SNAP Recipients Fight Back In Junk Food Crackdown

[Cirsium]

124. Normal approach?

What part of right wing talking points don't you understand? We've seen where the
"normal approach" in politics has gotten us. If what you say about Sanders is true, then he is wrong.

What I do understand about Supplemental Nutrition is that it is a response to the fact that millions of people in the country struggle to have access to adequate nutrition. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. The notion that we need to force the most vulnerable among us to get adequate nutrition obvious says that their lack of access to adequate nutrition is their fault. That position is ignorant and it is cruel.

Of course on the farm we would rather that people come here rather tha to the junk food aisle - or any aisle - in the supermarket. And overwhelmingly, they already do. I rarely see SNAP recipients in the local store, but I see them in the farm market all the time. Why is that? Because people who are poor make much better decisions than those with significant discretionary income do. We have no choice. The premise used to justify restriction on the use of the (absurdly picayune) SNAP benefits, as often expressed by Republican politicians, is that people who are in poverty are not very smart and don't make good decisions.

Googling just now I find dozens (hundreds?) of right wing sites - "why do poor people make bad decisions?" Oh, is that what's wrong with the country? Poor people making bad decisions? What, unlike the wealthy?

From the NIH:

"Dietary food choice based on price per calorie best matches actual consumption patterns and may therefore be the most salient price metric for low-income populations."

People with limited means are maximizing their dollar to calorie ratio, something better off people do not need to do. Does that result in crappier food often? Yes, of course. But that is not because people are making bad choices, it is result of business decisions over which the consumers have little or no control.

"Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of America. I'll show you something to make you change your mind." Amazing that I need to argue for compassion here.

I keep glancing up to the top of the page. This IS Democratic Underground, isn't it?