For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Environment and Climate Resource Center page, Farm Issues page, and our Millions Against Monsanto page.

We continue digesting this year’s food politics coverage below — only this time we take account of the things that didn’t go so well. (Tired of bad news? See the year’s good food news instead.)

1.  Food prices have gone up, and more people need help feeding their families

The fact that 46 million people — about a seventh of the U.S. population — now receive food stamps (i.e. help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)) should be enough to tell us that something is wrong with America’s food system. But thanks to the way public food assistance is now set up, the problem is all but invisible to the rest of us.

Why are so many Americans using food stamps? Beyond our collective economic woes, a large part of the problem lies in the cost of food itself, which rose considerably in the last few years. Then there’s the speculation market, which drives up the cost of commodity crops. Ethanol doesn’t help, either.

2. The food we can afford could make us sick (or even kill us)

2011 saw the largest Class 1 (i.e. potentially lethal) meat recall in history, involving 36 million pounds of Cargill turkey tainted with multi-drug resistant Salmonella.

The listeria outbreak in cantaloupes was also the deadliest U.S. foodborne illness outbreak in 100 years.

Germany’s E. coli outbreak over the summer was also the deadliest on record — anywhere.

What happened to last winter’s Food Safety Modernization Act — the much-debated legislation that might have updated the regulations that would stop outbreaks like these? Well, to make a long story short, it was never funded. Who’s hungry now?