The Psychology of Politics

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The importance of federal nutrition programs and the people who benefit

It was a weird feeling to be volunteering at a food drive on the same day that President Trump paused funding with the potential to impact key food programs in the country. Someone I was volunteering asked, “what do you make of it?” 

“They just don’t fucking get it,” I said. 

The administration claims that it won’t impact federal nutrition programs, but federal nutrition programs have long been in the crosshairs of republicans as a way to reduce government spending. 

The organization I volunteer with recovers food that would’ve otherwise ended up in a landfill. Perfectly good food like organic blueberries, oranges, apples, frozen tilapia, walnuts, canned salmon and tuna, the list goes on. All this food gets redistributed to people in need. If it were not for We Don’t Waste and other organizations like it, all of these items would end up in the trash, and millions more people would end up hungry. 

At least 50 percent of food in this country ends up in landfills. At least 60 million people are food insecure (a number that I personally believe to be extremely under reported).

The people who attend our food drives are a diverse group. Young and old. Americans and immigrants. Able bodied and not. Every ethnicity under the sun. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents. People wait for hours to receive food. Mothers wait in the heat or the cold holding their children. Grandparents wait to get food for their families while their children work. 

This diverse demographic isn’t unique to this organization. It’s been the same across all the organizations I’ve volunteered with. People of all walks of life are hungry, they are struggling, they need food, the same way WE ALL NEED FOOD. Knowing that they have a place to get food eases the burden of their stress just a slice.

It’s a strange thing to think that these people are just trying to “game” the system. I don’t know about you, but if I go to the grocery store and a line builds up in front of me and there’s no extra cashier in sight, I start to get angry. Why do I have to wait at all just to check out? Open another lane!

Here these people wait in line for hours at times. Trying to find shade from the Colorado sun, or keep warm in the frigid winter temperatures. Just to get some food. Completely unsure of what they might get, because every week it’s different. What’s available is dependent on what’s donated by the local vendors. And that varies from week to week. So I find it hard to believe that if they had the option to go to the grocery store that they would choose to wait here, outside, for an unknown. 

They are also the most grateful people. They are constantly thanking us. One young kid even shook my hand today as a gesture of his appreciation for us being there. They are also the most considerate people. Constantly declining food when they already have enough. 

“O no, I already have plenty of rice.”

“We have a lot of macaroni and cheese already in the house.”

“Take as many apples as you want. Do you want more?” I asked someone today. “No, there are more people in line, leave it for them,” was the reply I got.

This notion that these people are not actually in need. That they are gaming the system. That they are not worthy of the most basic and fundamental resource, is an idea that could only be considered by someone who has never seen it in person. 

It can only be considered by someone who just doesn’t fucking get it. 

Tell your lawmakers to visit a food bank and see if it doesn’t change their mind. Only a cold hearted person wouldn’t.

When Everything is Important, Nothing is Important

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My Biggest Pet Peeve

My biggest pet peeve, especially as it relates to health in this country and around the world is that everyone is working on their own thing, which isn’t necessarily the right thing. My pet peeve was triggered the other day after I read an email for a new documentary called Plastic People. The movie chronicles the rising presence of microplastics in our environment, in our bodies, and its impact on our health as a result.

This is good work. Important work. I agree that our obsession with plastic is definitely playing a role in our deteriorating health. I try to limit the use of plastics in my life all of the time. I just don’t think it’s the most important work if we’re really trying to solve our health problems. 

I don’t know how much time, money, human capital, and just overall resources were used in doing the research for this movie, analyzing the research, publishing it, and pulling a movie together, but all I can think about is that every resource used here, could’ve been used to tackle the real issue. Food.

The fact that most people don’t have access to the food they need to be healthy. Most people don’t have access to enough food at all. The fact that the majority of food is grown in lifeless soil. That most food is doused in chemicals like herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that kill life all around it. The fact that most animals are raised in inhumane and unsanitary conditions, and are fed the same toxic food we grow for ourselves. That most livestock are injected with hormones and given antibiotics when neither one is needed.

And, most importantly, the fact that all of that food described above is then processed in factories by large corporations who add more chemicals, sugar, and toxic ingredients to it. And that this same highly processed toxic food is convenient and cheap to buy. 

The average American’s diet now consists of at least 70 percent processed food. At least 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. At least 50 million Americans are facing food insecurity. Millions more face nutrition insecurity, a term that is not even spoken about. That is the biggest issue we face.

The fact that all of that food is wrapped in plastic, served on plastic, eaten with plastic utensils, doesn’t help. But it is not, in my opinion, our biggest problem. In fact, I would argue, that if we could change our food system, that if we could change people’s behaviors around food, that it would do more to limit the amount of plastic in our environment than anything else we could do.

If more people shopped for and cooked whole foods only, instead of buying packaged foods and pre-made meals. If more people cooked instead of ordering take out or going to the drive in. If less people drank sugar filled coffees, juices, and smoothies. If all of those things were to happen, if we could change the food system and change peoples habits, we could greatly reduce the amount of plastic on this planet.

And that’s why this is my biggest pet peeve. Because when I see a documentary like this one, or I hear a charity asking for money for research to study cancer, heart disease, Alzheimers, or any other chronic disease, or a research study like this one I wrote about, I automatically think, “what would happen if instead of spreading ourselves and our resources thin across all of these ‘issues,’ we aggregated them around the main issue. Food and the food system.”

How much better off would we be?

I’m sure this perspective will garner push back from many. But I think if you truly understand the impact the way we grow food has on the planet, and the way the food we eat impacts our health, you too would realize that there is no greater issue we face than this one.