WASHINGTON (RFD-TV) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it will discontinue its long-running Household Food Security Report beginning in 2025, bringing an end to nearly three decades of federal tracking on hunger in America.
In a press release published on Saturday evening, the USDA framed the change by calling the reports “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous” and doing “nothing more than fear monger.” The statement reflects a sharp break from the agency’s typically technical tone, underscoring how politically sensitive the issue of hunger measurement has become.
Launched in the mid-1990s, the survey has provided annual data on the prevalence of food insecurity across U.S. households.
The report’s cancellation comes at an interesting time — that is, when food insecurity is on the rise in the U.S., according to the most recent version of the Household Food Security Report (PDF version) for 2022-2023.
The 2024 edition of the report, covering 2023 data, is still expected to be released later this year. However, the USDA maintains that “a bevy of more timely and accurate data sets” will fill the gap.
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The complete statement from the USDA reads:
Corey Rosenbusch with The Fertilizer Institute joined us to discuss supply chain disruptions and what farmers should watch as global tensions impact fertilizer markets.
