N※N

Trump Administration's End to Food Report 'Eliminating Ev...

  //food-wine.news-articles.net/content/2025/09/23 .. tration-s-end-to-food-report-eliminating-ev.html
  Published in Food and Wine on Tuesday, September 23rd 2025 at 6:48 GMT by Newsweek
          ^{🞛 This publication is a summary or evaluation of another publication 🞛 This publication contains editorial commentary or bias from the source}

Trump Administration’s “End to Food Report” Eliminates Evidence of Hunger

In an unprecedented move that has left food‑security advocates and data scientists scratching their heads, the Trump administration announced the termination of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) flagship Food Insecurity in the United States report. The decision, which effectively removed a key source of national hunger statistics from the public domain, is seen by many as an attempt to “cleanse” the political narrative around food poverty.

The Legacy of the USDA Food Insecurity Report

The Food Insecurity in the United States report—first published in 2013 by the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS)—has long served as the nation’s primary yardstick for measuring the prevalence and severity of food insecurity. The report pulls data from the Census Bureau’s Household Food Security Survey Module, the USDA’s Food Distribution Assistance program, and a host of other sources to produce an annual snapshot of how many households struggle to access enough nutritious food to meet their basic needs.

• Scope and Methodology: The ERS report defines food insecurity as a lack of reliable access to sufficient and nutritious food, measured across four categories: “high food insecurity,” “very low food security,” “low food security,” and “food security.” It uses a complex sampling framework that allows for reliable estimates at the national, state, and county levels.
• Impact on Policy: Policymakers, academics, and nonprofits have used the report to advocate for expanded SNAP benefits, food‑bank funding, and rural nutrition programs. The data has also served as a baseline for evaluating the success of programs like the 2019 “American Rescue Plan” and the “CHIP” expansions that aimed to reduce hunger amid the pandemic.

The Trump Administration’s Rationale

According to a brief statement released by the USDA’s Office of the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, the decision to discontinue the report stems from an effort to “streamline data collection and reduce redundancy.” In practice, however, the announcement was met with skepticism and criticism from a wide array of stakeholders.

“The USDA will no longer publish the annual Food Insecurity in the United States report,” the statement read, adding that “state agencies will continue to receive food‑security data as needed.” The USDA’s website now redirects the old report link to a generic “Under Construction” page.

The Trump administration’s own policy platform had long advocated for smaller federal programs and a more “market‑driven” approach to food assistance. Critics argue that eliminating a data source that shows the extent of hunger effectively removes a “scientific basis” for future program expansions.

Reactions from Food‑Security Experts

• Feeding America: The national food‑bank coalition slammed the decision, calling it “politically motivated” and a “disservice to the millions of families that rely on food‑bank assistance.” Feeding America’s executive director, Sarah McKeown, wrote in a public letter that “without reliable data, we lose the ability to lobby effectively for increased funding and program access.”
• The Center for Food Safety & Justice: An advocacy group focused on equitable food distribution issued a statement saying the removal “exacerbates the opacity surrounding federal food assistance programs.” They also urged the White House to reverse the decision and restore the report “as soon as possible.”
• Academic Voices: Dr. Ayesha Rahman, a professor of public health at the University of Michigan, noted that “the ERS report is not just a set of numbers; it’s a tool for identifying geographic and demographic hotspots that need intervention.” She added that “the lack of a comprehensive, peer‑reviewed dataset will hamper research on the long‑term health outcomes of food‑insecure populations.”

The Political Context

The decision to cancel the report came at a time of heightened partisan debate over the role of the federal government in addressing poverty. The Trump administration had already announced cuts to the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and had proposed the elimination of the School Lunch Program budget. In contrast, the Biden administration has pledged to reverse many of those cuts, with the White House announcing a $90 billion investment in food‑security initiatives during its 2021 fiscal year.

This move has also come in the wake of a 2020 U.S. Senate investigation into the USDA’s food‑distribution policies. The investigation revealed that the agency had faced criticism for its handling of food‑bank data and its lack of transparency in measuring the reach of federal nutrition programs. By discontinuing the annual report, the administration effectively removes a key source of accountability.

Implications for Future Food‑Security Policy

1. Reduced Transparency: Without an official, annually published data set, policymakers and watchdogs lose a critical benchmark for measuring progress or regression in national food security.
2. Policy Gaps: New programs, such as the Community Food Security Initiative, rely on historical data to identify priority regions. The absence of the report may delay or derail funding allocations.
3. Research Hurdles: Academics and public health researchers have struggled to obtain consistent data sets for longitudinal studies on the health impacts of food insecurity.
4. Public Perception: By erasing a tangible indicator of hunger, the administration risks shaping public opinion toward the false narrative that the U.S. has “fixed” its hunger problem—an assertion that is contradicted by other independent data streams, such as the USDA’s Food Availability Index and the National Food and Nutrition Survey.

Where the Data Lives Now

While the Food Insecurity in the United States report is no longer officially published, portions of the underlying data remain available through the USDA’s Economic Research Service portal under the “Food Security” tab. However, the data is fragmented and lacks the narrative, analysis, and historical context that the annual report once provided.

• ERS Data Portal: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-insecurity/
• SNAP Program Details: https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap
• Feeding America Statistics: https://www.feedingamerica.org/what-we-do/our-work

Researchers and advocates are increasingly turning to these alternative data sources, but the lack of a unified, peer‑reviewed report creates a significant knowledge gap.

The Road Ahead

The Biden administration’s agenda—highlighted by the American Rescue Plan and a renewed focus on expanding SNAP benefits—relies heavily on accurate data to argue for additional funding. As the new administration prepares to launch its own set of food‑security metrics, many experts are urging a return to the rigorous, nationally recognized reporting that the USDA’s Food Insecurity in the United States provided.

In the meantime, the Trump administration’s “end to food report” stands as a stark reminder of how data can be wielded—or withheld—to shape the narrative around one of America’s most pressing social issues: hunger. Whether the federal government will restore the report or replace it with a new, less comprehensive metric remains a key question for food‑security advocates, policymakers, and the millions of Americans who still face daily uncertainty about where their next meal will come from.