A Place at the Table Page #2

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say they don't have

enough to eat.

Last year,

nearly 30% of U.S. Families

were classified as "food insecure."

Food insecurity is this idea

that you don't know where

your next meal is coming from.

You have no idea

how you're going to manage

to find that food

or afford that food.

And when 50 million Americans

don't have that power,

that's a very dark indication

indeed of where we are.

Step up on there.

This will make a noise.

Step up on the table right there.

I'll be with you in just a second.

- What grade you in?

- Second.

Second?

You're in the second grade?

- How old are you?

- I'm gonna be eight.

Fixing to be eight.

All right,

and you've got asthma?

Okay, do you ever have problems

with shortness of breath

when you're outside playing

or anything?

I have to stop playing

and take a deep breath.

Okay. What did you eat

for breakfast this morning?

I didn't eat.

You didn't eat breakfast

this morning? Okay.

When you get home

in the afternoon,

do you eat a snack?

What do you eat?

- Chips.

- Chips? What else, baby?

What do you drink?

- Pop.

- Pop? Okay.

Do you have any other snacks

besides chips you could eat?

- Huh?

- Cookies.

- Kisses?

- Cookies.

Cookies.

Cookies and chips, okay.

Maybe you

could ask Mom to start

buying you some... some carrots

and some celery

and maybe some apples.

You could slice some apples up.

That'd be good, hmm?

A lot of people think

there is a yawning gap

between hunger on the one hand

and obesity on the other.

In fact, they're neighbors.

And the reason

that they happen often

in the same time

and often in the same family

and the same person

is because they're both signs

of having insufficient funds

to be able to command

food that you need to stay healthy.

Mostly, I really shop for...

I look around

and see what's the cheapest.

You have... Fruit are very high.

And you got chips that's 35 a bag.

So I say, "Okay,

I'm not gonna get the fruit.

"I'm gonna get some chips."

But if the fruit on sale,

I'll leave the chips and get the fruit.

She's overweight for her age.

She's very overweight for her age.

So I have to sort of watch,

and that bothers me.

Tremon, do you want blue juice

or cranberry juice?

Blue juice.

If you look at what has happened

to the relative price

of fresh fruits and vegetables,

it's gone up by 40% since 1980

when the obesity epidemic first began.

In contrast, the relative price

of processed foods

has gone down by about 40%.

So if you have only a limited amount

of money to spend,

you're going to spend it

on the cheapest calories you can get.

And that's going

to be processed foods.

This has to do

with our farm policy

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