Food insecurity has reached higher levels in America than in China

Gallup surveys in China and the United States suggest that America has fallen behind China in providing food security to the neediest segments of its society:

Gallup surveys in China and the U.S. reveal Chinese are struggling less than Americans to put food on their tables. Six percent of Chinese in 2011 say there have been times in the past 12 months when they did not have enough money to buy food that they or their family needed, down significantly from 16% in 2008. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans saying they did not have money for food in the previous 12 months more than doubled from 9% in 2008 to 19% in 2011.

An unapologetically capitalistic, profit-oriented source interprets this development in unambiguously ominous terms:

More Americans have trouble providing food to their families than the Chinese do. That is extraordinary news because the U.S. is the world’s leading consumer economy and China is only considered an emerging one. The information says a great deal about how the people below the poverty line in America have seen their fortunes fall rapidly, probably in part because of the economy. There is no evidence that the situation will get better.