【By Wang Kaiwen, Observer Net】On September 20, the U.S. "Wall Street Journal" exclusively reported that the Trump administration canceled a government "annual hunger survey," citing that it had been "over-politicized."

The report said that the U.S. government has been monitoring food security in American households since the mid-1990s, tracking how many people have difficulty accessing enough food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture collects this data each December and compiles reports for federal, state, and local policymakers to reference, used to allocate food assistance funds and evaluate the effectiveness of related programs.

According to sources, during the past week, a manager from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the decision to cancel the 2025 survey at a meeting with USDA employees.

According to those who attended the meeting, the employees were told that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would not provide funding for this survey this year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed on the 20th that the survey had been canceled.

"This non-mandatory report has been over-politicized. After subsequent review, we found that it is not essential to the department's work," said Alec Varsamis, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

He added that the 2024 report will be released on October 22, but the work related to 2025 has been canceled.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

On April 23, 2025, in New York, USA, people are picking up food outside a church in the Bronx. Visual China

The "Wall Street Journal" said that U.S. Department of Agriculture employees and economists who closely monitor the data were shocked and angry about the government's decision. Colleen Heflin, a professor at Syracuse University, said, "For the past 30 years, the USDA's food insecurity indicators have provided insights into the ability of American families to meet their food needs."

Heflin, who has been studying the data, expressed concern about the cancellation of the survey, saying, "Considering the current factors of rising inflation and deteriorating labor market conditions, which can exacerbate food insecurity, the lack of 2025 indicators is particularly worrying."

The Trump administration had previously criticized government data related to the job market, claiming it was used as a political tool. On August 1, just hours after the release of the U.S. July employment report, Trump suddenly announced the dismissal of Erika McEntarfer, the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), accusing her of "manipulating employment data."

The report pointed out that as more Americans struggle to obtain sufficient food, the Trump administration halted the U.S. Department of Agriculture from releasing food reports. In recent years, with the end of pandemic aid programs and the impact of inflation on food prices, food banks have seen an increase in family requests for help.

The 2023 U.S. Department of Agriculture report estimated that 13.8 million American children live in households that sometimes have difficulty obtaining enough food, the highest in a decade. The 2024 data will be released next month.

According to the report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's data is based on a survey, which includes questions such as "Do you worry that the food will run out before you can afford to buy more?" and "In the past 12 months, how often has this happened for you—often, occasionally, or never?" It is estimated that about 40,000 households are surveyed each December.

Currently, the U.S. federal government is cutting spending on food assistance programs. In July, the U.S. Congress passed the "Big and Beautiful Act," which reduced funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and tightened work requirements for recipients of food stamps.

Craig Gundersen, a former economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and someone who has studied the survey data for nearly 30 years, said that this information reveals the causes and consequences of food insecurity in the United States, including the intersection between disability status, mental and physical health issues, and food insecurity.

Gundersen added that food security has become a key indicator for measuring the well-being of vulnerable Americans.

Lindsey Smith Taillie, a professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina, stated outrightly that without this research, the U.S. would lose a reliable benchmark for measuring key health indicators of its citizens.

"Why wouldn't you monitor it? I think the only reason is that you plan to cut food assistance and pretend that there is no food insecurity problem if you don't monitor it," Taillie said.

This article is an exclusive article by Observer Net. Without permission, it cannot be reprinted.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7552407607613473295/

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