A poverty of ideas on the food crisis (Metro NY)

Soaring food prices, like soaring oil prices, are hitting hardest those who can least afford it, as well as the emergency food providers set up to help them:

With the price of a loaf of bread approaching that of a gallon of gas – isn’t it about time a refrigerator manufacturer follows Chrysler’s lead and offers a guaranteed price on groceries? – some in the media have begun to look at the effect on the nation’s 35 million people already suffering from recurrent hunger.

The unsurprising answer: “It pretty much sucks,” says Joel Berg… [read more]

NOTE: After I submitted my op-ed yesterday morning, Crain’s NY ran an excellent article with an in-depth look at how soup kitchens and food pantries are straining under the load. (Money stat: “The Food Bank For New York City, which provides the majority of food supplies for the city’s 600 pantries, is witnessing the sharpest decline in donations in a quarter of a century.”) Highly recommended reading.