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Food Stamps: More Benefit to Big Food Than to the Poor?
By Brad Tuttle @bradrtuttleJuly 09, 201220 Commen
Use of government aid for junk food questioned San Francisco Chronicle
Editorial: Food stamps expansion driven by politics USA Today
Government wants more people on food stamps CNN Money
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The federal government is spending millions to encourage more Americans to apply for food stamps, or rather the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which replaced food stamps. Ads paid for with tax dollars are asking more people to enroll in SNAP even though the program has dramatically expanded in recent years: Roughly 46 million Americans now get SNAP benefits, up from just 17 million in 2000, and the costs associated with the program have risen from $17 billion in 2000, to $30 billion in 2007, way up to $78 billion last year. While those receiving benefits must be happy with the program’s growth, there’s another group that might even be more pleased: corporations that make or sell junk food.
Sure, poor Americans who get food on the table for dinner, partly with the assistance of SNAP, must appreciate the program. But major corporations and food groups, including Pepsi, Kraft Foods, Kroger, Coca-Cola, and the Corn Refiners of America, also warmly embrace SNAP. All, in fact, have lobbied Congress and/or various states to expand SNAP and make sure that recipients have the most freedom possible in deciding how to use their allowances, including the unlimited purchase of soda and junk food.
Could it be that these powerful interest groups are supporting SNAP simply because they want to end hunger and help the poor? Or is Big Food supporting SNAP because it benefits the food industry just as much as it does those individuals who directly receive SNAP assistance?
The idea that the food stamp program is essentially a corporate subsidy sounds like it could have been cooked up by the Tea Party or a libertarian, anti-tax group. But this argument has lately coming from very different quarters.
Michele Simon, a public health expert in Oakland, Calif., doesn’t want SNAP funding cut, nor does she want to snip societal safety nets for the poor. But she does want taxpayers to consider the possibility that, as she puts it, “SNAP represents the largest, most overlooked corporate subsidy” in the 2012 Farm Bill now being considered by Congress. Simon, who runs the watchdog group [color=#ff3333]Eat Drink Politics, published a report last month entitled “Food Stamps: Follow the Money,” which demonstrated that not only do the likes of Walmart, Mars, Kroger, and Coca-Cola benefit from SNAP, but so do large banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase, which receives tens of millions annually from states in exchange for operating SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer cards given to recipients[/color]
Read more: http://business.time.com/2012/07/09/food-stamps-more-benefit-to-big-food-than-to-the-poor/#ixzz2hfPy9C1P