TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - April 25, 2008

In this issue:

• One Week Farm Bill Extension Sought
• Food Stamp Facts
• WIC Watch
• Research Trends
• Reports from the Field
• Small Bites

Foodlinks America is published 24 times a year by California Emergency Foodlink in Sacramento, CA and distributed by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 6412 CR 116, Burnet, TX 78611; Zy Weinberg and Barbara Vauthier, Editors; email: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.

Foodlinks America is not copyrighted, so the information can be freely shared with colleagues and friends, though attribution for reprinted articles is appreciated. For archived issues of Foodlinks America, go to: www.tefapalliance.org. To request a free subscription to the newsletter or to submit story ideas, contact Barbara Vauthier at: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.

One Week Farm Bill Extension Sought

House and Senate negotiators were putting the finishing touches on another short-term, one-week extension of the 2002 Farm Bill as this issue of Foodlinks America was being prepared. In contrast, President Bush called on Congress to give up trying to negotiate a Farm Bill and pass a lengthier extension of current law. But Members of Congress are intent on moving forward to resolve differences on the omnibus nutrition and agriculture measure that authorizes crops support and food assistance programs.

“Most of my members would rather get a Farm Bill than get a one-year extension,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. “I still hold out some hope that we will be able to get a Farm Bill. I think we’re pretty close.” A spokeswoman for Senate Agriculture Committee chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) stated that private meetings among members indicated that progress was being made. Others agreed. “There’s been tremendous movement over the last few days,” Charles Grassley of Iowa, a key Senate Republican on both the Agriculture and the Finance Committees, noted on April 23.

Meanwhile, Harkin was able to report some clear progress. Agreement has been reached on three sections of the Farm Bill – crop insurance, commodity reauthorization, and support for fruit and vegetable growers. And it appears the size and cost of the Farm Bill improvement package being considered has also gone up. In recent days, both President Bush and Senator Harkin have cited a $16 billion figure, consisting of some $9.5 billion in changes and new spending for nutrition programs, $4 billion for land stewardship and conservation, $1.35 billion for specialty crops, and $900 million for agrofuels.

White House impatience is now becoming a major factor in Farm Bill deliberations, with the President urging Congress to enact legislation to extend the current Farm Bill for a year or more. Such action, however, would wipe out nearly $10 billion in gains for food stamps and other nutrition assistance that are on the table in the current Farm Bill conference.

Senator Harkin, in pointed comments, said he did not appreciate the Administration’s intransigence: “The Administration continues to dig in its heels on the Farm Bill by rejecting reasonable offsets that the White House itself used for other legislation and by now calling for a one-year extension of current law. The President’s call for an extension is just the latest example of this administration’s lack of cooperation to enact a new, stronger Farm Bill. It makes me think that they do not want a new bill – one that makes investments in energy, conservation and nutrition or that extends support for growers of fruits, vegetables and horticultural crops,” Harkin claimed. “What we need,” he added, “is for the President to roll up his sleeves and cooperate with the Congress so that we can get this bill done.”

However, as he advocated for the fifth short-lived extension of a law that is now at least seven months overdue, Harkin was realistic. “I think we’re getting to the point where time is definitely running out,” he said. Lawmakers tired of the long stalemate agreed. “This week we ought to fish or cut bait; get it done or do a long-term extension,” commented Jim McCrery, ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee and a Farm Bill conferee.

Food Stamp Facts

Recession drives caseload explosion: The Food Stamp Program (FSP), designed to be a safety net for low-income and unemployed people who lack the resources for food is doing what it is supposed to; growing larger during an economic downturn. At latest count, 27.3 million Americans had to turn to the FSP for help and the numbers are growing daily as food price increases obliterate any income growth.

It is estimated that an average of 27.8 million people will receive food stamps monthly during fiscal year 2008 and that number is expected to climb above 28 million in fiscal year 2009. The cost of the program is expected to grow to $36 billion in fiscal 2009 from $34 billion this year.

Significant numbers of people are now relying on food stamps. In Ohio, one in ten residents is on the program. In Michigan, it is one in eight. Between December 2006 and December 2007, more than 40 states saw their caseloads grow, with six – Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, North Dakota, and Rhode Island – encountering double-digit growth.

Immigrants contributing to growth: Most legal immigrants to the U.S. had their eligibility for food stamps abridged in the 1996 welfare reform bill. It was not until six years later, in the 2002 Farm Bill, that immigrant eligibility was re-established, though on a piece-meal basis. A new study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals that of the roughly one million immigrants who joined the program in 2002-2004, about half of the estimated impact came from increases in newly eligible families, while the rest came from increases in eligible family members in already eligible families. For details, refer to: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/CCR40/.

WIC Watch

Eligibility guidelines adjusted: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued updated income eligibility guidelines for the WIC Program for the upcoming twelve months. New limits for the period of July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 were published in the Federal Register of April 8, 2008 and may be viewed at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-7240.pdf.

WIC EBT expanding in Michigan: Plastic cards for electronic benefits transfer (EBT) in the WIC program are being used in Calhoun County, Michigan in place of paper coupons as of the end of February 2008. Some 235,000 Michigan residents are on the supplemental nutrition program and about one-fourth of them have switched to the debit card. The state hopes to convert all WIC participants to EBT by the end of the year.

“In a nutshell, it’s more efficient, it takes away from the stigma and it’s easily accessible,” James McCurtis, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Community Health said. Further improvements in card services are expected shortly. Currently, clients must return to the WIC office to have the card re-loaded for benefits each month, but soon re-loading will be done online or over the phone. There still may be some stigma for WIC participants in the grocery store, however. A separate system from other consumer credit and debit transactions must be used at check-out and WIC-approved items must be scanned twice.

Comments sought on participant survey: A notice issued in the Federal Register by USDA on April 18, 2008 solicits comments on the Second National Survey of WIC Participants. The first survey was done 10 years ago and USDA is asking the public and public agencies for “ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected” along with “ways to minimize the burden” of reporting. For additional information, go to: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-8457.pdf.

Vendor management rules finalized: Miscellaneous provisions governing actions states may take in regard to vendor management and infant formula cost-containment in the WIC Program are contained in a final regulation published in the April 23, 2008 Federal Register. The rule covers certain aspects of infant formula rebate bids, administrative reviews, and the release of vendor information. For details, see: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-8767.pdf.

Research Trends

Life Expectancy Disparities Growing

The latest government statistics on life expectancy among Americans conclude that poor people live shorter lives. Federal officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services documented “widening socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy” from birth and at every age level.

In 1980, the most affluent Americans, at 75.8 years, lived 2.8 years longer than the poorest group. By 2000, the difference in life expectancy had grown to 4.5 years (79.2 versus 74.7 years), and the gap continues to increase. Though there are significant disparities for all poor people and minority groups, some of the differences are extreme. Affluent white women, for example, live 14 years longer than poor Black American males.

Lifespans of women are decreasing

Follow-up research on longevity focusing on changes at the local level found that in nearly 1,000 counties nationwide the life expectancy of American women has been dropping over the past 20 years. In an article titled, “Reversal of Fortunes,” researchers found that principally in low-income and rural counties, women’s life expectancy has decreased by as much as five years. Results were published in PLoS Medicine, an open-access journal of the Public Library of Science in March 2008.

“I think this is a harbinger. This is not going to be isolated to this set of counties, is my guess,” commented Dr. Christopher Murray, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Washington, who led the research, which looked at mortality and cause-of-death statistics from 1961 to 1999. In the first half of that period, preventive behaviors and medical advancements improved the life expectancy of all Americans, regardless of sex or income. Specifically, the death rate from heart attacks began to fall.

However, by the early 1980s, female mortality statistics began to grow, with increases in cancer, emphysema, and diabetes more than offsetting the drop in cardiovascular deaths. The obesity epidemic was also just getting underway as a contributing factor. In fact, said Dr. Murray, an estimated half of all deaths in the U.S. can be attributed to “modifiable” behaviors, such as poor nutrition, lack of exercise, and smoking. To learn more, go to: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050066.

Diet may determine gender

You are what your mother eats. New evidence from a British research study has found that what a woman eats before pregnancy may influence the gender of her child. Behaviors such as having a hearty appetite, eating breakfast regularly, and scarfing potassium-rich foods like bananas, raises the odds of having a boy.

Researchers from the University of Exeter followed more than 700 first-time pregnant women who did not know the sex of their fetuses, and tracked their diets. Among women with the highest calorie intake before pregnancy, 56 percent had boys. Women who ate at least one bowl of breakfast cereal each day were 87 percent more likely to have boys. View research results at: http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/w260687441pp64w5/.

Assessing the size of your “Food Print”

How much land does it take to support your diet? Cornell University may have the answer. A vegetarian diet takes the least land, but a diet that includes a small amount of meat is slightly more efficient because it uses some lower-quality grazing land that is not suitable for crops.

Cornell researchers did comparisons of 42 different diets that all contained the same amount of calories. The diets also included core products – grains, fruits, vegetables, and dairy items – that can be grown in New York State. The diets varied only by the amount of meat and fat included, with meat consumption raging from none to 13.4 ounces a day. An agricultural land “footprint” for each diet was then calculated.

The results found that someone who follows a low-fat vegetarian diet needs less than a half acre of land per person per year to produce all the food they need. At the opposite end of the scale, a person with a high fat, high meat diet needs 2.11 acres to produce their food. For further information, see: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/407798/cornell_study_assesses_food_print_related.html?cat=22.

Reports from the Field

Rampant increases in food prices are making it difficult for many working households to keep up with nutritional needs. Americans who rely on food stamps and whose other resources for food are limited are the most vulnerable to hunger, as depicted in this story from the Chicago Tribune of April 8, 2008:

Markita Barrett is a single mother and has all she can handle with two daughters, ages 10 and 1, and her pending college graduation. Still, she can’t stop thinking about cows.
“I don’t know what they’re doing with these cows,” said Barrett, expressing a familiar frustration with the rising price of a gallon of milk, which is up 14 percent in the past year. “What do these animals need? What physically are they doing differently?”

They’re the same cows, but they’re eating high-priced corn, which is at the root of food price inflation afflicting every American but perhaps more acutely those on food stamps who, like 35-year-old Barrett of north suburban Zion, see their buying power erode every month.

Food stamp usage has hit a new high, and more Americans than ever – a record 28 million projected this year – are using them, but with the steep climb in food prices, the monthly food allowance doesn’t go nearly as far. Moreover, food stamps are being used up earlier in the month by those who receive them, even as the galloping price of gasoline is aggravating the cost squeeze, draining discretionary income often used to buy food after the stamps run out.

Annual adjustments are made in the purchasing power of food stamps, but they have not kept pace with food inflation. “It’s a huge problem,” said Diane Doherty, executive director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition. “People are having trouble putting together halfway decent meals.”

Kim Allen, 45, said the $408 she receives in food stamps for herself and two daughters, ages 17 and 7, usually lasts until about the 15th of each month. Allen lost her job as a temporary dispatcher in February and lost her car soon after. She is struggling to pay the $1,150 rent for her three-bedroom home in Hoffman Estates. “I have to be very, very cautious to make it stretch,” Allen said.

She visits local food pantries in the northwest suburbs to keep food on the table until the first of the month, when she receives her new allotment. “We’ve cut back a lot,” Allen said. “We have cut back the butter consumption a lot. I do not buy eggs as often as I used to because I refuse to pay over $2 for a carton of eggs. … I’m not going to pay $5 for a box of cereal.”

Food price inflation began to take off in 2007, with price spikes not seen since 1980. Food prices have jumped an average of 5.5 percent in the past six months, and according to America’s Second Harvest, which oversees the national network of food banks, are estimated to rise 7.5 percent annually in each of the next five years. That’s triple the inflation rate of 2002 through 2006. “While the precise yearly levels of food inflation are difficult to predict, increased commodity prices clearly suggest that food prices will be rising more dramatically during the next five years,” the organization said in a recent report.

America’s Second Harvest reports the number of people seeking food at pantries and kitchens shot up an average of 20 percent in the past year. Some pantries haven’t been able to handle the demand, and some have temporarily closed because their shelves are empty. “It’s a perfect storm of rising food prices, the erosion of the economy, higher energy prices, and the declining food stamp benefit,” said Stacy Dean, director of food assistance policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Corn figures into the equation because more farm acreage is being used for the development of ethanol for fuel. That shift has caused the price of corn to soar to about $6 per bushel from an average of $2.40 per bushel over the past three decades. Higher corn prices mean it costs more to feed cattle, and that spurs inflation and a consumer cost squeeze: Most food stamp recipients will run through their monthly food allowance in about two weeks. Then they’ll go to food pantries to carry them through the month.

The problem is, pantries across the nation are dealing with their own issues of food price inflation, declining donations and increasing demand. The number of people on food stamps has been growing steadily, from 21.2 million in 2003 to 26.5 million in 2007, according to the Department of Agriculture. In the past year, the number of Americans receiving food stamps rose by 1.3 million.

As a percentage of the population, there were more people on food stamps in 1994, when 27.5 million received the food allowance. But in 1994, the nation had emerged from a recession, and the average price of gasoline was less than one-third of today’s prices.

Just under half – 46 percent – of food stamp recipients are white, 31 percent are African-American, and 13 percent are Hispanic, according to a 2005 USDA study. Seventy-seven percent of all benefits go to households with children, and 34 percent of households with children were headed by a single parent, like Maria Sanchez of Chicago.

Sanchez has five daughters, ages 2 to 11. She receives $591 a month in food stamp benefits, which typically lasts her three weeks. On food stamps for seven years, she recalls that a few years ago she could go through an entire month and not use up the allowance. “We don’t eat much meat. We have a lot of vegetables, soups, and I buy chicken breasts and drumsticks,” said Sanchez, who lives on the South Side.

“My kids always want McDonald’s and Burger King, but I try to buy hamburger and cook it at home for them.” For Sanchez, the light-on-red-meat diet and no-junk-food – in the long run – may prove healthier for her family. Over the years she has learned to adjust to inflationary shocks.

Steve and Karen Procter of suburban Roselle are trying to adjust to life on food stamps. Steve Procter, 50, was diagnosed last year with colon cancer. Karen Procter receives Social Security income after some debilitating injuries and accidents several years ago forced her to quit two daily jobs as a manager of a bakery by morning and a deli by night.

The Procters receive $238 worth of food stamps each month. “We were making it; we were pretty stable,” Karen Procter said of life before October, when Steve lost his job as a truck driver. ‘I go to bed … and cry’.” They’ve gone through several thousand dollars in savings and have fallen four months behind on their $1,100 mortgage payment for their town home. And the cost of food keeps rising.

“A gallon of milk alone!” Karen Procter exclaimed at her kitchen table. “I only buy what’s on sale. Cereal – anything over $2 – is not coming in my house.” The food stamps run out after about 2 1/2 weeks; then they head to the Schaumburg Township Food Pantry. Karen Procter figured that after April’s food stamps run out in a week or so, they’ll have $76 for the rest of the month. “I go to bed each night and cry,” she said. “You say tomorrow has got to be a better day.”

Some inflationary price relief is hoped for from Congress, which is debating the Farm Bill, the massive agricultural subsidy package that also regulates the food stamp program, including benefit adjustments. But whatever Congress decides, the annual adjustment is not expected to offset the biggest increase in food inflation in nearly three decades.

Small Bites

The human footprint in the air: Over her/his lifetime, each American will produce an average of 3.1 million pounds of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of 413 plane trips form Tokyo to New York.

The human footprint on water: Each American produces 22.8 million pounds of waste water, enough for over 48,000 ten-minute showers.

The human footprint underground: The average American will use 1,870 barrels of oil in a lifetime.

The human footprint in the front yard: Over 16,000 pounds of yard waste will be generated by the average American.

The human footprint in the kitchen: Americans produce an average of 7,249 pounds of food waste in a lifetime.

The human footprint in the landfill: Each American generates 4.6 pounds of trash daily – more than 1,600 pounds a year.

mvauthier :: Apr.24.2008 :: Foodlinks America :: No Comments »

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