Lawmakers Find $21 a Week Doesn't Buy a Lot of Groceries

There's been an interesting new meme in the news recently, as a few politicians have been trying to bring into the spotlight the plight of people trying to survive on the $21 a week they receive in food stamps.

Here's a story about the Governor of Oregon who first started the story by vowing to eat only $21 worth of groceries. A couple members of congress have also joined in a pledged to live a week on $21.

I'm a vegetarian and I try to cook most of my food from scratch at home and I still spend $50 a week on food. I have two roommates, we share cooking duties and they also contribute about the same amount of money, so that's 3 people trying to live off $150 a week and we still go over occasionally. Granted we buy organic vegetables, but I think everyone has the right to pesticide-free food. I don't think of that as a luxury, but is in our current system.

Another story I read recently connects the high-price of organic food and the low cost of junk food to how our current farm subsidies are set up. The bulk of farm subsidies go to corn and soybean farming. These two products are what are used primarily in processed food, so in effect farm subsidies are not subsidizing farmers but the processed food industry.