A new documentary “Finding North” premiers at the Sundance Film Festival exposes how one in every four American children suffers from hunger, despite living in the wealthiest nation in the world, and nearly 30 percent of American families, more than 49 million people, often go without meals.
While Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich decries President Obama as “the food stamp president,” author Raj Patel in this interview on Democracy Now says what is really needed is a conversation about poverty and why the need for food stamps is so high. “It’s true that disproportionately people of color are affected by food insecurity. But what Gingrich is doing, of course, is racially coding poverty by calling President Obama ‘the food stamp president,’” Patel said. “He’s invoking these ideas of racialized poverty. Of course, if you look at the people who are on the food stamp program, you see that the majority of them are white and poor.” Patel is author of the popular book, “Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.”
See the video on Democracy Now
