Loretta Schwartz-Nobel

Loretta Schwartz-Nobel is an American journalist and writer currently living in Pennsylvania. She is known primarily for her advocacy of the disadvantaged families of America.

Biography

Schwartz-Nobel achieved national acclaim for her article Nothing to Eat, which was published in the Christmas 1974 issue of Philadelphia magazine. Nothing to Eat brought attention to the hardships of the poor and destitute living in the city of Philadelphia, and later went on to win the 1975 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award "for outstanding coverage of the problems of the disadvantaged."

For the next seven years, Schwartz-Nobel traveled the United States, conducting similar research in several other cities, including Boston, Washington, and Chicago, and writing articles for local newspapers and magazines in each city. In 1981, she wrote her first novel, Starving in the Shadow of Plenty, which highlighted destitute living conditions of poor families within America, focusing on the difficulty of obtaining food and the ineffectuality of government welfare programs.

After at least fifteen federal agencies acknowledged the existence of a domestic hunger epidemic, Schwartz-Nobel considered her duties as a journalist accomplished. She resigned herself to other subjects, publishing four nonfiction books on unrelated topics. The surge in public awareness of the early 1980s never directly caused any significant political action to alleviate hunger or poverty in the United States.

In 1996, following the passage of Contract with America and Welfare to Work, which impacted funds for America's hungry families, Schwartz-Nobel returned to her work in ending hunger within America. In 2002, her efforts culminated in Growing Up Empty, another novel critical of federal government welfare policies. Elements of the book include her criticism of poverty among families in the U.S. military and the federal government solving international, rather than national, hunger problems. Schwartz-Nobel has not commented on her satisfaction with the effects of the novel, but there have been no significant straightforward increases in welfare spending in the United States since the book's publication.

Following Growing Up Empty, Schwartz-Nobel published Poisoned Nation in 2007[1]. Poisoned Nation discusses chemical contamination of water, air and food, and links this with cluster illnesses. The book is critical of the American government, arguing their involvement in deceptive and suppressive measures in relation to diseases, pollution and scientific data.

Works
  • Starving in the Shadow of Plenty, 1981
  • Engaged to Murder, 1988
  • A Mother's Story, 1989
  • The Baby Swap Conspiracy, 1992
  • Forsaking All Others, 1993
  • The Journey, 2001
  • Growing Up Empty, 2002
  • Poisoned Nation, 2007

Awards
  • Women in Communication Award
  • Society of Professional Journalists Award
  • Penny Missouri Award
  • Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Award
  • Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award (twice)

References
  1. Schwartz-Nobel, Loretta (2007). Poisoned nation : pollution, greed, and the rise of deadly epidemics. Internet Archive. New York : St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-32797-2.

Sources
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