We haven’t had something from the lighter side of food politics for a while here at Stuffed and Starved. And, in keeping with recent trends, here’s a couple of paragraphs from Ronald Reagan, from Paul Krugman’s column in the New York Times yesterday:
In 1960, John F. Kennedy, who had been shocked by the hunger he saw in West Virginia, made the fight against hunger a theme of his presidential campaign. After his election he created the modern food stamp program, which today helps millions of Americans get enough to eat.
But Ronald Reagan thought the issue of hunger in the world’s richest nation was nothing but a big joke.
Here’s what Reagan said in his famous 1964 speech “A Time for Choosing,” which made him a national political figure: “We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet.”