Hunger Figures Show Massive Failure of Food Stamps (Or Fishy Statistics)

By Paul Roderick Gregory – Statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Agriculture reveal that childhood hunger rates remain high. The U.S. Census Bureau calculates that 29.2 percent of families with children are “food insecure,” to use the agriculture department’s term. Insofar as 32 million of the 78 million U.S. families have children, this means that some 20 million children live in food insecure households.

Another 32 million school children receive free or highly subsidized meals at schools. The federal, state and local government cost of school meals is some $14 billion, or about $438 per year per recipient. For the single mother with two kids, free school lunches add almost $1,000 to her food budget.

Either we have a colossal policy failure of our federal food programs or there is something fishy with the federal government’s measure of “hunger.” more> http://tinyurl.com/c5tw7x2

The Consumerization Of The Food Enterprise

By Christian Hutter – Advances in mobile technology and the growing adoption of smartphone use have fueled the convergence of consumer technologies with enterprise technologies, a trend broadly referred to as the “consumerization of the enterprise.”

New government legislation and industry initiatives are also driving food enterprises to go even further and deliver field-to-fork traceability. However, food enterprises should ask this question: Why not integrate their enterprise software systems with mobile applications where they not only code, track and trace product items at the field level, processing facility or packing plant, but also connect directly with consumers to build consumer confidence, product loyalty and increased business? more> http://tinyurl.com/bg8cmeq

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• CIOs, CSOs must evolve with consumerization, BYOD (zdnet.com)
• Startups learn a painful lesson: The ‘Dropbox effect’ is a myth | VentureBeat (venturebeat.com)
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Without A Trace

Acsis – “We are in an age when consumers are too savvy to rely on brand loyalty anymore,” said John DiPalo, Chief Technology Officer for Acsis, Inc. “People want more than just reassurances that their medicine and food products are safe.”

With more companies outsourcing for raw materials and distribution, having end-to-end visibility in a supply chain is an absolute necessity in order to ensure public safety, as well as brand protection. While branding is the proven means of gaining consumer loyalty, there is downside — the stronger the brand, the greater the risk. A global brand’s strength can become a liability overnight if tainted with a product quality issue such as a food or medication scandal. more> http://tinyurl.com/abp7pxv

The real reason for spikes in food prices

By Yaneer Bar-Yam and Greg Lindsay – More than 40 percent of grain futures can now be traced to financial institutions, which nearly doubled their commodity bets over the last five years — from $65 billion to $126 billion.

When it comes to food, our faith in markets is contingent on their ability to match supply and demand at prices that benefit farmers, while ensuring the greatest number of people can afford to eat. Speculation in grain futures knocks these prices out of equilibrium. more> http://tinyurl.com/9kykfkw

Related articles

• The real reason for spikes in food prices (blogs.reuters.com)
• Experts: Food Prices Will Soar Leading To Political, Civil Unrest (truthfrequencyradio.com)
• Food Prices Rising: Reaching Near Emergency Levels, Riots Expected (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
• Food Prices Rising: Reaching Near Emergency Levels, Riots Expected (naturalsociety.com)
• We Are Now One Year Away From Global Riots, Complex Systems Theorists Say (earthfirstnews.wordpress.com)
• Experts: Food Prices Will Soar Leading to Political, Civil Unrest (americanfreepress.net)
• We Are Now One Year Away From Global Riots (ypervasi.wordpress.com)