FERN’s Friday Feed: USDA’s attempt to track SNAP fraud goes awry
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
Collateral damage in USDA effort to stop food-stamp fraud
The Intercept and New Food Economy
The algorithm used to flag potentially fraudulent practices related to SNAP transactions is leading to an untold number of retailers being permanently banned from the program, even when there is evidence that no fraud was committed. “It’s impossible to pin down exactly how many retailers were banned from accepting SNAP dollars due to fraud charges that the government can’t actually prove,” writes Claire Brown. “But court testimony by a USDA official indicates that, just last year, hundreds of retailers were permanently disqualified from the program based primarily on an algorithmic assessment of their transaction patterns.”
In the Central Valley, efforts to get Latino voters to the polls
Mother Jones
Several Latino-led organizations are spearheading get-out-the-vote efforts in California’s heavily Latino Central Valley. “They’re targeting not just [Devin] Nunes’ 22nd District, but also nearby Districts 10 and 21, currently represented by GOP stalwarts Jeff Denham and David Valadao, respectively,” writes Tom Philpott. “The challenge ahead: awaken [the] ‘sleeping giant’ of the Central Valley’s Latino vote in an area politically dominated by a party that routinely demonizes Mexicans and hounds the workers who tend the nation’s most productive farm fields.”
Journalist or advocate? A leading environmental writer shrugs off the controversy.
E&E News
In 2017, Carey Gillam, a longtime Reuters reporter who now works for U.S. Right To Know, a nonprofit that targets Big Ag, published Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science, which accuses Monsanto of covering up serious health risks. Supporters call her courageous, but critics, writes Corbin Hiar, “question her transparency and accuse her of blurring the lines between journalism and advocacy … Now she’s a lightning rod in the high-stakes debate playing out in the United States and globally over the safety of genetically engineered foods, the dangers of pesticides and corporations’ influence over scientific research.”
A crop-saving scientific breakthrough, or devastating biological weapon?
The New York Times
The Defense Department is testing a virus that, when carried and delivered by insects, would genetically modify crops to withstand droughts, floods, and other attacks. But some scientists are warning that such experiments are akin to developing biological weapons that could have devastating unintended consequences. “As gene-editing tools become increasingly accessible, scientists, ethicists and policymakers are weighing the good pivotal discoveries could do for humanity against their nefarious potential,” writes Emily Baumgaertner.
Step out of your culinary comfort zone—with a vomit bag
The Washington Post
A new museum in Malmo, Sweden, displays “disgusting foods” from around the world, hoping to get visitors thinking about why they feel certain foods are inedible or gross. “The museum’s name and its contents are pretty controversial — one culture’s disgusting is another culture’s delicacy,” writes Maura Judkis. “The name is meant to grab visitors’ attention, but that’s the point that West says he’s trying to make: Disgust is a cultural construct.”