Food stamp use doubles in county

Tuscaloosa News ^ | 12/04/10 | Stephanie Taylor

[Red in Blue PA]

The same people who praise these Wall Street companies (and the supposed free market) overlook the fact that very few Wall Street companies would be in business today but for government bailouts.

[tbw2]

Food stamps or SNAP, if to be used for food only, should be put on the same purchase restrictions as WIC. Only highly nutritious items - no Coke and Little Debbie. If you can’t feed your family, you don’t get to pick the expensive and empty calories.

[proxy_user]

I don’t think your statistics are correct. As late as 2009, about 67.5% of residential properties were owner-occupied. While the families living in rented apartments may be larger, they have fewer adults per household and are less likely to vote.

[Bon mots]

There are still bread lines in America, they never actually went away. Politicians are masters of hiding the truth.

The new bread line is called "Food Stamps" and was a government program not designed to solve a problem, but to simply 'hide it'. Nobody sees all the people in the 'food stamp line' but it is more than 40 million people long now.

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[Bon mots]

Food Stamps are the new bread line.
Over 40 million Americans are now standing in the 'new' bread line.

[GlockThe Vote]

Exactly - they have no clue how ignorant they appear defending wall street firms who are more socialist/communist than anything else.

[Vaduz]

Don’t see many gardens around any more wonder why? but in california pot plants are all over the place.

[Radio Free American?]

Here are a few reasons.
As of late people have not been faced with the need. Grocery stores have been plentiful and considering the time and cost of growing then canning your own food, store bought has been cheaper.

When you get to the point you are able to save the cost of canning vs. the cost of buying, zoning laws along with neighborhood covenants might make you practically a criminal.

Most gardens today only supplement at best. Feeding a family means running a farm and that’s real work that requires more land then the average homeowner probably owns. Let’s not even get into what it takes to raise livestock.

[Vaduz]

You must not ever been in the midwest a lot of people have gardens and do canning.Time and cost are not an issue.
1.plant seeds and water = one day
2.weed = 1/2 hour
3.canning = one or two days
4.Better food yum

[Radio Free American?]

I grew up for the most part in the Missouri Ozarks some of my family lived on farms, I’m no stranger to fried Morels, goats milk and cheese, and gooseberry pie. Gooseberries are common in North Missouri (my wife’s side).

Growing food to supplement is one thing, growing it to actually keep your family alive year round is another matter entirely.

I was commenting to the idea that gardens could do away with the need for food stamps. Not that it is what he said or implied but some probably think along those lines.

If you want meat do a search and see how many acres it would take to raise and feed however many cattle you want.

A Google search for the number of acres it takes to feed one person on average per year will give various results from one to two acres per person. It can be done with less and feed many more if you don’t mind eating beans, potatoes and tomatoes almost exclusively.

That means it would be near impossible for the average urban dweller and many rural families on their one acre lots.

[Radio Free American?]

Sorry I meant you not he, I thought it was someone else who responded to me.

[Red in Blue PA]

Bingo!

If the government ever told the truth about unemployment and the economy, the market would fall 40% in a day.

[markman46]

no try the local food shelf as the bread lines, and that is just to supplement the food stamps

[familyop]

"I grew up for the most part in the Missouri Ozarks..."

I've gardened, canned and raised livestock there in the past.

"A Google search for the number of acres it takes to feed one person on average per year will give various results from one to two acres per person."

That's about right--about five acres on that kind of land to support one head of beef (plenty for a family of four for a year). Gardening for the same requires far less than an acre on such rich land. I never thought of calling that kind of operation a "farm," and there are livestock alternatives for meat, like goats and chickens.

I'm at over 9,000 feet on the Rockies now and building greenhouses with some low-tech heating tech (some old ideas, some new). The weather is even more brutal for livestock management. One head requires about 80 acres (open ranching) without quite a bit of extra agriculture education and experience (farming with intensive tech. background for thermal systems, shelters, and some study of veterinary knowledge).

IMO, every American should do all that he or she can to feed himself or herself during the years to come. Every little bit will help. And may big ag fall apart with the rest of globalism.

[familyop]

Oops. comment #34 was for you, too. :-)

[familyop]

"Don’t see many gardens around any more wonder why? but in california pot plants are all over the place."

...same in Colorado. I wonder how they'll survive and reckon that most will move to lower elevations with easier climates around cities, when energy and food inflation hit them hard enough. It's also likely that food stamps will be cut in the future, with "austerity" measures on the way (radical tax hikes and cuts against social programs for poor folks to maintain big government and "free trade" a little longer).

Maybe the times to come are something that we, as a nation, need.

[Niuhuru]

I think you’re right. We’ve been running breakneck, like a bat out of hell as a society and I don’t see much of a future in it continuing without hitting a wall.

[Koracan]

How come they all have fat Butts.???

[Iron Munro]

[who knows what evil?]

Hell...I think your right to vote should be SUSPENDED while receiving ‘assistance’ from other taxpayers.