The Trump administration is ending the annual Household Food Security in the United States survey that has been a gauge for three decades of how many Americans have enough food to eat.
The Agriculture Department said in a release provided to Agri-Pulse on Saturday that the 2024 survey scheduled for release Oct. 22 will be the last.
“This non-statutory report became overly politicized and upon subsequent review, is unnecessary to carry out the work of the Department,” the release said.
“The Household Food Security Report was created 30 years ago to expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)," USDA's release said. "This is wholly backwards. USDA will continue to have access to more timely and accurate data needed to carry out statutory responsibilities.”
The Wall Street Journal was first to report that the survey was being discontinued.
The elimination of the survey follows passage of the One Big Beautiful Act, which will cut the projected cost of SNAP by $186 billion over 10 years, in part by expanding work requirements to adults as old as 64 and to parents of school-age children. States will also for the first time be required to start sharing the cost of SNAP benefits. Some of the SNAP savings were used to cover the cost of increased spending on commodity programs, crop insurance and other farm bill programs.
The department alleges the questions in the survey are “entirely subjective and do not present an accurate picture of actual food security. The data is rife with inaccuracies slanted to create a narrative that is not representative of what is actually happening in the countryside as we are currently experiencing lower poverty rates, increasing wages, and job growth under the Trump Administration.”
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USDA’s 2023 report found that 13.5% of U.S. households were food insecure, up from 12.8% in 2022. The rate was 10.5% in 2020, the last year of the first Trump administration.
In the survey, households are considered food insecure if they “had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members because of a lack of resources,” according to USDA.
The Alliance to End Hunger appealed to administration to reconsider the decision.
“By cancelling the survey, USDA is sending a signal that tracking and battling hunger is no longer a priority,” Eric Mitchell, president of the coalition, said in a statement.
“For decades, the annual survey has served as a barometer of the effectiveness of our nation’s policies and programs supporting lower-income people and families. With continuing worries about food inflation, as well as significant cuts to America’s largest food assistance program – SNAP – this move is a blow to policymakers and advocates who rely on the data to improve the lives of our food insecure neighbors.”
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