Almost one in five children living in rural Nebraska and counties fit the food-insecure profile according to the Nebraska Center for Rural Affairs in an analysis that that examined socio-economic aspects the grouping of states that includes the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and portions of four adjoining states, described as the Great Plains.
Jon Bailey, the center's director of rural research, said signs of poverty and hunger show up during one of the biggest surges in agricultural prosperity in history and in the same place where the food is produced.
"One of the constant ironies of this region is that we have a large food-insecure population in one of the greatest agricultural regions in the world," he said. "Right in the middle of the breadbasket of the United States, there's a tremendous food-insecurity problem."
Even in Nebraska -- first in red meat production nationally, third in corn production and highly ranked in several other grain and livestock categories -- 18.9 percent of rural children were food insecure.
Food-insecure status applies to households where there's a lack of nutritionally adequate food or where access to food interferes with an active, healthy life. Iowa topped the list for food-insecure children in rural areas at 34.6 percent.
The rural poverty rate in Nebraska was 12.2 percent, slightly lower than the regional average for all counties of 12.4 percent. But rural poverty ranged as high as 20.6 percent in South Dakota, where Native Americans living on reservations make up a much bigger slice of the rural population.
Jon Bailey, the center's director of rural research, said signs of poverty and hunger show up during one of the biggest surges in agricultural prosperity in history and in the same place where the food is produced.
"One of the constant ironies of this region is that we have a large food-insecure population in one of the greatest agricultural regions in the world," he said. "Right in the middle of the breadbasket of the United States, there's a tremendous food-insecurity problem."
Even in Nebraska -- first in red meat production nationally, third in corn production and highly ranked in several other grain and livestock categories -- 18.9 percent of rural children were food insecure.
Food-insecure status applies to households where there's a lack of nutritionally adequate food or where access to food interferes with an active, healthy life. Iowa topped the list for food-insecure children in rural areas at 34.6 percent.
The rural poverty rate in Nebraska was 12.2 percent, slightly lower than the regional average for all counties of 12.4 percent. But rural poverty ranged as high as 20.6 percent in South Dakota, where Native Americans living on reservations make up a much bigger slice of the rural population.
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Professor Mark Lapping, executive director of the Muskie School at the University of Southern Maine said "We have no food policy; we have an agricultural policy. A quarter of our children are poorly fed. Who's going to do the work in the future? How are we going to sustain the wealth of the state if you've got the most aging state and at the same time a quarter of your youth are poorly fed and come from homes that are food insecure?" There used to be chicken farms, he said; and vegetable canning mills, especially for sweet corn; family dairy farms; and, on the coast, fish packing plants. During the Civil War, every loaf of bread consumed by Union soldiers was produced in New England, Lapping said. At one time there were 300 varieties of apples grown here, including the popular Duchess variety. Now there are about five primary types of apples in production
HUNGER IN MAINE
• Population: 1,328,361
• Food insecurity rate: 15.4 percent of households, or about 200,000 people
• Maine ranks 13th in the nation and first in New England in food insecurity
• Child food insecurity rate: 24.6 percent, or 1 of 4 children, are food insecure (68,950 children)
• Maine ranks 21st in the nation and first in New England in terms of child food insecurity
• Food insecurity rate among the elderly: 5.46 percent of seniors are food-insecure
• Maine ranks 17th in the nation and first in New England in senior food insecurity
• Since 2005 there has been a 25 percent increase in the number of Mainers facing hunger
http://www.kjonline.com/news/insecurity-about-foodumf-speaker-asserts-maine-has-no-plan-to-sustain-the-wealth-of-the-state_2012-04-28.html
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