What’s Hot: SNAP Benefits Hang in the Balance
With the Republican Party winning both houses of Congress and the 2018 Farm Bill set to expire in January, continued funding for SNAP has become a looming uncertainty. Both President-elect Donald Trump and Republican leadership in Congress have made clear their intentions to cut funding for the federal food aid program. GOP plans for a new farm bill include reducing money for food aid and restricting the products available via SNAP — if not nixing beneficiaries’ ability to shop altogether, as was seen with the previous Trump administration’s Harvest Box.
Currently, more than 2 million New Yorkers statewide rely on the federal food assistance program, and with more than 14 percent of the city self-reporting food insecurity, new restrictions and cuts to SNAP would only exacerbate what Hunger Free America is now calling a crisis.
Ongoing legislative gridlock has indicated the potential passage of a one-year extension to the 2018 Farm Bill in lieu of a new farm bill, which could ensure continued SNAP payments to beneficiaries for the time being, in addition to the continuation of other federal programs set to expire. This, of course, would be a temporary measure, with a new Farm Bill necessary to secure continue SNAP funding.
Fact Check: RFK, Jr.’s Claims on Diet and Nutrition
Among Trump’s announced cabinet nominees, Robert F. Kennedy’s proposed appointment as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services is one of the more controversial. Beyond his long-standing opposition to vaccination procedures and skepticism concerning standard public health policy, the former presidential candidate has made nutrition and food policy an area of focus for his Make America Healthy Again campaign.
Namely, Kennedy is targeting processed foods, food dyes, seed oils, and added sugars in food, among other facets of the American diet. Some of his concerns have merit. With refined sugar being nearly ubiquitous in American grocery store purchases, and public health organizations describing diabetes as an epidemic, there is good reason to rethink policy regarding added sugar in foods. Ultraprocessed foods have also long been linked to chronic illnesses, and the food dye Red No. 3 has already been banned in some states including California amid purported links to cancer.
On the other hand, Kennedy’s crusade against seed oil is simply fallacious from a public health standpoint, and his suggested use of high-fat beef tallow as an alternative for frying foods borders on irresponsible. His public stance on the safety of raw milk and support for loosening restrictions on its sale could also prove to be deleterious to public health. With such a mixed bag of conspiratorial thinking and valid concern for the American diet, time will tell what an RFK, Jr. appointment might mean for the country.
Quote of the Month:
“We certainly will continue to protect nutritional assistance for Americans all across the country. That’s in urban America, rural America, exurban America, the heartland of America and small-town America. That will be a priority for us, as has always been the case, moving forward.” — House Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York’s 12th Congressional District, via The Hill
