Why is the White House convening a summit on food insecurity for the first time in half a century? As The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani reports, a combination of high inflation and the end of pandemic support programs has squeezed vulnerable households, prompting the Biden administration to step in with a pledge to end hunger by 2030. Here’s more from her report:
When was the last food conference?
The last food conference, hosted by Richard Nixon in 1969, was a pivotal moment in American food policy that led to the expansion of food stamps and gave rise to the Women, Infants and Children program that today provides parenting advice, breastfeeding support and food assistance to the mothers of half the babies born each year.
How bad is hunger in the US now?
One in 10 households struggled to feed their families in 2021 due to poverty – an extraordinary level of food insecurity in the richest country in the world. The rate has barely budged in the past two decades amid deepening economic inequalities and welfare cuts.
Food insecurity remains stubbornly high in the US, with only a slight downward trend from 2021 – but significantly lower than 2020 when the Covid shutdown and widespread layoffs led to record numbers of Americans relying on food banks and food stamps to get by.
The conference comes as the cost of food is soaring due to double-digit inflation, and amid fears of recession. The cost of groceries in July was up 13.1% compared with last year, with the price of cereal, bread and dairy products rising even higher, according to the Consumer Price Index.
Households are under more pressure as states roll back pandemic-linked financial support such as free school meals for every child and child tax credits. Many states are stopping expanded food stamp benefits.
Real-time data from the US Census survey “suggest that food hardship has been steadily rising in families with children this year”, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, recently told the Guardian.
Key events
Oregon is the site of a close race to replace Democratic governor Kate Brown, who has reached her term limits. As she prepares to exit the governor’s mansion, Amanda Waldroupe spoke to Brown about her surprising tactic for reforming the criminal justice system:
Last October, Kate Brown, the governor of Oregon, signed an executive order granting clemency to 73 people who had committed crimes as juveniles, clearing a path for them to apply for parole.
The move marked the high point in a remarkable arc: as Brown approaches the end of her second term in January, she has granted commutations or pardons to 1,147 people – more than all of Oregon’s governors from the last 50 years combined.
The story of clemency in Oregon is one of major societal developments colliding: the pressure the Covid-19 pandemic put on the prison system and growing momentum for criminal justice reform.
It’s also a story of a governor’s personal convictions and how she came to embrace clemency as a tool for criminal justice reform and as an act of grace, exercising the belief that compassionate mercy and ensuring public safety are not mutually exclusive.
“If you are confident that you can keep people safe, you’ve given victims the opportunity to have their voices heard and made sure their concerns are addressed, and individuals have gone through an extensive amount of rehabilitation and shown accountability, what is the point of continuing to incarcerate someone, other than retribution?” Brown said in a June interview.
Gloria Oladipo
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to questions on why Joe Biden referred to Indiana representative Jackie Walorski during his speech on hunger today, when the congresswoman died last month in a car accident.
During today’s press briefing, Jean-Pierre said that Biden’s remarks were “not all that unusual” and that he was acknowledging Walorski’s previous work as co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus.
Jean-Pierre added that the congresswoman was “top of mind”, as Biden meets with her family this week.
Biden was “acknowledging her incredible work,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about the incident later, adding that Biden had already planned to welcome her family to the White House for a bill signing on Friday. “She was on top of mind,” she said.
— Jarrett Renshaw (@JarrettRenshaw) September 28, 2022
Gloria Oladipo
In other news, a California man who pleaded guilty to plotting to bomb the state’s Democratic Party headquarters following the defeat of former president Donald Trump will be sentenced today, reported the Associated Press.
Ian Benjamin Rogers, a Napa, California resident, pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to destroy the headquarters building and other properties in Sacramento by fire or explosives.
Rogers also pleaded guilty to possessing an explosive device and possessing a machine gun as part of a plea agreement that could get him seven to nine years in federal prison.
Rogers and Jarrod Copeland had been charged by prosecutors in San Francisco for planning to attack buildings they associated with Democrats following Trump’s defeat in the 2020 US presidential election.
Rogers’ attorney, Colin Cooper, spoke about his client before today’s sentencing, emphasizing how remorseful Rogers is: “Mr. Rogers feels awful for letting anybody down. He’s been in custody for a year and a half. He’s never been in trouble before. Every single day he expresses regret and remorse for any involvement he’s had in anything and all he’s asking for now is for people to give him a chance to prove that he has redemptive qualities.”
Gloria Oladipo
Biden also warned oil and gas companies not to raise prices on the hundreds of thousands of Florida residents preparing for Hurricane Ian, reports the Associated Press.
“Do not, let me repeat, do not use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people,” said Biden today while speaking about his plan to fight hunger in the US.
Biden added that the natural disaster “provides no excuse for price increases at the pump” and that he will ask federal officials to determine if price gouging is going on.
The day so far
Joe Biden rolled out his plan to fight hunger in the United States, with an eye towards ending it by 2030. Meanwhile, Hurricane Ian is churning towards Florida and threatening to do the state grievous damage.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
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The supreme court is getting ready for its next term, and is expected to receive an update regarding the investigation into the leak of its draft decision overturning abortion rights.
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Donald Trump called for negotiating with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and mulled himself, of course, as leading the delegation. Meanwhile, a new book revealed further disquieting details of his presidency.
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Jury selection continued in the trial of five Oath Keepers accused of seditious conspiracy for their actions related to the January 6 insurrection.
US condemns Iranian attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan
The White House has decried recent Iranian drone and missile strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan, as Tehran faces protests over the death of a Kurdish woman in the custody of its morality police.
Here’s the statement from national security adviser Jake Sullivan:
The United States strongly condemns the drone and missile attack launched against Iraq’s Kurdistan region earlier today. We stand with Iraq’s leaders in the Kurdistan region and Baghdad in condemning these attacks as an assault on the sovereignty of Iraq and its people. Iranian leaders continue to demonstrate flagrant disregard not only for the lives of their own people, but also for their neighbors and the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity enshrined in the UN Charter. Iran cannot deflect blame from its internal problems and the legitimate grievances of its population with attacks across its borders. Its flagrant use of missiles and drones against its neighbors, as well as its providing of drones to Russia for its war of aggression in Ukraine and to proxies throughout the Middle East region, should be universally condemned. The United States will continue to pursue sanctions and other means to disrupt Iran’s destabilizing activities across the Middle East region.
Earlier today, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, written by politics gurus at the University of Virginia, moved their prediction for the Pennsylvania governor’s race from “leans Democratic” to “likely Democratic”. The news below was cited as one of the reasons why, because it shows that the Republican nominee in the race holds beliefs about abortion that appear to be beyond what the state’s voters will support. Here’s the latest from The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly:
Asked in 2019 if he was saying women should be charged with murder for violating an abortion ban he proposed, Doug Mastriano, now the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, said: “Yes, I am.”
Mastriano was talking to WITF, a radio station, about a bill he sponsored as a state senator.
The bill would have barred most abortions when a fetal heartbeat could be detected, which is usually about six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
Mastriano was asked: “You can give me a yes or no on this. Would that woman who decided to have an abortion which would be considered an illegal abortion be charged with murder?”
Mastriano said: “OK, let’s go back to the basic question there. Is [a fetus] a human being? Is that a little boy or girl? If it is, it deserves equal protection under the law.”
He was asked: “So you’re saying yes?”
Mastriano said: “Yes, I am. If it’s a human being, if it’s an American citizen there, a little baby, I don’t care what nationality it is, it deserves equal rights before the law.”
NBC News reported the remark on Tuesday. Mastriano did not immediately comment.
Elsewhere in Washington, jury selection is ongoing in the trial of five Oath Keepers members on seditious conspiracy charges related to their role in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, including founder Stewart Rhodes.
It’s far from determinative of how the trial will go, but Politico has some details of the jurors that have been selected to serve thus far:
UPDATE from the Oath Keepers trial:
-Four of five prospective jurors questioned today have made the initial cut, bringing two day total to 14 potential jurors.
-The four: A defense lobbyist, Northrop Grumman defense contractor, DOD civilian employee and patent office employee.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 28, 2022
The one juror stricken was a lawyer at a big firm who handles international dispute resolution. He had RTed or liked tweets calling Rs nihilists and comparing Trump supporters to fascists. He said he could be a fair juror and would set aside views but admitted it’d be a struggle.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 28, 2022
The defense objected to two of the jurors that Mehta ultimately qualified. One of them, the DOD employee, said he viewed Oath Keepers as anti-democracy and willing to overturn election by force but would be willing to have his views contradicted by evidence.
Among the reasons…
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 28, 2022
He said he’d served on a jury before and found a murder suspect not guilty, and he repeatedly said he would fairly assess evidence in the case, even if it contradicted views informed by media he consumes.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 28, 2022
Nina Lakhani
Biden closes up with some remarks on the Covid pandemic, describing the grassroots efforts to get food to struggling families as “people doing God’s work”.
Then he makes a claim that’s worth fact checking. Biden said that the high level of food insecurity caused by the pandemic has come down thanks to the American Rescue Plan and the economy rebounding. One in 10 families struggled to feed their families in 2021 – which is back around pre-pandemic levels, but the numbers are rising quickly this year since key economic policies like the child tax credit, expanded food stamps eligibility and universal free school meals were not renewed by Congress.
Biden knows, and the new strategy suggests, that tackling economic and racial inequalities through things like a living wage, closing the Medicaid coverage gap, and affordable childcare and housing are the only ways to really eradicate food poverty.
That’s why the $8bn pledged by private corporations, universities, foundations and nonprofits may help a bit, but will not tackle the structural and systemic issues that cause poverty and racial inequalities, which is what’s needed in order to end hunger and cut the burden of diet-related diseases in the richest country in the world.
Still, Biden ended with a rallying call: “In America, no child should go to bed hungry. No parent should die of a preventable disease… this is the United States of America, nothing is beyond our capacity.”
Nina Lakhani
With universal free lunches a long long way off, one of the new food strategy’s more interesting commitments is about supporting schools in making meals from scratch and buying produce from local farmers.
“This will lead to healthier meals and strengthen rural economies,” said Biden. This is a welcome nod to the urgent need to redesign our globalised food system, which is dominated by a handful of transnational monopolies like Tyson Foods. Today, Tyson pledged to give more free chicken to schools – rather ironic, some might argue, given the company’s track record on worker conditions, unhealthy processed foods and animal welfare.
Biden also rightly emphasises the “we are what we eat” mantra, given that diets high in processed fatty, sugary, salty foods have led to at least 35% of adults being obese in 19 states, and one in 10 Americans having diabetes.
“Science changes things. People are realising that certain diseases are affected by what they eat. The more we can spread the word and educate people, the more we’ll see changes,” Biden said.
Not quite so sure about him suggesting that the link between our diets and disease is new information – the evidence has been overwhelming for decades now, but powerful business interests like the sugar, fast food and meat packing industries have often stymied government regulations to improve food labelling and reduce the toxicity of processed foods. Still, a commitment to piloting food prescriptions for people on Medicaid and Medicare is a definite thumbs up.
Biden made an unfortunate gaffe in his remarks, referencing someone named Jackie and asking if she was in attendance. He may have been referring to Jackie Walorski, a Republican representative from Indiana who died in an August car accident.
Walorski was co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus dedicated to fighting food insecurity in the United States. The chair of the caucus, Democrat Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, was in attendance at the event. Here’s video of Biden’s comment:
President Biden seems to forget that Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) died in a car crash in August, seeking her out in the audience:
“Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? She must not be here.” pic.twitter.com/inzKDHrPK7
— The Recount (@therecount) September 28, 2022