10 years. Wondering which crops get most of this windfall? Wheat, corn and soy, all of which are now primarily GMO.
As part of the same bill, no money was added for food stamps. Instead of the 10 billion requested by the president for programs to help feed children, they will get only 4.5 billion—pulled from food stamps—or about 1/40 of what we will spend for subsidies.
And the rich get richer and the poor struggle to pay for food, which is why they often choose chips and processed food over produce and protein. Childhood food deprivation sets kids up for learning difficulties and lifelong health problems, the film tells us, so if we truly care about feeding people, as GMO proponents claim, we should give more support to the type of people we meet in this film, who just need a little help to get them out of grinding poverty. For example, a young woman who got pregnant and then had another child, only to find herself single and stuck in a low-paying job, would like to go to college but can’t make it happen.
Although A Place at the Table never mentions reproductive education or urban gardening, which would be part of a holistic solution, it sheds welcome light on a critical issue that should be of concern to all. (Magnolia Pictures)
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