Food banks - buying farms?

Here is an interesting link to a story how food banks are coping with increased demand. From AP:

The number of people going to Feeding America's food banks nationwide increased 18 percent between 1997 and 2005 to more than 25 million. A more recent figure was not available.

The nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization, Feeding America said some distribution centers in California, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio recently reported a 30 percent to 40 percent surge in demand from a year ago, Fraser said.

But supply is not keeping pace.

Over the past decade, food banks have seen a steady drop in donated packaged foods from manufacturers and grocery stores -- historically their biggest givers -- in part because industry has become better at forecasting consumer demand. The trend has been compounded by recession and higher food costs, prompting supermarkets to get more aggressive about selling any surpluses to low-cost food stores and other secondary markets