How rural poor get by

23 August 2000



How rural poor ‘get by’

By FWi staff

THE lives of rural poor who forage for firewood, steal vegetables from fields at night or do odd jobs for payment in kind, are considered by The Guardian.

Poorest people in country have least access to services and turn to bartering of hunting and gathering to get by, says the newspaper.

It gives examples of a woman who scours local woodland for fallen timber, and a man who steals carloads of carrots and potatoes from fields, some of which he sells in pubs.

He also poaches does odd jobs in return for items such as curtains and a television and video.

• Poverty is hidden, FWi, 11 February 2000
• Farmworkers just 9p above breadline, FWi, 18 March 1999
• Rural poverty as bad as in inner cities, FWi, 06 October 1998
  
• The Guardian 23/08/2000 Society pages 6 and 7