‘Big’ Legislative Package Shifts More of SNAP’s Costs to States, Saving Federal Dollars but Causing Fewer Americans to Get Help Paying for Food By Tracy Roof
July 6, 2025
Introduction:
(The Conversation) The legislative package that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025, has several provisions that will shrink the safety net, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, long known as food stamps. SNAP spending will decline by an estimated US$186 billion through 2034 as a result of several changes Congress made to the program that today helps roughly 42 million people buy groceries – an almost 20% reduction.
In my research on the history of food stamps, I’ve found that the program was meant to be widely available to most low-income people. The SNAP changes break that tradition in two ways.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 3 million people are likely to be dropped from the program and lose their benefits. This decline will occur in part because more people will face time limits if they don’t meet work requirements. Even those who meet the requirements may lose benefits because of difficulty submitting the necessary documents.
And because states will soon have to take on more of the costs of the program, which totaled over $100 billion in 2024, they may eventually further restrict who gets help due to their own budgetary constraints.
Summing up SNAP’s origins
Inspired by the plight of unemployed coal miners whom John F. Kennedy met in Appalachia when he campaigned for the presidency in 1960, the early food stamps program was not limited to single parents with children, older people and people with disabilities, like many other safety net programs were at the time. It was supposed to help low-income people afford more and better food, regardless of their circumstances.
How Trump’s Big Bill Devastates the U.S. Food System By Tom Philpott
July 17, 2025
Introduction:
( Mother Jones) Even before Donald Trump retook the White House, US policymakers had created a paradox of plenty in the nation’s agricultural system: environmentally destructive overproduction of a few major food commodities, combined with stubbornly high and rising hunger rates, particularly among children. Now, the Trump administration and its congressional allies have found a way to intensify and prolong both crises at once, with a radical reshaping of food and farm policy nestled within their Big Beautiful Bill.
The consequences promise to be devastating for the economy, the environment, and public health.
The BBB slashes food aid for poor people while showering cash on already lavishly subsidized farmers, mainly corn and soybean producers.
Over 500,000 Immigrants Lost Work Authorization, Squeezing Ag Sector and Likely Driving Up Food Prices By Juan Vassallo
July 21, 2025
Introduction:
(Investigate Midwest) The Trump administration’s termination of work permits for more than 530,000 immigrants could have far-reaching economic consequences for the country’s agricultural sector, potentially deepening labor shortages and leading to higher food prices.
According to a recent analysis by FWD.us, a bipartisan immigration advocacy group, the rollback of humanitarian parole programs and other immigration policies could sharply reduce the workforce in several U.S. industries that rely on immigrant labor.
Under the Biden administration, immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela — four countries grappling with ongoing humanitarian crises — were allowed to enter the U.S. temporarily under a humanitarian parole system that required a background check and financial sponsor.
But earlier this year, the Trump administration ended these programs. The Supreme Court upheld the move. As a result, hundreds of thousands of immigrants lost their legal right to work and are now considered undocumented.
Additional extract:
Using a model developed by Francesc Ortega, a professor of economics at the City University of New York, FWD.us projects that the current administration’s recent and proposed immigration policies could drive a 14.5% increase in prices for food, beverages and tobacco products between 2024 and 2028 — on top of existing inflation.
The Rising Cost of Your Morning Brew: How Climate Change Is Brewing a Coffee Crisis July 17, 2025
Introduction:
(WIKI Observatory) In January 2025, the price of coffee reached an “all-time high” for consumers in the United States; it is now poised to rise throughout the world. In May 2025, an article in Deutsche Welle stated that “the era of cheap coffee may be over.” This anticipated outcome is due to a combination of factors, including extreme weather, shrinking harvests, shifting trade policies, and rising production costs, which are straining the global supply chain. Meanwhile, the demand for coffee continues to rise.
Climate disruptions, such as prolonged droughts followed by excessive rain, are being seen in Vietnam and Brazil, the two largest coffee-producing countries. They are responsible for nearly 50 percent of the world’s coffee supply, and their losses have led to a decline in yields and an increase in prices. In November 2024, Coffee Intelligence reported that coffee prices had surged to a 47-year high.
At the same time, farmers have had to pay more for fertilizers, transportation, and labor. All these factors have contributed to the rising retail prices. “Many producers are grappling with increased production costs due to inflation and climate-related disruptions,” explained a March 2025 article in Coffee Intelligence.
The situation is likely to worsen owing to climate change. “Coffee plants will grow less productive as the earth’s temperature continues to rise, and practices like deforestation will continue to threaten the sustainability of the industry,” stated a January 2025 article in the New York Times.
Fluctuating Coffee Prices
Coffee is one of the world’s most widely traded commodities, second only to oil. Grown primarily in tropical regions, it is consumed across every continent. Historically, coffee prices have fluctuated, spiking during crop failures caused by extreme weather conditions or political instability in major coffee-producing countries, such as Brazil and Vietnam, and plummeting during periods of oversupply.
Wholesale prices rose 0.9% in July, much more than expected
Last edited Thu Aug 14, 2025, 06:12 AM - Edit history (1)
Wholesale prices rose far more than expected in July, providing a potential sign that inflation is still a threat to the U.S. economy, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Thursday showed.
The producer price index, which measures final demand goods and services prices, jumped 0.9% on the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.2% gain. It was the biggest monthly gain since June 2022.
Excluding food and energy prices, core PPI rose 0.9% against the forecast for 0.3%. Excluding food, energy and trade services, the index was up 0.6%, the biggest gain since March 2022.
On an annual basis, headline PPI increased 3.3%, the biggest 12-month move since February and well above the Fed's 2% inflation target.
The Shutdown is Poised to Deepen Hunger in America — Just as the Trump Administration Stopped Tracking It By Ayurella Horn-Muller
October 10, 2025
Introduction:
(Grist) The federal government shutdown is stretching into a second week with no end in sight. As Democrats and Republicans in Congress face a politically charged funding impasse, nutrition experts warn that women and children reliant on federal food assistance funding are particularly vulnerable to imminently losing their grocery benefits.
In the midst of it all, America’s ability to track the real-world impacts of the shutdown on hunger is disappearing. Shortly before the shutdown, the Department of Agriculture moved to scrap the Household Food Security Report, the nation’s primary tool for tracking food insecurity, and in doing so, stripped away the very infrastructure needed to remedy rising hunger in America.
“If you want a functioning country where people are food-secure, this is the survey that gives you an indication of how food-secure people are. And that data shows us that food insecurity has gone up,” says Zia Mehrabi, a data scientist researching climate change and food insecurity at the University of Colorado Boulder. “So, actually, as a country, the government response to that should be, ‘How do we fix that?’ rather than say, ‘Oh … let’s cut the whole survey altogether.’”
If the shutdown continues into next week, the lapse in government funding could directly affect the nearly 7 million American pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children that rely on WIC, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. The National WIC Association has warned that the program is days away from running out of money. The USDA told state agencies last week that they will not receive their quarterly allocation of money for WIC because of the lapse in federal funding, CNN reported.
On Tuesday, the White House stated that it would use revenue from some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs to pay for the WIC budget shortfall. Just how much funding would be provided, and how that would work, however, went unspecified.
Trump tariffs on pasta could soon top 100 percent: 'Double the price'
Source: The Independent
Monday 03 November 2025 16:40 EST
Italian pasta makers have hit boiling point over President Donald Trump’s tariffs, warning they would have to “double the price” to continue selling in the United States with the incoming levy.
Thirteen of Italy’s biggest pasta exporters may face preliminary tariffs of 91.74 percent in January, as long as the tax threatened by the Department of Commerce is upheld. That tariff would be on top of the 15 percent imposed by the Trump administration on all goods imported from the European Union, pushing the total tariffs on Italian pasta to nearly 107 percent, the Washington Post reported.
While the U.S. pasta market is dominated by American manufacturers, exports from Italy including Italian-headquartered brand Barilla, have surged recently, and now make up 12 percent of the U.S. market. Given their newfound footing, Italian pasta producers say the tariffs feel extra punishing.
“We would have to double the price,” to keep selling in the U.S., said Massimo Menna, the chief executive of Pasta Garofalo, a company targeted by the duties. “It effectively knocks us out of the game.”
The Far-Reaching Impact of SNAP Cuts By Eleanor J. Bader
November 5, 2025
Introduction:
(The Progressive) The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has been the country’s primary bulwark against hunger for more than sixty years. Twelve percent of the population—nearly forty-two million people—rely on the program to eat. This includes at least 10 percent of the population in twenty-two states and 15 percent or more of the population in eight others. Moreover, 39 percent of recipients are children, 20 percent are adults over the age of sixty, and 10 percent are disabled.
Data also shows that more than half of adult recipients with children in their household are employed and earn an average gross salary of $1,059 per month. White households comprise the largest percentage of beneficiaries.
But SNAP is not really about numbers: It is about people who do not have enough money to buy nutritious food for themselves and their loved ones. This is why food justice activists consider the government shutdown and the cuts to SNAP benefits so devastating.
Despite two late-October court orders to fully reinstate people’s SNAP allotments, the Trump Administration has said it will fund only half of people’s customary benefits.
Unsurprisingly, this leaves significant gaps in food access. In response, a massive number of mutual aid and community efforts are helping keep people fed in all fifty state
USDA Tells Grocery Stores They Can’t Give Discounts to People Hit by Trump’s Food Stamp Freeze November 2, 2025
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) As the Trump administration continued its illegal freeze on food assistance, the US Department of Agriculture sent a warning to grocery stores not to provide discounts to the more than 42 million Americans affected.
Several grocery chains and food delivery apps have announced in recent days that they would provide substantial discounts to those whose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits have been delayed. More than 1 in 8 Americans rely on the program, and 39% of them are children.
But on Sunday, Catherine Rampell, an anchor at MSNBC, published an email from the USDA that was sent to grocery stores around the country, telling them they were prohibited from offering special discounts to those at greater risk of food insecurity due to the cuts.
“You must offer eligible foods at the same prices and on the same terms and conditions to SNAP-EBT customers as other customers, except that sales tax cannot be charged on SNAP purchases,” the email said. “You cannot treat SNAP-EBT customers differently from any other customer. Offering discounts or services only to SNAP-eligible customers is a SNAP violation unless you have a SNAP equal treatment waiver.”
The email referred to SNAP’s “Equal Treatment Rule,” which prohibits stores from discriminating against SNAP recipients by charging them higher prices or treating them more favorably than other customers by offering them specialized sales or incentives.
GOP Senator Blasts Trump Admin's New Move on SNAP Benefits by David McAfee
November 9, 2025
Introduction:
(Raw Story) Donald Trump's administration is "shockingly wrong" for its move to instruct states to undo previously awarded SNAP benefits for low-income Americans, according to a Republican senator Sunday.
Politico reported over the weekend, "The Trump administration is telling states not to pay full November food stamp benefits, revising its previous guidance after winning a temporary victory at the Supreme Court on Friday."
That rollback didn't sit well with U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
According to Semafor's Eleanor Mueller, "Murkowski calls the administration’s instructing of states to undo full SNAP benefits 'shockingly wrong.'"
Mueller went on to quote the lawmaker as saying, “It’s one thing if the federal government is going to continue its level of appeal … to say this can’t be done... But when you are telling the states — that have said this is a significant enough issue in our state that we're going to find resources to backfill, or frontload, whatever term you want, to help our people — those states should not be penalized for it for doing that."
caltrek’s comment: The great proponents of states’ rights now seem to be coming up short when it comes to the right to feed their citizens. Only the right to slavery as an institution, or at least the right to an apartheid system, seems worth protecting. Evil layered upon evil.
At least Lisa Murkowski understands the food policy to be “shockingly wrong.”
With SNAP in Crisis, America’s Epic Food Waste Problem Has Become a Lifeline By Ayurella Horn-Muller
November 7, 2025
Extract:
(Grist) Across the country, local organizations are scrambling to close the gaps left by the increasingly unreliable government aid. Food banks, community organizations, even celebrity talk show hosts are launching food drives and raising donations for the nearly 42 million SNAP recipients affected by the shutdown. And soon, the number of people in need will only grow: New work requirements for SNAP, included in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” just went into effect, and are expected to lead to further benefit cuts for many Americans, while pushing others out of the program entirely.
Among these efforts is a cohort of organizations that were founded to support the slow-burn climate solution of reducing food waste and are now joining the all-hands-on-deck emergency response to the imminent hunger crisis.
Come Monday, Kashi Sehgal and her team at Retaaza will begin driving a gutted Sprinter van loaded with locally grown produce, grains, lentils, grits, peanut butter, and more throughout DeKalb County, Georgia. Twice a week, they’ll distribute their wares in neighborhoods where fresh, whole food is scarce. Community members using SNAP and EBT cards will be able to get half off of already heavily marked down fresh fruits and vegetables supplied by farms nearby.
It’s like an ice cream truck, but for veggies and produce,” said Sehgal. “Food access doesn’t have to be undignified. You can make it a positive experience for people to want to come.”
Sehgal founded Retaaza in 2020 as a way to buy surplus produce from farmers in the area — food that would otherwise have ended up in the compost pile or landfill — and sell it to nearby businesses and individuals. Retaaza’s focus is to reduce food waste before it enters the supply chain, which helps drastically shrink its emissions footprint. Roughly 17 percent of food grown on farms every year nationwide is lost or wasted. That takes place because of issues like overproduction, cosmetic standards, low market prices and high harvesting costs. In Georgia, one of the country’s agricultural powerhouses, enormous amounts of food produced annually end up in landfills.
