(Reuters) -The Trump administration has canceled the USDA’s annual food insecurity survey, ending a decades-long effort to track how many Americans struggle to access enough food, the Agriculture Department said on Saturday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the Household Food Security Report had become “overly politicized” and was no longer necessary, though the 2024 […]
Politics
Trump administration cancels annual food insecurity survey, USDA says
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(Reuters) -The Trump administration has canceled the USDA’s annual food insecurity survey, ending a decades-long effort to track how many Americans struggle to access enough food, the Agriculture Department said on Saturday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the Household Food Security Report had become “overly politicized” and was no longer necessary, though the 2024 edition will still be released in October; the 2025 survey will not be conducted, the USDA said in a statement.
The cancellation of the report, which has been conducted for 30 years, comes amid rising food insecurity and recent cuts to federal food assistance programs, including tighter work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients.
The USDA said it will continue to have access to more “timely and accurate data” and claimed the annual report was “rife with inaccuracies, wrong metrics, zero accountability and a massive drive for bigger and larger government programs.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the survey’s cancellation.
The White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington and Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrea Ricci)