That recession is over statement looks more unfortunate every day. The Department of Agriculture disclosed Monday that a little more than 49 million Americans had trouble putting food on the table last year — the highest percentage since the government began keeping track in 1995, up 13 million people from the previous year.

Food insecurity was a problem before the economic meltdown, and things have obviously gotten worse. Sasha Abramsky, author of “Breadline USA,” has done tremendous work on the subject. Listen to a discussion about it here. — PZS

Reuters via Yahoo:

More than 49 million Americans — one in seven — struggled to get enough to eat in 2008, the highest total in 14 years of a federal survey on “food insecurity,” the U.S. government said Monday.

While Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said programs such as food stamps softened the impact of an economic recession, anti-hunger groups pointed to the huge increase from the preceding year when 36.2 million people had trouble getting enough food and a third of them occasionally went hungry.

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#barack obama#economy#food#government#hunger#politics#survey#usda