Dumber than a box of rocks

My title refers to unknown persons in my state legislature-- but I'll get to that in a minute.

The kids and I visited our local food bank a couple of days ago, on a field trip. The bank receives food from various sources: surplus produce from wholesalers, goods that grocers know they can't sell before the expiration date, surplus food from restaurants, and donations from the community. They also use cash donations to buy certain items in bulk, and last year they dug up a garden plot and produced 20,000 pounds of their own vegetables. All this food is distributed to about 40 food pantries across the county, which pass it along to those in need. In addition, they've worked out some kind of token system with the farmer's market, where needy families can buy units of veggies with their tokens. People are trying really hard to get healthy protein, fruits, and vegetables to these families, since relying on cheap carbs is a sure path to health problems.

The food bank is most definitely a success story, and I was really glad to visit them and have my kids put our donated food onto their shelves. But they are struggling to keep up with a 138% increase in people asking for assistance over the past three years. That's considerably worse than in the country as a whole, where requests have increased 46% over the past three years. (No surprise here-- I live in Michigan.) On top of the rise in people needing help, food costs are going up. Our local food bank now needs three times the budget that it did in 2006.

While I was reading about food banks, I discovered that there are some people in the Michigan legislature who are so disconnected from reality that apparently only the glare of torches in the window is going to wake them up. Quoting from a report from last August (available here as a Word document):

Despite record levels of need, food banks forced to turn away fresh produce from local farmers

LANSING – Due to pending state cuts to a surplus crop donation program, food banks across the state are left with no choice but to turn away fresh produce as Michigan’s bounty of seasonal crops reach their peak.

. . .

Annually, an average of six million pounds of food are distributed to local pantries, soup kitchens and shelters that would otherwise go to waste or end up in a landfill. MASS [Michigan Agricultural Surplus System] stimulates Michigan’s economy by assisting farmers, extending the growing season and adding agricultural-based jobs, while also providing low-income families with nutritious food. The state Legislature has proposed cutting the program for the 2010 budget.

Michigan food banks are seeing up to a 30 percent increase in food distribution so far this year and it is particularly painful for the food banks to know that there is surplus food that can’t be acquired in this time when so many people are struggling financially. For example, Marshall said Michigan’s tart cherry industry is looking at likely producing 100 million more pounds of fruit this year than last year.

“We normally would have funds to get these cherries canned or processed somehow, but not this year,” she said. “Michigan producers are exceedingly generous. They hate to see food go to waste and offer it to us at a very low cost. We have been blessed with this generosity towards our MASS program for 17 years now and it kills us to have to turn down food, especially when the need is so great.”

MASS normally costs the state $635,000 annually and the funding covers the harvesting, packaging and shipping of the produce. The dollar amount is miniscule and only accounts for .05 percent of the total funding cut.

$635,000???? Seriously, they can't swing $635,000?

Food is one of the most basic needs of the citizens. If government is (ostensibly) by the people and for the people (hello!!!), the legislature would never have cut such a no-brainer food program. For 10 cents a pound, we can pay farmers, preserve food, employ workers, and distribute that food to the poor. All for a fricking dime a pound-- and this is where they imagine they see fat that can be cut? This is where they see unnecessary waste?

Fer chrissake, $635,000 is only 5 or 6 high-level school administrators. Guess what happens if you cut school administrators? Fewer meetings, same education. Cry me a river.

But instead they chose, first of all, to take money from farmers. This is typical of our cultural inability to understand what wealth is (i.e. production, food, tangible assets). The Michigan Legislature has a message for us all: If you produce something tangible, then fuck you. If you push paper all day, come see us in Lansing!

And the legislature chose, secondly, to take 6 million pounds of produce out of the mouths of the poor and to dump it into the landfill. They just couldn't manage to find that last 1/20 of a percent of the budget cut amongst the overpaid anti-producers in administrative positions. (And I mean anti-producers, I do not mean non-producers.)

If you're among those in need, the only way a trip to Lansing can help you, apparently, is if you bring along your pitchforks and your torches.