As U.S. Hunger Rises, Trump Administration’s ‘Efficiency’ Goals Cause Massive Food Waste By Tevis Garrett Graddy-Lovelace
November 26, 2025
Introduction:
(The Conversation) The U.S. government has caused massive food waste during President Donald Trump’s second term. Policies such as immigration raids, tariff changes and temporary and permanent cuts to food assistance programs have left farmers short of workers and money, food rotting in fields and warehouses, and millions of Americans hungry. And that doesn’t even include the administration’s actual destruction of edible food.
The U.S. government estimates that more than 47 million people in America don’t have enough food to eat – even with federal and state governments spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on programs to help them.
Yet, huge amounts of food – on average in the U.S., as much as 40% of it – rots before being eaten. That amount is equivalent to 120 billion meals a year: more than twice as many meals as would be needed to feed those 47 million hungry Americans three times a day for an entire year.
This colossal waste has enormous economic costs and renders useless all the water and resources used to grow the food. In addition, as it rots, the wasted food emits in the U.S. alone over 4 million metric tons of methane – a heat-trapping greenhouse gas.
As a scholar of wasted food, I have watched this problem worsen since Trump began his second term in January 2025. Despite this administration’s claim of streamlining the government to make its operations more efficient, a range of recent federal policies have, in fact, exacerbated food wastage.
Policies discussed that have affected food production and distribution include immigration, foreign aid cuts, lack of protection of U.S. farmers from tariff policies, reductions in Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, and the government shut down effect on the SNAP program.
Even With SNAP, Workers Face Food Crisis By Saru Jayaraman
November 25, 2025
Introduction:
(The Progressive) Although the longest federal government shutdown in our nation’s history has formally ended, and payments to the one in eight U.S. residents who rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have resumed, the problem of hunger in America remains unsolved.
Kids are still going hungry, inflation is out of control, and the food-assistance policies that Americans overwhelmingly back have been tossed aside in favor of cold-blooded partisan maneuvering.
Unfortunately, we have learned this hard lesson at least once before. During the slow and anemic government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization I head, One Fair Wage, launched an emergency relief fund that quickly raised $23 million in emergency aid to restaurant and gig workers who suddenly lost income.
Now, One Fair Wage and other groups are stepping up again to fill the gap left by our legislators and big business. We’ve reopened our emergency fund for service workers as a short-term fix for a crisis that never should have happened.
Despite re-opening, the federal government is neglecting its legal and moral responsibility to American workers and families by failing to fully fund the SNAP program. We are living in an affordability crisis created by the leaders who swore to protect us, and by business groups such as the powerful corporate lobby National Restaurant Association, which continues to block efforts to raise the minimum wage.
The Gap Between Farm Costs and Prices Received Hits a Decade High By Lauren Cross
December 29, 2025
Introduction:
(Investigate Midwest) U.S. farmers are facing one of the widest gaps in a decade between what they pay to produce food and what they earn from selling it.
New USDA data released on Dec. 15 show that by October 2025, the prices paid index had climbed to 154.6, while the prices received index had fallen to 120.5. The agency measures the indexes against 2011 levels, which are set to 100, making it easier to see how prices have changed over time.
In practical terms, that means production costs were more than 50% higher than in 2011, while prices farmers received were only about 21% higher.
That gap reached 34.1 index points in October, the widest spread in the data going back at least a decade, according to the data. The prices paid index tracks a wide range of expenses, from fertilizer and fuel to feed and labor. Meanwhile, prices for crops and livestock have slipped from their recent highs.
This hasn’t always been the case. In parts of 2021 and 2022, rising commodity prices helped close the gap. Since then, prices received have dropped faster than costs have come down, reopening the spread. These indexes don’t measure profits directly, but they offer a clear signal of rising financial pressure on farm operations heading into the next season.
Trump Administration Axed Nutrition Education Program that Saved More Money than it Cost, Even as Government Encourages Healthier Eating By Diane Cress
February 20, 2026
Introduction:
(The Conversation) If the government had found a way to save US$10 for every dollar it spent helping low-income people get healthier, wouldn’t it make sense for it to keep doing that?
Well, that’s exactly what the U.S. government did when it piloted the SNAP-Ed program in 1977. This U.S. Department of Agriculture program persisted for nearly 50 years until the Trump administration shuttered it in 2025.
SNAP-Ed served as the nutrition education arm of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps more than 40 million Americans buy groceries.
SNAP-Ed complemented SNAP by teaching people who get those benefits how best to use that government assistance. It paid for nutrition educators to teach lessons at schools, community centers and university extension offices. The educators led grocery store tours, taught label reading and budget comparisons, and taught cooking classes. And they offered a mix of printed and online resources to support good nutrition in the home.
While the federal government fully funded the program, the states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, administered and implemented SNAP-Ed through local community programs, often partnering with nonprofits. It cost only one penny for every SNAP dollar spent, and it worked.
‘Disgusting’: Republicans Applaud as Trump Brags About Taking Food Aid from Millions By Jake Johnson
February 25, 2026
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) US President Donald Trump received a standing ovation from Republican lawmakers and administration officials Tuesday night when he bragged during his State of the Union address about taking nutrition assistance from millions, which he euphemistically characterized as lifting people off food stamps.
“In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans—a record—off of food stamps,” Trump said during his nearly two-hour speech.
The Republican reconciliation package that Trump signed into law last summer included $187 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over a 10-year period, the largest cuts to the program in US history.
The Republican law includes reductions in federal nutrition funding for states—which administer SNAP—as well as expanded work requirements, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated would strip nutrition benefits from “roughly 2.4 million people in an average month” over the next decade.
As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted in a recent analysis, changes enacted by the Trump-GOP law mean that “for the first time in the 50-year history of the modern SNAP program, the federal government will no longer ensure that the lowest-income people, including children, older adults, veterans, and people with disabilities, in every state have access to the food assistance they need because states that refuse to pay the cost share could see the program end.”
Hormuz Closure Threatens the Global Food Supply – Why Grocery Price Hikes are Coming By Aya S. Chacar, Ph.D.
April 6, 2026
Introduction:
(The Conversation) The global energy crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is only the beginning of the economic cost of the war with Iran.
I study how institutions affect businesses and supply chains, and I expect food prices to rise next, with high prices lasting even after whatever point hostilities end.
Along with about 20% of the world’s crude oil trade and a similar share of the world’s liquefied natural gas shipments, shipping traffic through the strait also carries roughly a third of internationally traded fertilizer, which is key to bountiful crops around the world.
Modern agriculture depends on precise timing of delivering nutrients to plants. When fertilizer arrives late or becomes too expensive to buy in sufficient quantities, farmers are left to either reduce the amount they use, plant fewer crops or switch to crops that need less fertilizer. Each option reduces overall productivity, cutting supplies of basic foods, feed for livestock and key ingredients used in a wide range of food products.
Ultimately, with corn prices rising, summer barbecues may taste a bit different or cost more. Corn on the cob may not be cheap, nor will corn-fed beef. In addition, many store-bought condiments, soft drinks and other food products are made with high-fructose corn syrup and will also cost more.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Predicts that With Iran War, Food Prices Will Grow Faster than Originally Expected this Year By Sky Chadde
April 14, 2026
Introduction:
(Investigate Midwest) In late February, President Trump approved attacks on Iran — and potentially blew a hole through a signature campaign promise.
As he ran for a second presidency, Trump said repeatedly he would “defeat inflation.” Once in office, and as grocery prices continued to increase throughout 2025, he said affordability was a “con job.”
Food prices were already expected to increase in 2026, and at a faster rate than their 20-year historical average.
But the war with Iran will likely turbocharge grocery prices, particularly beef, according to revised forecasts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In a report published on Feb. 25, the USDA predicted overall food prices would increase by 3.1%, faster than inflation.
After Trump Cut Food Programs, Oklahoma Lawmakers Look to Replace Lost Aid for Farmers By Juan Vassallo
May 13, 2026
Introduction:
(Investigate Midwest} Just over a year after the Trump administration cut programs that helped farmers and ranchers sell more of their products to local schools and governments, Oklahoma passed a law to keep one of those programs alive.
Early in President Trump’s second term, the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled the Local Foods for School (LFS) and Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) cooperative agreements, two programs that provided funds to local governments, tribes, food banks and schools across the country to buy food from local farmers and ranchers.
The programs were developed to increase the availability of fresh produce in school cafeterias and strengthen the local agriculture economy. But the Trump administration said the programs “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency” and described the cuts as part of a shift back to “long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives.”
The roughly $1 billion cut affected more than 10,000 producers nationwide, forcing many to scale back operations and, in some cases, shut down entirely.
Additional Extract:
Last year, state lawmakers appropriated $3.2 million to keep the program running. This month, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 985, which creates a state-level version of the program, although future funding is not secured.
Food Prices Just Had Their Highest Month-to-month Jump in Years By Sky Chadde
May 19, 2026
Introduction:
(Investigate Midwest) Food prices jumped 0.68% in April compared with the previous month — the largest month-to-month inflation bump since August 2022, according to the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation.
Food inflation has been growing since the COVID-19 pandemic, which shocked supply chains, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which affected oil prices, in early 2022. After a massive uptick, food inflation began to ease during the last two years of the Biden administration.
Between January 2023 and December 2024, “food at home” prices — grocery prices, essentially — on the Consumer Price Index increased 2.68%.
Since Trump regained office in January 2025, food inflation has increased 3.16%.
