There is such food poverty here, I am not sure why. Lack of pride? lack of ingredients? lack of culinary tradition?
Not lack of pride.
Not lack of 'ingredients', unless you really meant foreign ingredients.
Not lack of culinary tradition - how insulting.
There is such food poverty here because we fail to make sure our citizens have enough money to live on.
It really is that simple.
From the most recent Government figures:
Median equivalised net household income in 2011/12 was £367 per week, After Housing Costs (AHC).
Income inequality remained reasonably level between 2010/11 and 2011/12. This is because the income of households fell by broadly similar amounts.
But households in the lowest quintiles fell by more than those in the highest quintiles.
The higher falls in the bottom quintiles' AHC income are driven by Housing support not rising in line with housing costs.
Around two-thirds of individuals had an equivalised household income that was less than the national mean.
The presence of substantial numbers of individuals with relatively high incomes results in a skewed distribution and a large difference between the overall mean and the median.
Translation:
Two out of five UK households have less than the national average to live on after housing costs.
The poorest households are suffering greater losses than any others; this is because housing support has been reduced.
300,000 people have less than £100 a week to live on.
The situation is getting rapidly worse since those figures were done. Housing support has failed to keep pace with rent increases, various other benefits have been cut, numbers of welfare dependents are increasing and the wealth gap is increasing.
The government is re-defining poverty (out of line with world standards) to make it look as if fewer people - particularly children - are living in absolute poverty. The horrific new workfare scheme is being pushed forwards to hide the continuing surge in unemployment.
We are a rich country. We can afford to support our underprivileged.