Food insecurity is one of the issues I care most about. I always donate to food banks and my biggest charitable donations are to food banks, Feeding America and various local food/hunger programs. Those are the programs and charities that fill in the gaps left by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), aka the food stamp program. America is a wealthy country, and no one should go hungry, and yet too many people – and too many children – are food insecure. The SNAP program doesn’t do enough, and yet SNAP is one of the most criticized and overly regulated program in existence today. And Moby wants to make it even more regulated and narrow.
Moby is 52 years old and it’s not like he’s some closeted conservative – he’s given interviews about how much he hates Donald Trump and Republican politics. But he also writes Wall Street Journal op-eds about how SNAP should be even more limited, and he spreads misinformation about how poor people with SNAP benefits are just going around buying junk food. No. You can read his column “Food Stamps Shouldn’t Pay For Junk” here – it’s paywalled by the WSJ, so allow me to summarize his argument: he grew up on food stamps, and he feels that SNAP should be more limited in what kinds of food people can buy. As in, SNAP recipients shouldn’t be able to buy anything processed or anything vaguely “junk foody.”
Moby writes: “SNAP rules allow stores to distribute candy, soda, cheese products, energy drinks, processed meats and lots of other items that end up seriously compromising the health of SNAP recipients…The food industry pushes the notion that poor people demand junk food and will complain if SNAP cuts them off. In reality, parents like my mother take pride in doing the best they can for their families. Being poor can involve shame, as well as a commensurate longing for pride. Nothing delivers a greater sense of pride than helping your children succeed and doing your best to see that they grow up healthy.”
There’s a rather large logical gap here, insofar as no one is forcing SNAP recipients to buy unhealthy food (as an animal rights activist and vegan, perhaps Moby more generally dislikes the idea of letting people eat what they want). But beyond that, Moby is fishing in troubled waters, particularly when he makes the argument that the “junk food” SNAP subsidizes is more expensive than “cheap, healthy foods like beans, vegetables, fruit and whole grains.”
As he apparently knows, SNAP is up for reauthorization this year as part of a proposed new farm bill: “Right now, a congressional arm-wrestling match is pitting those who want to preserve funding for SNAP against those who want to gut it,” he says. The latter camp loves evidence that SNAP is wasteful. And the former camp is heavily composed of those who represent the farmers and retailers who like the current wide-open scope of SNAP just fine. Moby’s argument will enthuse the former and chill the latter.
You can say that’s a cynical way of looking at it. But from the very beginning, the food-stamp program was less of a “nutrition” initiative than a form of income maintenance for the poor designed cleverly to enlist political support from rural interests normally less than avid to support anti-poverty efforts. Once the benefits were in their hands, said poor people were generally (within limits, of course) trusted to feed themselves.
Once you head down the slippery slope of aggressive paternalism, liberal or conservative, it’s hard to stop before you reach a ditch and begin doubting the whole enterprise. Moby confidently expresses the belief that “[t]he U.S. can have healthier people, lower health-care costs, and a trimmer budget at the same time.” He might want to persuade SNAP recipients to improve their diets without going through the intermediary of the Congress of the United States.
Exactly – instead of making the (elitist) argument that poor people’s access to food needs to be MORE limited by government intervention, why not make the argument for free cooking classes for low-income families? Because that’s what this is about. Many people across the socio-economic spectrum wouldn’t know HOW to cook on a limited budget. Even Gwyneth Paltrow had to abandon her “food stamp challenge” after a few days because she spent too much of her money on dumb things and because she didn’t know how to cook that on a budget. Also: why not make the argument about dignity and respecting people’s choices? I’m really disappointed in Moby.
Here's a WSJ op-ed urging food stamps be restricted to beans and rice. The author of the op-ed is… Moby https://t.co/ROVXqnAB0O
— Arthur Delaney (@ArthurDelaneyHP) April 10, 2018
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I’m sure I’m not the first to say that Moby is a d*ck but yep.
Nothing screams elitist than trying to further restrict access to food when poor communities tend to have food deserts or severely limited access to produce. My friend works for a company that does cooking classes in disadvantaged communities and part of the challenge is FINDING where they can get produce in that community.
I swear this is such BS. Further cuts on the poor to line the rich with more money.
i lived in a food desert. the only fresh product in my local grocery store was apples, baby carrots, potatoes and occasionally iceberg lettuce. sometimes they didn’t even have eggs.
in my state a subsidized emergency food box is supposed to feed a family of four for 4 days. it has one box of pasta, one box of instant pancake mix, two cans of vegetables, one can of fruit and one can of soup. some nutrition.
I work at a Feeding America food bank, so Kaiser, I thank you for your support! The people I talk to who are food insecure have many reasons they may buy what someone would consider junk. First, let’s not kid ourselves that junk food and processed foods are not less expensive than fresh. Second, you are absolutely right that many don’t know how to plan meals or budget. We offer a class called Cooking Matters that addresses just that issue. Lastly, one mother told me just 2 weeks ago why she buys some chips and candy: she said she can’t afford to give her kids trips to the movies or new clothes, but that she can get a $1 Redbox movie and some chips and candy to make a movie night at home.
This isn’t a simple issue and my food bank is frankly terrified at the amount of cuts being bandied about in the Farm Bill. People need to educate themselves and advocate for those who are marginalized and who have no voice.
I was just coming here to mention Food Deserts. I too live(d) in one as my neighborhood is just now becoming gentrified : / Lucky for me, I could drive to any grocery store I wanted, but I see my neighbors riding the bus or walking to whatever store is closest (around here it’s $ General and all they sell is processed food).
It IS a good idea and since he’s rich, he should help set up produce distribution to areas that are Food Deserts – that would actually make his “idea” work. Otherwise, mouthing off about what you think people should eat (which I agree with, but so what) isn’t helping. He seems to think he’s justified making this proclamation because he used to be poor. I follow him on IG and he doesn’t exactly live in a low income neighborhood anymore.
Can I ask where these food deserts are? Just out of curiousity.
@Miss Kittles food deserts are large areas – usually urban areas – with no direct access to a conventional food source like a grocery store. It means no access to fresh or affordable foods. This is quite prevalent in poor communities – usually predominantly black. I grew up in food deserts. And it’s a major reason why poor people gave a higher rate of obesity and other health issues. If you can get to healthy food and you can’t afford it then what do you eat? Whatever is easily accessible. Which is usually junk food. Moby seems to have conveniently forgotten or ignored this majore issue.
I worked in Public Health and I would get frustrated with the doctors and NP who would get all judgy and unrealistic about access to healthy foods. Most of women who came through the clinic were pregnant low income patients who either didn’t drive or have reliable transportation. The closest for most was the local convenience store. Plus, eating healthy is ridiculously expensive so it’s impossible for someone on a fixed income.
I guess I was referring to more state wise?! I know WV has many food deserts. But I grew up in a lower income neighborhood, which has since declined significantly since I moved 15 years ago. There’s plenty of food options available. This area has now turned into a community for refugees. But there’s low income grocery stores, restaurants, etc.
I live in one of those cities in the south that is always listed on those stupid “best streets in America” articles. But once you look past the shiny exterior, this place is a mess of food deserts. I used to live in a more rural part of town and the only store within a 30 minute drive was Dollar General. I’m now in a more urban area and if you don’t have a car, then the only option is still Dollar General. My neighbor is a full-time LPN supporting her special needs adult son. She has no car and the only place she is able to shop for food is Dollar General unless she is lucky enough to be able to catch the bus during her off hours. What the hell type of healthy food can you get at a Dollar General, beans? They don’t even sell frozen vegetables, let alone fresh. This dickhead’s article boils my damn blood.
@MissKittles
The areas that the charities I work with consider the most desert areas are in minority neighborhoods. So we have areas in the Bronx, Newark NJ, East New York though it is currently targeted for gentrification. In California, it is neighborhoods in South Central and East LA. San Fran, The Tenderloin and some areas in Oakland. However, in states with a high population of poor whites, it is the same in those areas. The only place to buy food can be a convenience store.
Yes, many poor neighborhoods only have Family Dollars or corner stores as an option for shopping and you cannot get healthy food at these places.
I grew up on powdered eggs, government rationed cheese and anything canned. We were “working poor” and on food stamps. My mom moved us to the country so we could at least have a garden, but there were few jobs – she cleaned at an old folk’s home. I would meet her there to do homework while she finished. It sucked. We moved back to the city for her to have work and sadly we had more crap food. I pass as white and went to college and met a wealthy man and here I am buying organic food from whole foods and “farmer’s markets”. Poverty equals bad food, usually, but Moby has NO IDEA that at least calories are calories, and keep some people alive until they can weasel a life out of this messed up society. I divorced that man and my goal is to go to college, get a better job than my mother ever had and model independence for my kids. Poverty is a deep hole, and you know what? F MOBY.
This makes me sigh too. I volunteer as a driver for an emergency food pantry that will deliver 3 or 4 days worth of food directly to our client’s household. We don’t have any financial cut-off, we just deliver to people who are unable to reach a grocery store or standing food pantry because of aging or health issues, caretaking obligations, or lack of access to transportation — they are either not near transportation — or can’t afford repairs or gas for their car.
Our packers try to pack wholesome foods. But we also include a few treats for the family because it adds a little bit of joy. And whenever we can, we also include fresh fruits and vegetables — and without exception — it’s the fresh food that our clients are happiest to see.
I live in a western US city that has improving, but still sparse, public trans. And many of our clients our live in food deserts where access to fresh food is limited. And even when public trans is theoretically available, asking a chemo patient with low immunity, a frail senior, or mom with three sick toddlers, or a mom who is already working three jobs to take several bus connections in icy weather to get to a grocery store with fresh food selections, that they can’t really afford on SNAP anyway, is not realistic.
A lot of our clients live in cheap motels where they might have, if they are lucky, a small dorm fridge and a hot plate. Some of our clients have to go to a convenience store just to be able to use a microwave. And if your family lives in a tent by the river, as some of my son’s classmates have — your cooking options are even more limited….
My grandmother was a single mother during the Depression, and when things got really rough, she used to send my dad and his siblings to stay with her extended family on the farm — because at least they could be fed. In this day and age, that is not an option for most families.
Quite apart from the food deserts – that crap takes time. I don’t know what the poor do. Based on my neighbors’ comings and goings, I assume most work multiple jobs, I assume some have disabilities or limited physical abilities. Beans take time. Lots of times vegetables take time to taste good. Fruit for most months needs sugar and or a teeny bit of salt and sometimes balsamic… I embrace lots of old fashioned things and I like the difficult path in most instances, but this just seems a cruel requirement.
Not only do beans take time, they take proper kitchen utensils (large stock pot, crockpot, etc) and a working stove, electricity, running water. There are so many other variables and costs that go into cooking that we just don’t think about. I was once very cynical and used to think the same way as Moby until I realized that my parents had set me up and gifted me these things along with hours and hours of instruction from my mom over the course of my adolescence.
“poor communities tend to have food deserts or severely limited access to produce”
Thank you (again) for another insightful comment that brings the facts to light.
I try. Ignorance to the plight of others is so frustrating.
@Nicole
I feel the same. It is frustrating.
Okay I was ready to dump all over Moby from the headline, but after reading the story about him being on food stamps as a child, I think he may be coming from a good place, just a very misguided solution. He certainly isn’t an elitist on this issue.
He is right about Americans in general not eating well and causing illnesses, and I am sure SNAP recipients probably mirror the general public in this regard and maybe more so, because of added stress and lack of time with their economic status. However, a restricted solution such as limiting certain foods whether they be junk food or lobsters is definitely costly to regulate, and more than likely makes less people have the food they need to survive. Wouldn’t programs that one don’t subsidize corn syrup, and other junk foods for our farmers, and two teach all Americans ways to prepare healthy food help everyone including SNAP recipients be a better idea. Maybe he could use his money and talent to create some programs like that.
Yup. First time commenter, long time reader. What a total idiot. I eat mostly vegan, but I don’t subscribe to the militant, holier than thou behavior on flagrant display here. Ugh.
Weird. Isn’t it the land of the free
I believe all members of Congress should go through an orientation during which they and their families spend the first month of their term living as the poorest of their constituents do: move into a welfare motel, no access to resources above the allowable level in their district for benefits programs, SNAP benefits and income limited to whatever the income benefits program is in their district and healthcare limited to the Medicaid services and providers who accept it in their district.
Meanwhile, our President is bragging about bombs and threatening Russia and Syria this morning.
i so agree.
A-effing-men, except that I think it should be the interval between getting elected and taking office. Or, if getting re-elected, every other term for a federal congressional rep and every term for a senator, or at the state level, every four years.
Agree. And I stress that it needs to be at the level of their district so they know what their constituents face; they don’t get to choose the benefit plans from a more generous state or the service networks established in more generous states. If your state doesn’t cover adult dental through its Medicaid program, guess what, your spouse isn’t getting that root canal and if your state denies out-of-state access to all but emergency healthcare, you’re paying out of pocket for that doctor visit for the follow-up on your kid’s broken arm, and the pocket you’re paying out of is limited to that welfare amount. You get to experience collection agency calls and all that stressful interaction, just like your constituents.
And take away their cars and force them to try mass transit, too.
Agreed. Because they are too comfortable with taking everything we need while we support them and their families. See healthcare
What a fantastic idea Lightpurple. cc: Paul no-spine Ryan.
He’s tucking his tail and running. Per CNN, Ryan came out this morning and said he won’t seek reelection, he is “tired of fighting Trump”. Yeah right, scared of being humiliated in a landslide kick in the butt.
Lightpurple….that idea is sheer genius. You win everything on the internet.
Cosign! Lightpurple where can I help with this program? Congress people could all use a crash course in life as a low income person.
I would watch that reality show.
Yes, you are right on! They should live among the poor. They are so out of touch.
I work for a local newspaper and a few years ago a local food charity put out a challenge to all area businesses and leaders to live off of nothing but what a person would receive money wise for a month on food stamps, I talked to our editor that took and wrote about the challenge and one the biggest things he complained about was how he couldn’t afford to buy healthy foods with the money allocated and how that he lived off of canned tuna and saltines at the end of it and this was a single man. BTW I’m so tired of seeing people that use public assistance getting beat up when the rich get way more of our tax dollars, maybe if these rich business owners would actually pay a living wage less would have to use welfare.
My daughter’s school does an abridged version of this challenge. They were sent to buy food with the amount of money you receive on food stamps. They had a homeless advocate, who spent a portion of his life on food stamps, and he did it too. The teens choices weren’t great, and they realized wouldn’t last as long, but the homeless advocate was very creative and said how he tried to make it work. They learned a lot about their privileged lives, as they went into a more distressed part of the city to shop, and they saw the lack of food choices. They saw how creative he had to be to do this. There were other things they discussed about homelessness too. Fyi they donated the food to a shelter.
i hate him. he was on a episode of crybabies podcast and his attitude was so offputting (and the hosts were kind of agreeing with him to be polite) i completely stopped listening to the pod – as in – i never listened to any other guest again. he went on and on about how he rides the train and sees business people eating breakfast and it is the most disgusting thing and a representation of how distugisting we are in america b/c “businesspeople” are soulless drones and bacon is filthy and watching corporate stooges shove their fat faces with eggs and bacon is too disgusting for him. and its like….ok – i get what he’s saying but also – maybe they are just people going to work and eating ont he train b/c they have to commute 2 hours a day and only get to eat when they are on the train? maybe the corporate goons are just trying to pay the mortgage and send their kids to college. he sounded like such an insufferable asshole it was astounding. especially for a one hit wonder.
Wow, I had no idea how awful he is. I honestly can’t believe he wrote this op-ed.
To call him a one hit wonder is a stretch. He had many hits and a lot of good CDs.
Good point. He’s a sanctimonious a**hole who’s had more than one hit.
Nice burn, Sophia’s. 👍🏻
Funny you mention this, because it occurred to me as I was reading this article by Moby that he has an eating disorder (not necessarily anorexia or bulimia, more like issues with food) and that’s why he’s so sanctimonious. Like he uses his diet to mask hardcore issues he has. I understand he might find stuff disgusting but idk the way he reacts rubs me the wrong way. I’m Muslim and I don’t eat pork but I don’t go around being like OH HOW GROSS when I see someone eating it or anything I don’t eat. And after having to break fast sometimes in the train or else I’ll faint if I wait 20 minutes to get home, I tend to be less judgmental of people who eat in public.
I think you’re on to something. I am Muslim as well and I have never freaked out about seeing someone eat pork. His obsession with what other people are eating is extreme.
I have known a number of vegetarians and vegans over the years to opine on how disgusting meat eating is, but I do wonder if he has orthorexia.
Asiyah, that actually is an eating disorder and it’s called “orthorexia,” it’s an obsession with only eating the “correct” foods or the “clean” foods.
@Shasha and Betsy
Thank you for teaching me a new term. Never heard of it.
I’ve also heard vegetarians and vegans opine on how gross they find certain foods to be but they don’t all strike me as people with orthorexia. I don’t know Moby just seems off to me.
I am a vegan who doesn’t like watching people eat meat, but I don’t personalize it or think it is some insult. I am not disgusted and accept that my choices are for my life only.
He’s always been an insufferable a-hole. ALWAYS. He isn’t a total liberal either. I would say more a libertarian, so this goes along with those views.
The one hit wonder of his was “Bad Woman”, a really negative tome.
Universal basic income would solve a lot of problems but not saying all. A lot of these welfare programs cost a lot to administer. Instead of wasting money on huge assessing and testing (for eligibility) and administration departments, cut out the middle party and give everyone a basic income. Studies – including some recent ones in Canada – show ppl actually prefer to and do continue working even when they have a basic income covering the bare Necessities.
Ontario has started a pilot program with basic income. My guess is if Doug Ford brings the Conservatives to power they will take it away and also dutch the next increase in minimum wage.
Vote.
yeah Ontario is starting a basic universal income program – I’m just in Gatineau so we are interested in how it works out because its a great idea. People really need to stop voting for the Fords. they are awful.
While you’re at it a lot of these people have to go to basically a convenience store for food. Maybe encourage grocery stores to build in underprivileged areas. I’d say have a food delivery system, but I think the government would mess that up like school lunches. I mean I still laugh for years french fries was a vegetable in school lunches. Michelle Obama tried to make it better and conservatives yelled at her for it, but it’s okay to do the same thing to poor people?
That is so f*cking annoying.
Instead of complaining that the poor should basically be punished for not following what you deem to be an acceptable food plan, why don’t you put your considerable wealth towards making fresh produce affordable and accessible to low income neighborhoods? Like bringing farmers markets to those areas or funding classes for the people in those areas to cultivate their own pea patches??
Junk food is not cheaper than fresh produce AND it is easier to procure, and that is NO accident. It’s the same reason tobacco and alcohol are more steadily available in those areas too, so why don’t you stop aligning yourself with people who love to demonize the poor?
Yes, this ^^. Last night I wasn’t feeling too great and didn’t have any food in the house so I ordered from Shipt my weekly groceries. (First time trying the service).
I try to eat healthy and decided I wanted to make a chicken avocado salad. The rotisserie chicken was $8 and the avocado was $4. One avocado was $4 and it wasn’t even organic! If a person on SNAP has the choice to buy 3 boxes of pasta and a can of Ragu versus an avocado, I know what they’re going to buy to feed their family and it’s not the avocado.
Moby can s*ck it. BTW, isn’t he a Scientologist? Or is that Beck?
Beck is…not sure about moby
I’m fine with the ragu and pasta, it’s the red Bulls and slim Jim’s that’s are hard for me to wrap my head around.
This!! A thoudand times this! Processed and frozen food is so much cheaper in some places than fresh ingredients. And he is not counting the time that cooking involves….
I am in a much better place now, and I have always cooked at home from scratch, but there were years that every euro was tightly scheduled (i am not from the U.s.A). But evento in those years some money went to “unhealty” food; some chocolate, an esporádic McDonalds for my child or a pizza in Friday night. Because you already know that you are por (or scraping by) but ir doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve a day off, or a treat, or justo feel normal having nuggets and a pizza in movie night.
He should lobby for communal vegetable and fruit patchs, for farmers markets everywhere, for cooking classes, etc… Not diss people for their choices.
Boneless skinless chicken breast is only $1.99/lb and avocados never cost more than $1/each. Keep making up fake problems. I FILL my grocery cart with healthy whole foods every week and buy almost no convenience foods for a family of four each week and spend about $100/week.
Honey Bear, that’s great for you. I live in the Chicago area and boneless skinless chicken breasts almost always cost more than that, as do avocados.
I live in LA-there are months where a rotisserie chicken is 8 dollars and avocados are 4- even at lower end grocery stores.
I used to work in a low-income neighborhood and volunteer weekly at a downtown LA library. These are food desert areas throughout Los Angeles county that have no grocery stores, but plenty of dollar stores where you can buy pre-packaged food. It would be extremely difficult to buy fresh food in this area without access to a car and extra cash.
I don’t know how SNAP works in other states/counties, but in LA it is a supplement. So, the amount given to people is not enough to cover basic food costs-that is people aren’t supposed to be able to have it completely cover their food budget. Unfortunately, living costs are so disproportionately high (it is common to have 60 to 75% of income go towards housing), that SNAP often is all a person has towards food.
I get agree with the general idea that people should try to eat healthier, but no, I don’t think food stamps should be limited to a certain set of foods because obtaining enough food in low-income areas is already hard enough.
@honey bear, it’s great that YOU live in an area where you can feed your family of 4 for $100/week, and the streets are paved with affordable avocados (that must be so messy! Gosh.) Not all of us live in such an area. I lived in a large city until a few months ago, where avocados were anywhere from $1.50-4.00 apiece. I currently live in an area with one grocery store, and they’re still between 1.50-2.00. Depends on location, season, supply, demand. Your reality isn’t always going to be the same as another’s.
Honeybear… pull your life together. Grocery prices vary by area, so no one needs to make anything up. It’s a real thing. Sheesh.
I only grocery-shop for ONLY myself, buy VERY healthy foods (mostly veggies) and I spend at least $100/week.
I don’t know where you live, Honey Bear, but you need to realize that you’re the exception to the rule.
honeybear, as others have said, high food prices are not fiction. I have two teenage boys and feeding them healthy meals day in and day out costs a fortune. I’m already warning them that once they’re on their own with a presumably shoestring budget, they will be in for a rude awakening.
@minx- I’m in the Chicago area too and then next time I see chicken breast that cheap I will buy in bulk and freeze it. Next time I see avocados that cheap I will have a guac party for the hole dang neighborhood.
@Honey Bear, you need to educate yourself before you make comments like that and try and shame people on top of it.
I live in Wisconsin and the best prices I’ve seen recently for uncooked chicken breasts was $2.99/lb on sale. Same store also had beef roasts on sale for $3.99/lb one week and those sold out at the location I usually shop at in a couple days. The customer service is excellent there and the meat department people were still honoring that promotion, marking down the next better cut of roast for that price. Those were great prices to be stocking up and buying extras to freeze for use later.
Rotisserie chicken is usually around $6.99 for a fresh one, and a dollar less for day old ones. The best deal for that is actually Whole Foods on Wednesdays when the fresh ones are $5.99.
Avocado prices are on the higher side here with $1.50 being a very good sale price.
@Krystal-the thing to remember is that you don’t know someone’s situation. Perhaps they are homeless or living in a motel, so they don’t have access to a kitchen. Perhaps their stove or refrigerator are broken. Maybe, they work 2-3 minimum wage jobs, and they don’t get enough sleep, and they need the Red Bull to get through. Is that beef jerky their treat for the week, or do they have a kid who loves beef jerky and just got a great report card? Maybe they have a kid with sensory integration issues or some other problem.
I love to look into other people’s carts and construct a story of their lives based on the contents (passes the time in the line), but that doesn’t mean we should pass policy based on those stories I create. We don’t know what’s going on and why people are buying what they are, so it’s probably best just to let everyone choose for themselves what to eat. Plus, who decides what is healthy to eat? Sure, we know that fruits and vegetables are good, but eggs? Some people think they are, but others disagree. If you look at what we’ve done historically, government food recommendations are often based off of lobbyists pushing for their industry rather than nutrition science.
The only thing that ever got me made about food stamps is seeing people using food stamps for groceries and then buying two or three packs of cigarettes. I know tobacco and booze are part of the scourge of lower income America, but if you have the money to smoke, then you have money to feed your family.
@ Dutch, I get where you’re coming from, but I listened to a great interview once with a woman who had been on SNAP, and she talked about her cigarettes. They give you energy and suppress your appetite. She said that when she was working 2 jobs, her food went to the kids, and the cigarettes were a cheap and easy way to maintain her energy and not have to stop to eat.
I know it sounds crazy, but after she explained it that way, I realized that I had been judging that too, and she had actual reasons for her decisions.
“avocados never cost more than $1/each”
Bwhahahahaaa!!!!
That sounds like some ripe BS right there. Even in areas where avocados are grown locally, the idea that they would “never” be more than $1, even in the off season or droughts, is absurd.
Even if we indulge your avocado fantasy, logic demands that we acknowledge that food costs are not the same in all communities.
I wanna know where honey bear lives. I can’t shop that cheaply. I came to a realization at one point that it was cheaper to eat out when I was single than to buy groceries and cook. now married, I spend 100-140 a week on groceries. And that’s us eating dinner at home 3-4 dinners and breakfast. I eat lunch out about 4 times a week. When your single, everything comes in family packages so you have to pay more to get the meat you need for one person. And if struggling, that extra money for the family size serving can determine if you have enough money to finish out the week. Or you can go to taco bell and eat for 5 no cleanup or cooking.
I wish people would stop treating poor people like children and try to understand everything that piles on people who live in poverty. Mental health issues, lack of access to proper healthcare, extreme stress, lack of stability and agency and social prejudice. It isn’t just about food choices but how food connects to their overall situation.
@honey bear where do you live that avocados are $1? I was just at the grocery store and on sale they were $3. Granted I’m east coast, but I’m not in the city I’m in a relatively cheaper suburb. Some states food is so cheap. I’m betting Florida. My New York born sister in law always says how cheap food is there compared to when she was in NY.
“Instead of complaining that the poor should basically be punished for not following what you deem to be an acceptable food plan, why don’t you put your considerable wealth towards making fresh produce affordable and accessible to low income neighborhoods?”
Because that would mean actually being part of the solution instead of whining about the problem. He wants to whine and pontificate from his invisible throne. He doesn’t want to get up from it.
So a millionaire vegan musician wrote an op-ed arguing people shouldn’t be allowed to use food stamps to buy candy. I don’t know about you, but I was on the edge of my seat wondering what Moby thought about food stamps. He should stick to op Ed’s about music.
Exactly. Why was he given this platform? He’s a rich white musician with no policy experience. Sit down and quit bloviating.
I blame tRump for these celebrities who think they know sh*t about politics.
@Sophia’s Side eye
I’m all for blaming this orange piece of filth for pretty mych everything under the sun but people, be they famous or not, thinking they know sh*t about stuff when they blatantly do not is not a recent phenomenon.
Celebs like Winfrey, Sarandon, Penn, McCarthy (Jenny, not Joseph) and so many others genuinely think they understand complex topics like politics, medicine, trauma or religion and they have done so for decades. Some even manage to take their delusions of grandeur to the next step and get elected at times (Ronald Reagan, Sonny Bono, Arnold Schwartzenegger)
Right? Almost like the WSJ did this for [doodoo] and giggles.
Beautifully stated.
How about we increase SNAP benefits so people can actually afford to buy healthier foods? Processed food is cheap food. It is hard to eat healthy, whole foods on a budget. Especially in areas that are basically food deserts.
Processed food is cheap because it is subsidized. Take away subsidies from corn and soybean producers, and give them to fresh vegetable and fruit growers, and organic farmers instead. At the same time, address the food desert issue.
The combination of the two can move the needle on both price and availability, while ending the taxpayer-funded free ride for junk food manufacturers.
This completely. Subsidized soybeans and corn make great filler byproducts.
Yes!!!!!
And we all know why corn and soybeans are so highly subsidized….because Iowa has the first caucus. Politicians kiss Iowa booty 24/7, so that they can be owed when election season rolls around again.
So it is subsidized, then there is too much of it, then they find ways to stick it in unrelated things, like “yogurt”.
Yes plus make us all healthier. Nice bonus.
who is going to pay for this increased amount of food stamps you are suggesting? you kirsty? or who?
is it possible the people who have to actually pay for it (in form of taxes,etc) would like to have a say on it?
I am from Europe, but its the same everywhere, welfare people are so entitled…. I am not talking about old and ill people, I am talking about single mothers with absente fathers, men idly sitting day in day out in pubs complaining about the government not giving enough money to continue their idle existence
these people are unwilling to do something for their lives
there are exceptions, sure, but if you see daily how people abuse the system, you (as a taxpayer) get annoyed eventually
education is a key to solve this
healthy eating is not going to solve the stupid choices some people make…. I am far from rich, but not expecting anybody to fund my poor life choices
I’m sure these people feel enough shame because they are dependent on food stamps,they don’t need a rich white privileged dude telling them how to use them.
Eating healthy is very important,but sometimes eating junk food makes you feel much better.
It may be one of the few luxuries these people have but you do you Moby.
My family has been off and on food stamps and we recently had to get back on them when my husband lost his job (he just got a new one thankfully!). It is embarrassing as hell having to whip out that card to pay and I really don’t need a lecture from a millionaire on how/what I should spend the money on. For the most part I buy organic or at least make sure there is no high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors or preservatives. It doesn’t always pan out that way because it’s expensive. I live in a small town with a Wal-Mart and Winn Dixie. My organic options are limited and pricey. I will give some Wal-Mart some credit though, because they’ve really increased their organic options over the last year. I try to buy healthy, but I also buy snacks. When my daughter’s class has a party and I’m asked to buy cookies or whatever then I do. I make cupcakes for the class and cakes when we have birthdays. Sometimes I just want some chocolate. I’m lucky enough to not have to completely rely on food stamps, but if I did then I would be eating crap, because it’s way cheaper to buy a box of hamburger helper and a pound of beef than it is to buy beef, pasta, sauce and cheese or anything else unless you just eat spaghetti every night.
F*** you, Moby.🙄
I’m a librarian and we’re building a new branch. I’m agitating for a test kitchen and a garden exactly because people don’t know how to cook anymore, there aren’t places to learn and leaves can be scary.
In my dreams, the test kitchen is so integrated into the library design that our cookbook collection is housed there.
Kudos to you! I very impressed and wish you success. Good luck 🙂
Brilliant idea! Crossing fingers it happens!
Good luck. I love that idea. We have community gardens, but it is getting harder to find spaces for more. The kids love to see food grow and feel so proud to take it home to make something to eat. But the logistics of expanding something like this and making a meaningful impact is a daunting task.
In some inner-city areas, the access to these fresh ingredients is limited, and expecting those residents to drive to the burbs for (pricey) fresh fish or a larger selection of veggies isn’t practical. Even those of us who can afford them don’t eat ‘smart’ every day and we shouldn’t be the only ones who are allowed a handful of Doritos when we want them.
“Even those of us who can afford them don’t eat ‘smart’ every day and we shouldn’t be the only ones who are allowed a handful of Doritos when we want them.”
Agreed. I can afford to feed my family without any stress. So….it is ok if I buy oreos*, but a poor mom is not allowed to do that because SHE uses SNAP? It is like he wants them punished for being poor. Asshat.
*my kid eats very healthy. But she likes Oreos. I hate the idea of her eating them, but a couple of times a year, I buy them.
This kind of thing just makes me angry. Wal-Mart Amazon etc rely on government assistance programs for their employees so they don’t have to actually pay their employees a living wage. This is well documented. And then jerks like Moby are given a platform to spew their malice and class hatred, under the guise of arguing from principle. One of the tragedies in the u.s. Is that such assistance is needed at all.
1+
This may be unpopular butt here it goes:
Families without snap often make poor foods choices too because of overworked households. It’s hard, not impossible, but really hard to be on the working hamster wheel, keep a somewhat clean home, oversee children’s homework, friends and everything else that goes with parenting while buying, maintaining, and cooking nutritious meals.
So, yes, he does have a point imo but that doesn’t mean ther isn’t an actual workable solution. A solution that doesn’t involve the government preferably. I’m talking for all Americans, snap or not.
Maybe it is just me but my working life gets so hectic and tiring that if I stick to healthy and I do, a disproportionate amount of time, it ends up being a packed sandwich for lunch, a baked meat and 1 veg for dinner. Breakfast? Pfft. I’m using that time to do this now. My, probably, poor choice.
In addition to what you say here, I think it’s worth pointing out that there is a cycle commonly seen among economically-struggling communities: they start buying processed food because it is more accessible/economical and quickly become dependent on that kind of food. We’re being completely unrealistic if we don’t acknowledge that in addition to the food desert issue, some people become addicted to unhealthy foods and the transition to a healthy diet can be a real struggle for them.
I think the point about free cooking classes that someone made up-thread is a good one. It might be easier to wean SNAP recipients off of an unhealthy diet if they can learn that healthy food can taste very good. Maybe fast, simple recipes for people who don’t have a lot of time? IDK…it’s a difficult issue.
I agree about unhealthy food addictions. I also think many do not have time to get regular exercise. Treating one’s self well is truly an undervalued privilege that I think many take for granted.
I don’t know of many women who don’t want too feed their families and themselves well, have the time for some sort of yoga, aeorobics, or other fitness regime, while maintaining good relationships with their children and/or partner but the reality is many are lucky to get 5 or six hours sleep, watch 1 must see tv show a week and keep the whole effort together and moving forward.
I don’t have the answers obviously but the problems are more than clear especially when people put down their egos and are honest.
@tulip garden, I totally agree. I’m a stay at home mom but I have four kids, one has significant special needs, on is almost five, and 2 1/2yo twins. It’s incredibly hard to keep up with housework, just taking care of the kids in general and trying to spend time with them, dealing with everything that goes along with special needs (including fighting with insurance, therapies, doc appts, and meds), and plan and make healthy meals three times a day. I never get a break and sometimes don’t leave the house for a week and when I do it’s the grocery store. There is no self care right now for me. So if I sometimes rely on $5 hot n ready pizza or frozen nuggets and fries I can’t feel bad about it.
@Mel M,
Don’t feel bad about it! There are going too be plenty of people, called know-it-all’s, that haven’t walked a mile in your shoes who will be only too happy to explain how THEY could make it work ;(.
I’ve been there in my own sense. Running my own small business, living two hours away from my terminally ill mother, my husband’s extended family with their expectations….**bwah** that’s how close I felt to exploding all the time. So yeah after pulling 10-15 hours on Friday just to jump in my car by 7 am on Saturday to drive two hours and be there as a caretaker and daughter for my mom, I might cook for her anything she felt able to eat but heading home that night or the next afternoon it was all about grabbing a burger and fries to eat on the way home. You know, so I could prepare for Monday all over again, look at bills, check business correspondence, and, *sad laugh* try to relax which equalled staying up too late just for a minute to myself.
Anyway, I just want to encourage you to not be too hard on yourself. Yes, some people, have it so different in their lives that they will never relate or be able too relate to you and what drives your decisions. They don’t have to approve, or even know, you’ve done nothing to be ashamed of and I guarantee many in your position would do far worse or abandon the effort altogether.
Virtual hugs to a great Mom, the kind that isn’t perfect but is there, doesn’t quit, and deserves far more appreciation than she gets 🙂
I’d love to see free community gardens set up in food desert neighborhoods. There’s a guy who lives near me and he goes around to all the wealthy neighborhoods and either uses spare land to grow food or he gets donated produce and then brings them either to food pantries in the area or directly to underfunded areas. They should have a system like blue apron where they can put together meal kits with fresh vegetables that can be picked up. If you grow vegetables and always have extra you can usually donate it to your local food pantry!
Boston has a program that people can donate to plants fruit trees throughout the city. They’ve started with pairs of apple trees (because you need two to propagate) and were hoping to expand to other types of fruit trees too so that there will be free fruit throughout the neighborhoods.
Whaaaaaat? That’s awesome. Link?
Chicago has a number of community gardens that help alleviate the food desert issue with seasonal fresh produce. It’s a drop in the bucket but I guess every bit helps. I live in a more affluent area and a group proposed a community garden that could be used to supplement our local food pantry and the neighbors adjacent to the park flipped out. You’d think we were proposing putting up a strip club instead of a small number of plots in an underutilized public park. So discouraging.
I remember seeing stories about a re-purposed bus that made the rounds to various food desert neighborhoods, I thought that was a brilliant idea. If the people can’t get to the grocery store, bring the grocery store to them. Something similar to these… https://foodshare.net/program/mobile/ and http://tinyurl.com/GoodFoodBus
We do that too but there are so many hoops to jump through that it can be discouraging. Once my life slows down I want to do more. I want to write a cookbook for low income families and tie it into food sources so it is realistic, easy and doable. More vegetarian, vegetable, and fresh choices. For meat consumers, I would like someone with some pull to help source it.
Moby, it’s 2018, no one cares what you think…well actually no one ever did. Where’s Eminem when you need him? Moby needs dragging…again.
In all seriousness how out of touch can you be. Is he going to address food deserts? Drive the elderly and infirm to the store a few extra times each month for produce that doesn’t stay fresh as long? Oh and Moby make sure you tell that single mother working two jobs she’s not doing well enough or feeding her kids enough quinoa. Go to hell.
lmao. my first thought when I saw moby’s name in the headline was “nobody listens to techno!”
there is so much wrong with his argument I can’t even begin. it’s sad that he is so hateful and judgmental about a situation he should understand from how he grew up.
+100%
Well said. Completely agree.
So, this multi-millionaire thinks he knows best, does he?
Well, IRL, sometimes your life takes a freakish turn completely out of your control.
i.e. Illness, loss of a job, etc.
Have we really become a nation which refuses to help people have enough to eat?
We spend billions on defense but Lord forbid we help the poor, elderly or little kids have food to eat.
Because some in this country can’t wrap their pea brains around the fact that even with hard work, multiple jobs, it’s still possible to require assistance. I’ve seen people on Facebook recently, people who grew up not far from me, complaining about how there’s an “epidemic” of abuse of the snap program in her area. Because allegedly everyone is on them in her area, yet they don’t “need” to be. My husband and I currently receive snap benefits, because he lost his job. Our budget is $48/week, per the program. On his side, he only buys cheap, frozen burritos and ramen; that’s too many carbs for me, plus those burritos and my stomach do not get along, so I tend to buy stuff that needs to be cooked from scratch (I’m trying to be healthy, because about all I have currently.) This attitude that anyone on any kind of social benefits is profiting from the system is ignorant. There’s always going to be someone crying that someone else is getting something they aren’t; meanwhile, the ones getting aren’t getting that damn much, and more likely than not would love to be able to not have to rely on help. Deplorable are really just adult children though, so I don’t know if it’ll ever change.
He looks like creepy Uncle Terry in that top photo. *shudders*
I think what he might be aiming for, in a poorly executed, roundabout way, is trying to help low income people make healthier food choices? I grew up on food stamps, but my mother was a highly educated, very intelligent woman (who happened to become physically disabled and unable to work). She used our food stamps to buy healthy foods with very few processed foods, sugary snacks or drinks. We were poor but healthy. Many of my friends’ families were also on food stamps, but their parents did not make healthy choices. Everything was microwave meals, boxed meals, white wonder bread, chips and soda. They genuinely thought this was normal food. No one I knew was intentionally trying to harm their children by feeding them this garbage.
The American diet is directly blame, as are the people who perpetuate it, mostly food companies but also the consumers that hold the demand. Education is key in changing behaviors. Educating parents and children is what should be happening everywhere.
Personally I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making it so SNAP benefits cannot purchase soda, chips and candy. But I think it should be part of a greater educational effort.
I agree. I think it’s just poorly worded. Also, there should be efforts to get good food into poorer communities. As a traditional naturopath who is mostly vegan, I understand why he is against processed foods.
I worked at a locally owned health food store in Virginia. We had several regular customers who were on SNAP, but one in particular always stood out to me and I looked forward to her weekly grocery trips. She was vegan, so positive and uplifting and was very careful about what she bought. She always bought fresh fruits and vegetables that were in season or on sale and she had carefully planned out her menu for the week and knew exactly how much of each ingredient she needed and would measure it out from the bulk bins. If a recipe called for 1 TB of Dill, that’s how much she bought, never more.
The questions are: How do we get the information to the poorer communities and how do we get the good, whole foods into the poorer communities?
I’m not Democrat or Republican and tend toward libertarian, so I’m not big on the nanny state telling people what kind of food they can or cannot eat. However, I would like to see the government utilize some of their wealth to educate and bring better food choices to the poorer communities in our country.
Fully and effectively implementing food education into the public school system would be the best way to reach children. Workshops and field trips and regular education about food, from growing, to processing, to nutrition science.
As for adults, that becomes more difficult. I suppose requiring a certain amount of education for anyone receiving SNAP or WIC would be a start. It would need to be a caring effort though, rather than the cattle call that is public assistance now. And limiting SNAP benefits slightly be making certain really bad food groups exempt from purchase may also help. I’ve seen several documentaries where local community garden/farms were initiated, and people responded really well to growing and eating what they grow. I beleive people inherently want to learn and do better, be better, they just need encouragement and ownership.
I don’t think the gorverment should be able to tell people what kind of food to buy. We are facing a public heath crisis with obesity and type 2 diabetes, though. It’s costing lives, it’s ruining quality of lives, and causing healthcare costs to skyrocket.
Access to cooking utensils and working stoves, proper storage and time is an issue. In addition the lack of affordable grocery stores in the core areas of cities is a growing problem. We have folks living in motels with no access to stoves so we built a community kitchen. Unfortunately if they have no access to a stove, there is no fridge for cold storage, so we began community dinners three nights a week. “Junk” food is cheaper and easier to prepare..a box of KD can go along way. It is exhausting explaining every single day why people use food banks..some are short term, some are long term. the growing number of seniors and veterans is heartbreaking. The numbers of working families using food banks has increased substantially. Every time someone criticizes food banks or people struggling with food insecurity I invite them for a tour of our facility and have a few of our volunteers share their stories. A few years ago a group released a report titled “It Takes all day to be poor” – My day is spent looking for food, money, resources, solutions and crisis management, holding hands and hugging crying people. So let’s make their lives more bleak, more powerless. It’s nauseating when wealthy people criticize programs or use the words” I grew up poor” as if they can relate.
THIS. One of the saddest things I learned recently is that the Houston Food Bank is the largest in the country, serving 17 counties in southeast Texas. (I live in Houston.) But very little of the food donated is fresh or perishable; they mostly dole out pasta, cereals, canned fruits and vegetables, juices, shelf stable milk or powdered milk, and the processed foods Moby hates, like canned chili or soups or granola bars. Many of their clients are already on SNAP or working full-time, low wage jobs. They are way more concerned about survival than organic vegetables.
Eminem was right about him.
In my borough in Buenos Aires, we have a community fridge to leave food, drinks and leftovers for anyone to just take if in need. I’m always adding more food to it but now that Autumn is here and apparently winter is going to be extremely cold, I’m not sure how to keep on helping (besides maybe leaving blankets and winter clothes).
I’ll look into food banks.
Except it’s not just about cooking classes. Some low income people have no time to cook, in between multiple jobs, or if it’s a choice between cooking and limited time w family, or if it’s an inability to cook due to depression that’s symptomatic of the stress of being poor, or if it’s a matter of cooking but having nowhere to store food (broken fridge the landlord won’t replace, unable to consistently pay electric bill bc other bills must take priority etc). It’s way more complicated than “teach them how to cook!!!”
What’s uncomplicated is that Moby is an ass abd I hope his income dries up and he has to be on food stamps.
Ok, noted food policy expert Moby.
How and why did the WSJ choose *him* of all people to write this op-ed?
My tax dollars shouldn’t have to pay for tools for wars…for giving tax cuts to uber rich folks/corporations…shouldn’t be given to slush funds and the coal/oil industry…but ONE thing my tax dollars CAN DO…it can go to poor people who have had to deal with racism/classicism…who live in a never ending cycle of poverty…inadequate educational system…constantly exposed to lead paint, Radon, PCBs and other environmental horrors… damn near no access to consistent, DECENT medical care…where the outcomes of those environments far too often result in physical/psychological violence …and where the ability to find a supermarket that offers a decent selection of fresh vegetables/milk/meats/grains is as common as finding a four leaf clover in a field of fresh grass in the middle of the hood…those people who get my tax dollars in SNAP benefits…can spend their piddling monies on whatever brand of Cheetos/Fritos/Fanta Soda/Ramen Noodle…or ANYTHING ELSE they want to use those benefits for…until we solve the ROOT problem and until we TRULY apply justice and humanity to EVERYTHING the government regulates and control…Moby and his ilk can go f–k themselves while they wear their vegan leather shoes and congratulate their wonderful lives over a delicious meal of Chocolate Balsamic Red Beets, Avocado Gazpacho, Butternut Squash Burger, Mango Avocado Salad and chase that down with a Persimmon Smoothie!!!
LOL. I love your post.
Yes to everything you said.
Yes!
Yes, this. Here is the thing people don’t realize – diabetes still exists in other countries where people eat ‘natural’ food because a huge component of diabetes is social stress – like racism, food insecurity, homelessness, sexism.
Fun fact: Jewish people were considered a diabetic prone race in the US until the 1950s. There is a researcher at Vanderbilt who noted that doctors thought it was the Jewish diet, some weakness about the Jewish race, or laziness, until Jewish people began to be considered Caucasian. Funny how being considered white changes your risk factor for diabetes. Yes, they used to list being Jewish as a diabetes risk factor. Think about that!
Even risk factors for health can be classist and racist.
LaLa, your post is EVERYTHING!!
this sanctimonious little dweeb is so completely out of touch. remember his attention-seeking “vegan at denny’s” post? we all know denny’s is not the place for vegans to go, yet he went there just to make some sad post.
You’ll never please anyone even moderately wealthy when it comes to food stamps. I’ve been on food stamps before. You get even worse looks and snide comments when you dare to buy healthy, pricier things like seafood, any meat not hamburger, and fresh vegetables. I would shop sales at multiple stores, coupon, and buy discounted meats whenever possible, but you still get looks and murmured comments like “Glad *they* can eat so well”. Dare to buy hamburger helper or cheetos and you’re “wasting it on junk.” It’s seriously no-win, and god help you if you want to splurge on steaks for your birthday once a year.
This this this.
I think Government should put more controls on the ignorant speech of Moby.
I mean, theoretically he is not wrong. The problem he doesn’t consider is that many people who receive food stamps are living in food deserts—“junk food” may well be the only food they readily have access to. Cutting which food qualifies so drastically would only make these people even Moreno vulnerable.
If you aren’t IN the situation, keep your damn mouth shut if you have a public platform that will gather attention.
How dare someone, anyone, try to dictate someone else’s food choices? I guess that because you’re poor, you listen to what some unintelligent, washed-up celebrity has to say.
Dignity is reserved for the wealthy.
He might sound elitist but there is a point. The problem is that healthy food is quite expensive so poor people tend to buy cheap junk food which is high in calories but low in nutrients. So those people become overweight and get all kinds of health issues that come with obesity and malnutrition. This means they need health care which they can’t afford (at least not in the USA) and might not be able to work because of this. So they stay poor (of both money and health) and even die sooner. I have no idea how this food stamp system works since I’m not from the USA but it would make sense to provide them anything which enables them to buy healthier stuff.
Except he’s not saying that – he’s saying cut the benefits EVEN MORE than they already have. Most of the people on programs on SNAP are *working* families. Their wages are just so pathetically low because we live in a country where the minimum wage is as low as $7.25/hr and taxpayers have to make up the slack so corporate CEOs can make millions. Restricting the benefits isn’t going to help these people when the entire system is stacked against them. It’s just going to leave more people hungry. You want people to eat healthier, you have to start at the top of the pyramid of problems – and that means addressing the immense economic inequality in the country.
Even beyond the general issue of SNAP, the reality is that there is plenty of food in America. We waste billions of pounds of food every year. Because of PROFIT. There’s no reason why we can’t feed people well. We just choose not to because somebody wants to make bank off of manipulated markets.
A while ago I read a really interesting twitter post about why some people on food stamps eat “junk” food and that it doesn’t have to do with poor decisions or laziness as some judgy people think. The poster grew up using food stamps. They stated because food stamps don’t cover 3 meals a day/7 days a week for an entire family of anyone, you sometimes have no idea when your next meal will occur. So eating is more about calories than it is about nutrients. They stated that cake mix is one of the cheapest things because the box, the eggs and the oil are inexpensive, but it has a high caloric value. A salad on the other hand is healthier, but very low calorie. So if that’s your only meal for the day, the cake is going to provide more calories and is able to feed more people than the salad. It really opened my mind
I grew up on food stamps and this is very true. SNAP doesnt actually cover 3 square meals a day. Period. You arent given enough to actually do that. In my house we maybe had one traditional meal a day- maybe. And then we would have to come up with ways to fill up the rest of the day. We also lived in a food desert so our choices overall were limited. We had a corner store and a Walgreens. That’s it.
That makes a lot of sense. These stories of people struggling to find food make me so sad. I’m my family you show love with food, not in a bad way but, like barbecues, get togethers, and holidays. Every year we make tamales on Christmas Eve, things like that. My grandma, you walk in her house and it’s, “are you hungry?” Right away. I know I’m lucky growing up in California, we have so much access to healthy food here where I live.
The thought of people going hungry because of politics is sickening. No one wants to truly solve the problem of food deserts, or homelessness, or joblessness, they just want to hold themselves above others and think that they know better because they were “smart enough” to not be born poor. Moby is a d*ck. People need community gardens and access to healthy food in order to eat healthy food. Attacking people who are just getting by is totally disgusting when giant corporation can rely on government money to keep us addicted to junk food made from subsidized crops.
Why didn’t Moby just write about the real problem, which is the agricultural-biz complex that produces “food” out of waste products from industrial processing of surplus grains and the “grocery stores” that stock these faux foods? Not to mention food deserts. I live in a city in a red state and it’s so obvious that the food I used to have at hand when living in an upscale part of California is not even available for sale here. Attacking at the consumer level, whether someone is paying cash or using food stamps, is just absurd. Not to mention completely offensive.
Yes, why focus on further restricting the person with the least amount of control rather than looking at the system around them. This is Moby punching down to make himself feel smarter and more important.
my mother is elderly and disabled and she’s had her food stamps cut.
I hate seeing my mom buying scraps of food and her cabinets and frig bare.
I’ve been helping her every which way I can.
the government continue to mistreat their poor citizens, so I’m guessing Moby will be sending my mom a personal chef to feed her? I really would like to see Congress live off of $71 a month for food. You can add these celebrities to this idea as well.
Your comment moves me because I am older and disabled. My son is 22 and I don’t want him to have to consider me his eventual responsibility. But there’s only one way I can be sure of that, and that day hasn’t come yet. When it comes, when I can finally no longer care for myself, I hope I have the love and the courage to do what must be done. I don’t know if I’m that strong. But I love my boy more than I could ever say. I want the best chance for him no matter what. I pray God will give me the strength on that day, and that prayer will be a heresy by the creed I was taught, but God will understand. Your love for your mother moves me terribly.
CaffeineQueen, all my love to you. I was worried and frightened by your comment about what you might do if you can’t take care of yourself in the future. As the daughter of parents who have had significant health problems and may have more in the coming years, I’m hoping that you please think about what your son would think about your possible plans. It would be difficult for me to take care of my parents in their twilight years by myself. But sometimes love requires hard work and sacrifices. The pain of that is something I’d be willing to bear, whereas the torture of knowing that my parents had harmed themselves to relieve me of that burden would haunt me for always.
Your son would rather take care of you than not have you around, trust me. Talk to your son about this, he will agree with me. Part of grown life is dealing with adult responsibilities. Your son will be just fine even if he has to take care of you. You’re his mother, you birthed him and raised him. Later might be his turn. He will repay your love with his love. It’s the cycle of life, let it play out. much love to you.
@Kaiser food insecurity, poverty and homelessness are the issues I care most about as well. The majority of my charitable donations go to local food banks and Feeding America. I also grew up poor and my family at one point was homeless. Government programs like SNAP ans Section 8 helped my mother get on her feet. So when rich privileged white dudes says crap like this…it makes my blood boil. It is SO tone deaf. SO short-sighted and so f*cking patriarchal. Not only does it treat poor people like they need to be monitored and policed but it also doesnt account for the REAL issues regarding food insecurity: which are food deserts and the COST of eating healthy. If Moby TRULY wanted to solve the issue he would focus on those things. I ate a lot of junk growing up. Why? Because there was not a grocery store with a 5 mile radius of where I lived. We had corner stores and a drugstore. That’s it. And when we did have the chance to shop for food properly “healthy” foods were often out of our price range. I have never liked Moby. He has always struck me as pompous and enamored of his own opinions. This WSJ piece just confirms that.
1) studies have shown it IS more expensive to eat healthy. Fresh food goes bad faster than processed food. 2) Poor people on benefits deserve treats too. 3) The reason working poor people buy junk is because it’s a fast, cheap energy boost that fills them up and they don’t usually have the luxury of sitting around planning and researching healthy meal recipes and in many cases don’t have the luxury of access to variety in their groceries.
The thing I think they should limit is regular soda and other sugary drinks. Obesity is an increasing problem with kids, especially amongst poor children. There are so many avenues that need to be addressed (free exercise classes, free cooking classes, making fresh foods available), but I think cutting sugary beverages as an option would end up helping people in the long run. A bottle of Diet Coke or a bottle of seltzer costs as much as a bottle of Coke.
I see what you’re saying, but you don’t know the circumstances of everyone receiving SNAP. I work with low income people, and a lot of the kids I see have ADHD. Caffeine is an old school way of dealing with that, and I typically suggest the families try a small amount of Coca Cola in the morning rather than starting out with stimulant medications. If I had gone that route as a kid (or as an adult), I would have had to have the real stuff because artificial sweeteners give me headaches. Also, there’s an argument to be made that artificial sweeteners are also bad for you.
The problem is that everyone has a different opinion of what SNAP recipients should eat (except for apparently most of the commenters here who are saying they don’t care, and I’m all about that). For Moby, SNAP recipients shouldn’t eat cheese. WIC pays for cheese because the federal government has decided it is a nutritious supplement (and the dairy industry is well funded). For you, it’s sugary soda. For someone else, perhaps they think SNAP recipients shouldn’t eat organic because if that person can’t afford organic without benefits, why should someone on welfare get to feed their kids organic? These are all real arguments I’ve heard people make.
Ultimately, the best solution is ongoing education about healthful food, better access to nutritious food, and other things that will encourage healthier eating (like a minimum wage that enables someone to support their family while not working 80 hours a week). That’s what’s going to get people eating healthier.
To quote Marshall Mathers:
Moby … you’re too old. Let go. It’s over. Nobody listens to techno.
He needs to sit his irrelevant, no-lipped self DOWN.
Dude–your white male privilege is showing. My husband and I both work full time and have a 8YO (with my second due literally any day now). We live in Austin where I can walk to a grocery store and organic food and juice market. We make plenty of money. But you know what’s hard and kind of exhausting? Finding time to shop regularly and make fresh, healthy meals every day while juggling kid activities and helping with homework and work deadlines. We do it–it’s better budget-wise and health-wise than takeout–and we love dinner together most nights. But damn, we both get tired of it and it often feels like a grind. And that’s with all the resources we could possibly need, including a car to buy groceries and not deal with inconsistent public transportation schedules.
Moby likely has NO idea what the life of a single mom looks like (I was a divorced single mom for several years before remarrying and had even less time then). Or what it’s like to live in a food desert. Or what it’s like to have to watch every penny and know that you can either buy 5 boxes of processed mac and cheese and get 10 meals, or spend twice that much on ingredients for a salad that will give you 2 meals. That’s assuming you can get to a grocery store with fresh produce that’s affordable.
Also. When you’re already poor and struggling, having someone police the fact that yes, today I want to buy a bottle of Coke because it’s a simple, cheap, guilty (and yes, unhealthy) pleasure is about the least helpful thing in the world. When I was a struggling single mom, I used to get overwhelmed with waves of guilt when I splurged on a $2 tube of drugstore lip gloss as a pick me up, all because that $2 could be used elsewhere on something more important.
Ugh, sorry for the rant but his kind of nonsense just makes me angry.
When you don’t have enough food, you shop for calories. Simple as that. A 400 kcal bag of ramen will keep you going much longer than a 200 kcal salad. People can die mad about it clutching their bags of kale. Focus on the billionaires ripping money out of the hands of the labor class before you turn that lens on the poor.
Moby is your typical r/iamverysmart guy. His statements have always been incredibly ignorant and straight into very dumb territory.
But hey, he sold some CDs so he must have something to say, right?!
And its so easy to criticise poor people. Just dont criticise the system.
Reading the comments felt like a lovely warm bubble bath after a long cold walk in the rain. How anyone can be that blind, and that cruel, amazes me. Poor mothers should have to deny their children a bit of candy? Who are you really, dude, the Grinch? Because if we are all made of stars then you are just made of bullsh*t. F*** off for life you worthless waste of breathable air.
I don’t judge people on what they buy. Seriously we got to stop being food nazi’s. It’s not going into your body so who cares how others eat? Anyway, these are low income people using SNAP. Like the poster said, if they use it to buy a candy bar or a cake as a little award for themselves, why not? They should be able to enjoy the little things in life. Why are they stuck with beans and rice?
It’s not like you can use SNAP to buy tobacco and liquor.
i agree with Mobi. And for the record I am Latina and live in Florida. There is a looooooot of fraud going on with the food stamps, I personally know people who make over 100K/year that receive government benefits. On the other hand, I know people who don’t qualify but have medical issues (spinal cord injuries) and get zero from the government because they “make too much money”
SNAP actually has the lowest rate of fraud of any assistance program (under 5%, IIRC). I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but it’s really unusual. Everyone seems to know a friend of a friend who is cheating the system, but when my parents nearly had to file for bankruptcy, a lot of people had no idea it was happening because they kept up a brave front. The truth is that nobody knows what’s going on in someone else’s house.
You can choose to judge others when you don’t know their circumstances, or you can choose to believe the best about people. In a situation like this, kindness isn’t costing you anything.
He’s not even talking about fraud, Ericka. He’s talking about people buying junk food, and that doesn’t constitute as fraud. That’s a completely separate issue.
Yeah…I’m on board with this. And I’ve had to be on food stamps as a single mother with 2 kids. I see too many people buying cases of coke, cookies…carts full of garbage. It’s disgusting and I feel sorry for the kids whose parents are so fat, gross and lazy- with zero interest in feeding their kids healthy food.
Moby – Dick
You know, I’m a little tired of people like Moby telling ‘poor’ people what they should do. As if they can’t make decisions for themselves. They are not stupid, they simply have fewer financial resources. Where did we get this attitude that you can tell others how to live because you’ve got two pennies to rub together? My gawd can we just let people live??
He’s a food stamp kid himself as are a lot of middle aged American white dudes … I don’t think he’s an ass.
He mag have got all into Health due to growing up like that .
I grew up on junk food every time we got poor (frequently) and then we’d get chubby and unhealthy too. A lot of the problem is junk food producers love it that poor people load up on their unhealthy shitty products because it is affordable because it is government subsidized.
Corn products, soy. Junk food is addictive and it’s a con. They’ve got poor Americans by the throat from childhood.
It’s a complicated issue. I have some but not much problem with people being called out for giving kids crap. Yes at times it is unavoidable due to convenience, poverty, etc. Sometimes it’s an excuse and no effort is made.
It’s kids who will deal with the consequences emotionally and physically the rest of their lives raised like that and if they’re poor kids they have less chance of keeping their teeth, keeping fit, keeping healthy. – by teenage years it’s is already often a problem. I’m speaking as someone who came up
Like this. I’ve seen what it does to families including my own. It’s not always being a Jerk or shaming.
The thing that I hate the most about this is the lack of acknowledgement of the issues that poor parents (especially in communities of color) have with getting fresh and affordable food. It’s played off as concern, but it’s truly about control of a target that can’t fight back. If Moby really cared about SNAP families getting healthy meals, he’d be arguing to allow SNAP benefits to go towards hot, already cooked food.
He sounds reeeeally out of touch; like, even more than Gwyneth Paltrow, because at least she KNOWS she’s out of touch. Her recipes and lifestyle stuff aren’t for people on food stamps and she’s at least aware of this. Moby wants to sit here telling poor people how to eat? I was on SNAP for a while and I did get pretty healthy food because for me, it WAS supplemental – I had a job, just not quite enough to make ends meet. I went in to get Medicaid and they hooked me up with SNAP too. But since I’ve moved here (rural Kentucky, horrible economy), I’ve realized that for a lot of people, that SNAP card is the ONLY thing they can use for food. If they don’t economize (frozen foods, chips, whatever’s cheap) they may end up without any food by the end of the month. An elderly woman lives downstairs for me, raising her special needs grandson; on a regular basis some of us will go by there with random food.
You can’t buy class.
Moby sucks, but I wouldn’t mind seeing sodas, candy, cookies and those kind of things eliminated. But instead of cutting the amount of the benefits, allow them to use the funds to buy toiletry items like soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, etc.
I know this is anecdotal, but I once saw a couple with two young daughters buy NINE two liter bottles of soda (not diet) using SNAP benefits. I’m happy for my tax dollars to help others, but not for something like that.
So what do you think it should be spent on?
Kroger is about to created a lot more food deserts, since they’re set to close several urban locations. Aside from fresh fruits and vegetables being available the reality is for six dollars you can buy a pack of hotdogs, buns and a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese and feed four people. Or you could buy a bag of arugula and two apples.
Unless he’s proposing doubling or tripling the benefits and opening their use to food delivery companies like Green Bean for those without transportation he’s essentially just shaming people who are doing their best to just keep their families fed.
What the actual fuck, Moby?
All of my mostly positive pre-conceived, vaguely positive notions (based on nothing) about Moby have been smashed and I’m kind of disappointed in him. I thought Moby was… You know… like a humanist intellectual type.
He’s pretty clueless, though. And kind of a sick.