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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry

By 
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/elizabeth+williamson/>Elizabeth 
Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 16, 2006; Page A01

The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry 
again. But they may experience "very low food security."

Every year, the Agriculture Department issues a report that measures 
Americans' access to food, and it has consistently used the word 
"hunger" to describe those who can least afford to put food on the 
table. But not this year.

Mark Nord, the lead author of the report, said "hungry" is "not a 
scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being 
measured in the food security survey." Nord, a USDA sociologist, 
said, "We don't have a measure of that condition."

The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans -- 35 million people -- 
could not put food on the table at least part of last year. Eleven 
million of them reported going hungry at times. Beginning this year, 
the USDA has determined "very low food security" to be a more 
scientifically palatable description for that group.

The rest of the story is at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501621.html