 |
|
Poor in rural Oregon face 'double binds' when getting food
October 28, 2009CORVALLIS, Ore. - A new study by Oregon State University researchers shows that those in poverty in rural Oregon often know what kinds of foods they should be eating, but face tough choices between eating well and spending less money for meals.
Joan Gross and Nancy Rosenberger, both professors of anthropology at OSU, examined the "double binds" of rural Oregonians living in poverty by conducting in-depth interviews with 76 low-income households in two rural Benton County communities. Their paper will be published in the December issue of the journal, Food, Culture & Society.
They found that when times were tough and money tight, food became a flexible expense.
"Paying the mortgage, keeping the electricity on, making sure you have enough money for medical care, these were the priorities," Gross said.
Oregon's economic inequality is one of the highest in the nation. From the 1970s to 2005, the wealthiest 1 percent of Oregonians tripled their income while the typical family saw no income change. Rosenberger and Gross said those they surveyed did not come from generations of poverty, and most of them were working, sometimes two or more jobs. Instead, respondents were people with middle class jobs, and a health emergency or a layoff at work that made them unable to maintain their same standard of living.
"The people we talked to thought of themselves as middle class, even though they might be on food stamps and make a wage far below the poverty line," Rosenberger said. "This is what we mean by double binds - inculcated habits that do not match the changing field in social, economic and political ways."
Specifically, researchers found the low-income families they interviewed often did things against their own better judgment. Even when people knew what foods they should be eating, they stuck with food habits acquired while growing up. One man who was diabetic was aware of what he should and shouldn't be eating but admitted that carbohydrate-rich food was more comforting and familiar. Others talked about the need to add more fruits and vegetables to their diets, but said it was too expensive.
"There were three main problems that we found," Gross said. "One, people said they didn't have enough money eat to healthy foods. Two, there was a perception that boxed and processed food was always cheaper. And finally, we found that those who used food pantries or gleaning groups did not get enough fruits and vegetables in the winter, and their diet suffered as a result."
In addition, many families faced a bind of social stigma. In order to feel like they fit in with societal norms, respondents said they made sure their kids were well dressed and had other material symbols of capital, such as cars and computers.
"Food is something that fills you up but people can't see it or necessarily judge your social capital based on it," Rosenberger said. "People who have lost their economic power don't automatically lose their taste and expectations that go with being in a certain economic class."
Finally, researchers found that the respondents were reluctant to accept any government assistance. Government assistance is avoided at both household and community levels, especially by people who have lived rurally throughout their lives. In general, people felt more comfortable if they were using public assistance to support other people, such as young children. Interviewees in general were happy with WIC program and free and reduced lunch programs because they benefited children.
However, adults often felt if they used other forms of support, there was stigma attached. One woman told researchers, "My husband wouldn't use food stamps. He's got pride."
Rosenberger and Gross said the best solution to these double binds is to strengthen local food systems so that all Oregonian can feel more empowered about food buying. Both researchers have become involved in the Ten Rivers Food Web, a group dedicated to building an economically and environmentally sustainable local food system in Benton, Linn and Lincoln counties. Gross, who is president of the organization, said their vision is that 30 percent of the food consumed in those three counties is grown, processed and distributed there.
Currently, about 2 percent of the food grown in the tri-county "foodshed" (Benton, Linn and Lincoln) is consumed there. A report issued last year by Ken Meter, president of Crossroads Resource Center estimated than $400 million a year is lost by not keeping the food in the community.
"We need to start thinking of food as a human right," Gross said. "People can be more productive, healthier and more engaged if they are well fed. It benefits the body, but it also benefits our economy and our communities."
Oregon State University
"Paying the mortgage, keeping the electricity on, making sure you have enough money for medical care, these were the priorities," Gross said.
Oregon's economic inequality is one of the highest in the nation. From the 1970s to 2005, the wealthiest 1 percent of Oregonians tripled their income while the typical family saw no income change. Rosenberger and Gross said those they surveyed did not come from generations of poverty, and most of them were working, sometimes two or more jobs. Instead, respondents were people with middle class jobs, and a health emergency or a layoff at work that made them unable to maintain their same standard of living.
"The people we talked to thought of themselves as middle class, even though they might be on food stamps and make a wage far below the poverty line," Rosenberger said. "This is what we mean by double binds - inculcated habits that do not match the changing field in social, economic and political ways."
Specifically, researchers found the low-income families they interviewed often did things against their own better judgment. Even when people knew what foods they should be eating, they stuck with food habits acquired while growing up. One man who was diabetic was aware of what he should and shouldn't be eating but admitted that carbohydrate-rich food was more comforting and familiar. Others talked about the need to add more fruits and vegetables to their diets, but said it was too expensive.
"There were three main problems that we found," Gross said. "One, people said they didn't have enough money eat to healthy foods. Two, there was a perception that boxed and processed food was always cheaper. And finally, we found that those who used food pantries or gleaning groups did not get enough fruits and vegetables in the winter, and their diet suffered as a result."
In addition, many families faced a bind of social stigma. In order to feel like they fit in with societal norms, respondents said they made sure their kids were well dressed and had other material symbols of capital, such as cars and computers.
"Food is something that fills you up but people can't see it or necessarily judge your social capital based on it," Rosenberger said. "People who have lost their economic power don't automatically lose their taste and expectations that go with being in a certain economic class."
Finally, researchers found that the respondents were reluctant to accept any government assistance. Government assistance is avoided at both household and community levels, especially by people who have lived rurally throughout their lives. In general, people felt more comfortable if they were using public assistance to support other people, such as young children. Interviewees in general were happy with WIC program and free and reduced lunch programs because they benefited children.
However, adults often felt if they used other forms of support, there was stigma attached. One woman told researchers, "My husband wouldn't use food stamps. He's got pride."
Rosenberger and Gross said the best solution to these double binds is to strengthen local food systems so that all Oregonian can feel more empowered about food buying. Both researchers have become involved in the Ten Rivers Food Web, a group dedicated to building an economically and environmentally sustainable local food system in Benton, Linn and Lincoln counties. Gross, who is president of the organization, said their vision is that 30 percent of the food consumed in those three counties is grown, processed and distributed there.
Currently, about 2 percent of the food grown in the tri-county "foodshed" (Benton, Linn and Lincoln) is consumed there. A report issued last year by Ken Meter, president of Crossroads Resource Center estimated than $400 million a year is lost by not keeping the food in the community.
"We need to start thinking of food as a human right," Gross said. "People can be more productive, healthier and more engaged if they are well fed. It benefits the body, but it also benefits our economy and our communities."
Oregon State University
Poverty Current Events and Poverty News RSSRenewable oil companies
The entry of oil companies into the realm of renewable energy could present major obstacles for the development of a sustainable economy that is not based on carbon resources, according to a report in the International Journal of Green Economics.
Family meals, adequate sleep and limited TV may lower childhood obesity
A new national study suggests that preschool-aged children are likely to have a lower risk for obesity if they regularly engage in one or more of three specific household routines: eating dinner as a family, getting adequate sleep and limiting their weekday television viewing time.
Haiti earthquake a reminder that disasters are preventable, CU-Boulder expert says
Amid all the commentary focused on the historic tragedy in Haiti, a tough but important fact has gone virtually unmentioned, according to a nationally recognized expert on disasters at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Post-Katrina New Orleans safety-net clinic patients report more efficient, affordable health care
A new Commonwealth Fund survey of safety-net clinic patients in New Orleans finds that, despite being disproportionately low-income and uninsured, these patients had fewer problems affording care and fewer instances of medical debt and inefficient care than most U.S. adults.
Disadvantaged neighborhoods set children's reading skills on negative course: UBC study
A landmark study from the University of British Columbia finds that the neighbourhoods in which children reside at kindergarten predict their reading comprehension skills seven years later.
URMC Study Links Vitamin D, Race, and Cardiac Deaths
Vitamin D deficiency may contribute to a higher number of heart and stroke-related deaths among black Americans compared to whites, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study.
Solar-powered irrigation significantly improves diet and income in rural sub-Saharan Africa
Solar-powered drip irrigation systems significantly enhance household incomes and nutritional intake of villagers in arid sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new Stanford University study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Poor face greater health burden than smokers or the obese
The average low-income person loses 8.2 years of perfect health, the average high school dropout loses 5.1 years, and the obese lose 4.2 years, according to researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
New Commonwealth Fund survey of young adults finds wide majority support health reform
An overwhelming majority-88 percent-of young adults across the political spectrum think it is important for Congress and the President to pass health reform legislation that would assure affordable health insurance for all and improve health care, according to a Commonwealth Fund survey released today.
Better education associated with improved asthma
Individuals with more education suffer less from asthma. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Respiratory Research have found that having less than 12 years of formal schooling is associated with worse asthma symptoms.
More Poverty Current Events and Poverty News Articles
 |
A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby K. Payne (Author) Fourth Revised Edition. People in poverty face challenges virtually unknown to those in middle class or wealth--challenges from both obvious and hidden sources. The reality of being poor brings out a survival mentality, and turns attention away from opportunities taken for granted by everyone else. If you work with people from poverty, some understanding of how different their world is from yours will be invaluable. Whether you're an educator--or a social, health, or legal services professional--this breakthrough book gives you practical, real-world support and guidance to improve your effectiveness in working with people from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Since 1995 A Framework for Understanding Poverty has guided hundreds of thousands of educators and other professionals through the... |
 |
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs (Author) A landmark exploration of the way out of extreme poverty for the world’s poorest citizens Among the most eagerly anticipated books of any year, this landmark exploration of prosperity and poverty distills the life work of an economist Time calls one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Sachs’s aim is nothing less than to deliver a big picture of how societies emerge from poverty. To do so he takes readers in his footsteps, explaining his work in Bolivia, Russia, India, China, and Africa, while offering an integrated set of solutions for the interwoven economic, political, environmental, and social problems that challenge the poorest countries. Marrying passionate storytelling with rigorous analysis and a vision as pragmatic as it is fiercely moral,... |
 |
Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (BK Currents (Paperback)) by Paul Polak (Author) Based on his 25 years of experience, Polak explodes what he calls the "Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths": that we can donate people out of poverty, that national economic growth will end poverty, and that Big Business, operating as it does now, will end poverty. Polak shows that programs based on these ideas have utterly failed--in fact, in sub-Saharan Africa poverty rates have actually gone up. These failed top-down efforts contrast sharply with the grassroots approach Polak and IDE have championed: helping the dollar-a-day poor earn more money through their own efforts. Amazingly enough, unexploited market opportunities do exist for the desperately poor. Polak describes how he and others have identified these opportunities and have developed innovative, low-cost tools that have... |
 |
Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities by Ruby K. Payne (Author), Philip E. DeVol (Author), Terie Dreussi Smith (Author) Bridges Out of Poverty is a unique and powerful tool designed specifically for social, health, and legal services professionals. Based in part on Dr. Ruby K. Payne's myth shattering A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Bridges reaches out to the millions of service providers and businesses whose daily work connects them with the lives of people in poverty. In a highly readable format you'll find case studies, detailed analysis, helpful charts and exercises, and specific solutions you and your organization can implement right now to: Redesign programs to better serve people you work with; Build skill sets for management to help guide employees; Upgrade training for front-line staff like receptionists, case workers, and managers; Improve treatment outcomes in health care and behavioral... |
 |
Poverty in America: A Handbook by John Iceland (Author) In a remarkably concise, readable, and accessible format, John Iceland provides a comprehensive picture of poverty in America, He shows how poverty is measured and understood and how it has changed over time, as well as how public policies have grappled with poverty as a political issue and an economic reality. This edition has been updated and includes a new preface. |
 |
Understanding Poverty (Russell Sage Foundation Books at Harvard University Press) by Sheldon H. Danziger (Editor), Robert H. Haveman (Editor) In spite of an unprecedented period of growth and prosperity, the poverty rate in the United States remains high relative to the levels of the early 1970s and relative to those in many industrialized countries today. Understanding Poverty brings the problem of poverty in America to the fore, focusing on its nature and extent at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Looking back over the four decades since the nation declared war on poverty, the authors ask how the poor have fared in the market economy, what government programs have and have not accomplished, and what remains to be done. They help us understand how changes in the way the labor market operates, in family structure, and in social welfare, health, and education policies have affected trends in poverty. Most significantly,... |
 |
Waging a Living Directed By: Edward Rosenstein, Roger Weisberg, Frances Reid (II), Pamela Harris (IV) Tender and eye-opening, WAGING A LIVING takes an unwavering look at America’s working poor--people who work hard and play by the rules but never seem to get ahead. Over three years, the film follows four hard-working individuals as they strive for their piece of the American Dream but find only low wages, dead end jobs, and a tattered safety net in their way. As they raise children, try to get a college degree, and take care of sick relatives, these working class heroes make you root for them to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Mixing stunning facts about poverty and social injustice with the personal testimony of real-life workers, two-time Academy Award-nominated director Roger Weisberg cuts through the fog of politics and prejudice to bring the disturbing reality of the... |
 |
The Economics of Poverty and Discrimination by Bradley R Schiller (Author) For the past twenty years this book has been distinguished by its relevant coverage, tight organization, multidisciplinary perspective, and timeliness. The tenth edition preserves these qualities while incorporating new reference material. A three-part organization covers the dimensions of poverty and inequality, causes of poverty, and policy options. For social workers, welfare professionals, and job counselors.
|
 |
Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus (Author) In the last two decades, free markets have swept the globe. But traditional capitalism has been unable to solve problems like inequality and poverty. In Muhammad Yunus’ groundbreaking sequel to Banker to the Poor, he outlines the concept of social business—business where the creative vision of the entrepreneur is applied to today’s most serious problems: feeding the poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick, and protecting the planet. Creating a World Without Poverty reveals the next phase in a hopeful economic and social revolution that is already underway. |
 |
Poverty's Paradise by Naughty by Nature Poverty's Paradise is the third album from Naughty by Nature originally released on May 2, 1995 on Tommy Boy Records. At the Grammy Awards in 1996 it won the award for Best Rap Album, which was a brand new category at the time. Poverty's Paradise spawned 2 more hits from the Jersey Trio, first out the gate Craziest as well as the summer anthem Feel Me Flow . Headed up by Treach one of the most influencial yet underrated rappers of all time, Naughty By Nature continued its long run of classic material with Poverty's Paradise. This is one more of those amazing east coast 90s albums that you can't sleep on! |
| © 2010 BrightSurf.com |