The Farm Bill’s Threat to Food Security
The major agricultural and welfare proposal currently before a conference committee would reduce poor Americans’ access to nutrition, even as the USDA acknowledges its food-stamp program has been instrumental in fighting hunger.
Hunger still exists in America, and the national food-stamp program is one of the policy tools Americans have for fixing the problem. Those two facts aren’t in debate. In its annual report, released Wednesday, the United States Department of Agriculture confirmed these conclusions. On a hopeful note, the report finds that fewer than 12 percent of all households in the country face food insecurity, the lowest share since the height of the Great Recession in 2011. The report also finds that participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (), the federal food-stamp program, is highest in households that are food insecure. The problem is still there, but it appears there are tools to combat it.
