Congress allotted the same amount of funding, $13 billion, for public nutrition programs that it did for agriculture in the new coronavirus relief bill, even though hunger is on the rise, wrote three economists on Tuesday. “An obvious way to address the problem would be to shift all or most of the $13 billion earmarked for farmers to federal nutrition programs that serve hungry families in real need,” said the economists in an essay in The Hill.
Due in part to mammoth federal subsidies and a rally in commodity prices, net farm income is the fourth highest in 50 years, when adjusted for inflation, and 43 percent higher than in 2019, wrote Joe Glauber of the IFPRI think tank, Diane Schanzenbach of Northwestern University, and Vince Smith of Montana State University. All three have deep experience with U.S. farm and nutrition programs.
“It is ironic that while farmers are doing better, Congress is giving them even more money instead of helping those who truly need it,” said the op-ed in The Hill. A Census Bureau survey recently found 27 million adults who said their households were not getting enough to eat.
Part of the $13 billion allotted in the coronavirus package would pay for a 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits through June 30. Some $400 million would be spent on food donations to food banks, and $614 million would go to nutrition programs in Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The legislation also expands the P-EBT program to include children under the age of 6 if their family receives food stamps.