Now, the inflation crisis under the Biden-Harris administration has intensified this issue even more. It was especially families with children that suffered during Covid-19 as school lunches disappeared and they have been hardest hit again in 2022 and 2023.

As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the USDA just published its latest report on the issue, showing that last year, almost 18 percent of households where children lived were food insecure, up from 17.3 percent in 2022 and 12.5 percent in 2021. The negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic as well as the inflation crisis on food security still stayed behind those of the Great Depression between 2008 and 2011, however.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Looking at all household, 13.5 percent were classified as food insecure by the USDA most recently, defined as experiencing difficulty to meet basic food needs in the span of one year, including the inability to buy enough food, buy balanced meals or eat regular portion sizes as well as skipping meals, experiencing hunger and worry about food. In 2021, this share had been 10.2 percent.

While the share of food-insecure households rose in the U.S. in 2023, so did the share of adults living in them – from 13.5 percent to 14.3 percent. The share of U.S. children living in a food-insecure household rose as well from 18.5 percent to 19.2 percent. However, according to the USDA, it was often the adults in food-insecure households who restricted food intake, while attempting to shield children – especially younger ones – from negative effects.

Household with children number around 36 million in the U.S., around 27 percent of all households, while children themselves make up around 22 percent of U.S. residents at 72 million.

The number of people living in food insecure households in the United States in 2022 increased to 44 million, including 13 million children, according to a report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This is an increase of 31% for all individuals and 44% for children from the previous year, the highest rate and number of individuals and children since 2014 and the largest one-year increase in food insecurity since 2008.

So exactly what are “food insecure households”?

That is just a politically-correct way of saying that they don’t have enough food to eat.

As you can see from the overall rate of increase and the rate of increase for children, hunger has been absolutely exploding in this country.

According to this new report, one out of every five children in the U.S. now lives in a food insecure household…

“The USDA released data showing that 1 in 7 people, including 1 in 5 children, in the U.S live in food insecure households,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, Feeding America CEO. “This news is heartbreaking, but sadly, it is not surprising. People facing hunger have shared with us that the end of pandemic-era relief efforts and the high cost of food have impacted their ability to make ends meet. I see the long lines myself as I travel across the country. Food banks have been reporting that they are operating under increasing pressure from both sides: the growing number of people experiencing food insecurity and a diminished supply of nutritious food to distribute. Food donations and fundraising have decreased since the pandemic, and while we know the USDA has been working to help, it simply has not been enough.”

One out of every five!

After reading that, how can anyone out there possibly claim that we are not facing a food crisis? And it is important to keep in mind that this new report reflects conditions in 2022. How much worse will the numbers for this year be?

As I discussed last week, the Wall Street Journal has reported that homelessness in the United States is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded this year.

And demand at food banks all over the nation has risen to unprecedented levels. Sadly, it isn’t just the U.S. that is hurting. Right now, we are in the early chapters of the worst global food crisis in modern history.

According to the UN’s World Food Program, war, “economic shocks”, crazy weather patterns  and soaring fertilizer prices “are all combining in a perfect storm to create a hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions”.

The situation is particularly dire in Africa.  We have reached a point where at least three-fourths of the entire population of the continent cannot afford a healthy diet…

At least three-fourths of Africans cannot afford a healthy diet, and a fifth are undernourished due to an “unprecedented food crisis,” United Nations agencies said in a report released Thursday with the African Union Commission.

In Sudan, 42 percent of the population is now facing acute food insecurity, but most people in the western world don’t even know that this is happening…

Since the start of the conflict in April 2023, acute food insecurity in Sudan has strongly increased, further worsening an already alarming nutrition crisis.

Prior to conflict, food insecurity was at the highest levels in a decade, with 11.7 million people (1/4 of the population) facing acute hunger. Sudan had one of the highest numbers of people in the emergency level of food insecurity (IPC4), with 3.1 million people affected.

According to the Mid-Year Update of the Global Report on Food Crises, due to the conflict, an additional 8.6 million people in the Sudan are facing high levels of acute food insecurity.

This is a 74% increase since the 2022 peak, bringing the total to 20.3 million people (42% of the population) in IPC Phase 3 or above during July-September 2023.

If you have never watched “Alone”, I would encourage you to watch a few episodes in order to get an idea of what can happen to the human body after several weeks when there is not enough food available. Because it appears that the global food crisis is going to get even worse in 2024.

Rice is one of the most important staples for billions of people worldwide, and rice prices have been skyrocketing in recent months…

Rice prices are on the verge of hitting new 15-year highs as the damage effects of the El Nino weather phenomenon across Asia have damaged farmlands, leading to dwindling supplies.

Thai white rice 5% broken hit $640 per ton this week. These prices are back to levels not seen since October 2008. Prices are up over 50% since the start of 2022.

India had already severely restricted rice exports, and now they have decided to also restrict the export of onions…

India added onions to the nation’s expanding list of food staples slapped with sweeping export restrictions, as the government seeks to contain domestic prices ahead of a national election next year.

Overseas shipments of onions will be banned until March 31, although cargoes of vegetables that started loading prior to the notification can still be exported, the government said Friday.

Wealthy nations are running into very serious food production issues as well.

Here in the United States, beef prices are already at a record high, and the USDA is warning us that beef production continues to fall…

The USDA projects beef production to be down by 180 million pounds over a six-month period by the end of 2023, while the Insider noted that the average size of herds is at 61-year record lows as farmers struggle to feed their animals.

In the UK, “one of the lowest potato harvests on record” is creating a tremendous amount of concern…

UK farmers are struggling with one of the lowest potato harvests on record after an autumn of heavy rain, raising fears about supplies for this year’s Christmas dinners and beyond.

Experts are also warning that supermarkets could be forced to increase imports for vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower, pushing up the environmental impact of the Christmas meal. They could look as far afield as Egypt for potatoes from next year.

In France, authorities are sounding the alarm about a resurgence of the bird flu…

France raised the risk level of bird flu to ‘high’ from ‘moderate’ on Tuesday after new cases of the disease were detected, forcing poultry farms to keep birds indoors to stem the spread of the highly contagious virus.

The decision by the agriculture ministry was published in the Official Journal on Tuesday.

Avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, has led to the culling of hundreds of millions birds worldwide in recent years.

The bird flu pandemic has already wiped out more than a hundred million chickens and turkeys in the United States and Europe combined, and now it is back in a major way.

So what is the bottom line?

The bottom line is that global food supplies are going to get even tighter, and the devastating global food crisis that I have been warning about in my books has already begun.

One out of every five U.S. children already do not have enough food to eat, and that number will inevitably go even higher as this global food crisis slowly evolves into a true global famine.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

Food insecurity, as they call this phenomenon, is becoming especially problematic as inflation hovers near all-time highs. And since wages have stagnated in many areas, millions are no longer able to make ends meet like past generations did doing honest work.

Every year, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) sends out a survey to collect data on Americans’ access to and spending on food. The agency uses this data to inform policies pertaining to the causes and consequences of food insecurity.

When the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “pandemic” struck, the disruptions that psy-op caused have worsened food insecurity across the country by as much as one-third – meaning food insecurity has increased by about 33 percent compared to pre-“pandemic” levels.

(Related: Check out this report about the importance of healthy soils for nutritious food and food security.)

Americans were asked more often during covid how they were doing food-wise, which may have slightly inflated the numbers

Between the years of 2019 and 2021, food insecurity across America was relatively stable, hovering between 10.2 percent and 10.5 percent. In California specifically during those same years, food insecurity actually went down by one percent, meaning Californians’ access to food actually increased.

In other states, though – and in some specific areas of California such as Los Angeles – food insecurity skyrocketed. According to weekly data collected from Los Angeles County and the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, food insecurity in that area more than doubled, hitting 21.8 percent from February through April and May of 2020.

Part of the reason why the figures leapt so dramatically is because many people were being asked directly and more frequently about their food insecurity, which caused some to recall things that they may not have had the surveys been annual instead of weekly.

In Los Angeles, people were asked 11 separate times throughout the scamdemic how they were doing food-wise. By December of 2021, just one-third of people who reported food insecurity earlier in the year did not report it again when asked if they are experiencing it this year.

“Memory plays a key role in accuracy,” said Kayla de la Haye, the lead researcher and associate professor of population and public health sciences at the University of California’s Keck School of Medicine.

“That’s why the time frame during which a survey is conducted is vital, as recall is biased against events that are less frequent or further away.”

Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM), the study calls on the USDA and other food agencies to conduct surveys more often than just once a year to ask about food insecurity in the past week or month. Doing this more frequently could help policymakers better identify areas in crisis and potential solutions as well.

“If we keep the government far, far away from the farms, ranches, and food producers, we will be fine,” wrote one commenter about how government and the globalists who have infiltrated it are the biggest culprit driving poverty and food insecurity in this country.

“Stop the chemical-trails programs all over the earth and stop poisoning, killing, and mangling plants,” wrote another about how genetic engineering (GE), geoengineering (chemtrails), and other industry- and government-led programs are further exacerbating the problem by polluting our soils.

“This diabolical program affects every living thing: human, animal, and plants. It’s like inhaling, absorbing, and injecting the worst chemical cocktails into your mind and body every single day.”

The latest news about America’s growing hunger problem can be found at FoodCollapse.com.

Sources for this article include:

• StudyFinds.org
• NaturalNews.com
• ScienceDirect.com
• NATURAL NEWS

“A battle of civilizations. In defense of citizens’ health, of our production model, of our quality, of our culture, simply our food sovereignty,” said Italian minister of agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida in a tweet Wednesday, adding: “Italy is the first nation in the world to say no to synthetic foods.” There will be fines up to €60,000 ($65,144) for failure to comply. If the parliament passes the proposal, food produced from cell cultures or tissues derived from vertebrate animals will not be allowed in the country.

“Laboratory products in our opinion do not guarantee quality, well-being and the protection of our culture, our tradition,” said Lollobrigida, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party, at a press conference on March 28.

Prime Minister Meloni had changed the name last year of the ministry of agriculture to the ministry of agriculture and food sovereignty, and Lollobrigida is an outspoken critic of the European Union’s food programs.

The agricultural lobby Coldiretti backed the latest move to ban synthetic foods and claimed that the bill was necessary to protect the local industry from multinational companies. Along with fines, the proposal seeks to shut down producers who violate the law and restrict them from obtaining public funding for up to three years.

Opposition From NGOs

The bill has received blowback from several supporters of cell-based agri-products as well as animal rights organizations.

“The passing of such a law would shut down the economic potential of this nascent field in Italy, holding back scientific progress and climate mitigation efforts, and limiting consumer choice,” said Alice Ravenscroft, head of policy at the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe, an international nongovernmental organization promoting plant-based and cultivated meat.

“Italy would be left behind as the rest of Europe and the world progresses toward a more sustainable and secure food system. And the 54 percent of Italians who already want to try cultivated meat would be banned from doing so.

“The European Union already has a robust regulatory process in place for confirming the safety of new foods like cultivated meat, and regulators in the United States and Singapore have already found it to be safe. The government should let Italians make up their own minds about what they want to eat, instead of stifling consumer freedom.”

The GFI cited peer-reviewed research when it said that cultivated meat cuts down emissions by 92 percent compared to conventional beef, reduces meat production-related air pollution by 94 percent, and consumes up to 90 percent less farming land.

The bill put Italy at odds with other European nations like the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Spain, where the government is pouring in millions of euros in funding toward cultivated meat, said the GFI.

The anti-vivisection group LAV said that the policy was “an ideological, anti-scientific crusade against progress,” while the International Organization for Animal Protection said that cultivated meat was an “ethical alternative” that did not harm animals and was protective of the environment.

Cellular Agriculture Europe complained that Italy was limiting choices of consumers who were concerned about animal welfare and the environment.

Critics are claiming that the new law would not have a significant effect on the Italian economy because of the freedom of movement of products and services across the bloc.

Eating Insects

The Meloni administration is also against promoting insects as a suitable food alternative—a trend adopted by the European Union and backed by elite organizations like the World Economic Forum. In January, the European Commission approved two more insect species for human consumption in the region, even after acknowledging concerns about the bugs triggering allergies.

Last week, Meloni said the government was preparing policies that will require companies to label products containing or derive from insects following a debate on the use of cricket-based flour.

“The government has presented four inter-ministerial decrees which will introduce information labels on products that contain or derive from insects,” Meloni wrote on Twitter. “Citizens must be able to choose consciously and be informed from every point of view.”

The government is also reportedly considering including Italian cuisine in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage.

Article cross-posted from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times. Image by Vox España, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.