New Mexico Mercury

Hunger in New Mexico

More bad news for kids in the Land of Enchantment.  Not only is New Mexico the second worst state in which to raise your children (thank God for Mississippi!) according to Kids Count, but it’s the absolute worst in food security.  Maybe we need a Department of Homeland Food Security – we’re not doing very well at protecting our children.

Food insecurity is a term that replaces “hunger,” perhaps a euphemism, but more descriptive of families that at least some of the time don’t know where the next meal is coming from...

Aaron’s Death

A young man's death harkens a re-examination of manhood in a society awash in moral conundrums.

Quality food shouldn’t be an oasis

According to the USDA, over 23 million Americans live in a food desert: an area with a concentration of low-income households and low access to a supermarket.    In an urban environment, a low access area is defined by being at least one mile from a major grocery store.  Imagine the odyssey of walking for blocks or taking public transportation carrying handfuls of plastic bags stretching ever closer to rupture or pulling an overfilled personal shopping cart only to arrive at your building to begin climbing flights of stairs to your kitchen.

How breast cancer helped me know who I am

It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has. —Hippocrates, Greek physician, ca. 460 BCE–377 BCE