Food Crisis and Economic Meltdown

Elizabeth Terzakis on the Global Food Crisis and Economic Meltdown:

More on the situation in Milwaukee

Today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel provides more backdrop to the near food riot that took place earlier this week. Milwaukee is the eight poorest city in the country and has the fourth highest number of children in poverty said Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee. According to Tussler, government food donations have dropped 31% since 2001. In the first five months of 2007, the Task Force was forced to spend $3,400 on food. This year, however, between January and May alone, the group has spent $94,000. Regarding child hunger, the government only provides free food to summer school children under the age of 12, so the Task Force needs to provide snacks for children 13 and over. Another food relief organization, Second Harvest, reported that donations were down 1 million pounds, or 15%, from last year through May.

Near Food Riot in Milwaukee, WI, USA

The wave of food riots against skyrocketing food prices that has rocked the developing world from Haiti to Egypt is knocking at the door in the United States. Earlier this week in Milwaukee, nearly 3,000 hungry people showed up at 3am to receive emergency food coupons. The cops had to show up in force because several people were trampled in the desperate scramble for the woefully inadequate aid. While the offer was initially extended to the victims of the recent flooding in the state, officials reported that the majority of the people who showed up were not flood victims but victims of poverty and the weak economy. This is just one more example of how working people in the industrialized nations are not immune to the global food crisis. Hopefully working people in the US will take after their brothers and sisters in other countries and aim their outrage at the government that has proven to be criminally negligent to the plight of people suffering from economic recession, rising food and fuel costs, lack of health care and rising unemployment.