Tag: food

Cancer-Causing Drug Banned in Most Countries Still Allowed in U.S. Pork

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with new cases rising steadily each year. That reality makes it all the more alarming when carcinogens are knowingly allowed to enter the food supply.

In the U.S., one example involves a feed additive used in pig farming that experts have already determined is unsafe at any level of exposure.

The concern is not limited to pork on your plate. Farm workers handling animal feed are directly exposed, and surrounding communities face contamination as waste from large-scale operations seeps into waterways.

When a compound carries risks for consumers, workers and the environment alike, the failure to act quickly carries consequences far beyond the farm.

Many countries have already responded by banning the additive outright, while American regulators have delayed meaningful action for decades. That leaves U.S. consumers vulnerable to a hazard others deemed unacceptable long ago.

This gap between science and policy has sparked closer investigation. Researchers and advocacy groups have examined how the additive persists in the food system and why regulators have been unwilling — or unable — to remove it. Their findings reveal how ongoing delays keep you at risk.

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Judges Order Trump Admin to Fund SNAP — There’s Just One Problem

Two federal judges have just ruled that the Trump administration must use contingency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must to continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown.

The rulings came a day before the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown.

The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. Word in October that it would be a Nov. 1 casualty of the shutdown sent states, food banks and SNAP recipients scrambling to figure out how to secure food. Some states said they would spend their own funds to keep versions of the program going.

The Trump administration has long said it doesn’t have the legal authority to use the contingency funds to pay for SNAP benefits during the prolonged Schumer Shutdown.

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Federal Judge Weighs Forcing USDA to Pay SNAP Benefits Despite Shutdown

A federal judge considered ordering the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to tap into a $5 billion contingency fund to avoid a lapse in the national food stamp program on Oct. 30.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, during a hearing in Boston, said the government should find a way to continue giving limited benefits to recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP), rather than cutting it off completely.

“The steps involve finding an equitable way of reducing benefits,” she said.

Talwani is expected to issue a ruling by the end of Oct. 30.

Approximately 1 in 8 Americans benefit from SNAP, and at a cost of around $100 billion per year, it is one of the country’s most amply funded social service initiatives.

On Oct. 10, the USDA informed states that it would not disburse benefits for November because of the government shutdown.

The program is set to run out of funding on Nov. 1 if the shutdown continues. Senate Democrats have declined to support a House-passed bill to fund the government, and earlier this week, Republicans did not support a bill that provided standalone funding for SNAP.

As Republicans and Democrats continue to face off on the issue of reopening the government, 25 states sued on Oct. 27, insisting that the USDA could harness the $5 billion emergency fund to keep the program going.

However, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said this was illegal on Oct. 27, noting that those funds were meant to pay for school meals and infant formula.

A memo from the USDA echoed Johnson’s statement, noting that the emergency fund—along with $23 billion in tariff revenue—is being used to cover school breakfast and lunch programs, along with the Women and Infant Children (WIC) program, which provides infant formula and healthy foods to babies and their mothers.

That memo also notes that state governments cannot be reimbursed if they choose to cover SNAP benefits, a program that costs about $8 billion per month. Some states, such as Virginia, are planning to launch their own stop-gap programs to ensure food security.

The plaintiff states argue that, in addition to harming the tens of millions of Americans who rely on SNAP, the program’s suspension will harm the businesses where they shop.

Attorneys for the government argue that the program cannot be funded during the shutdown, since this is a violation of the Antideficiency Act, which dictates how the government operates during a funding lapse and “forbids the United States from making such an obligation without an appropriation.”

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How China could use U.S. farmland to attack America

Chinese entities have been acquiring land in key locations near U.S. military bases, sparking national security concerns about possible spying — or even a potential attack.

Former national security official David Feith laid out the potential risk in an interview with 60 Minutes. Feith worked on U.S.-China policy for the State Department in the first Trump administration, and until April, worked in Trump’s second administration on the National Security Council. While there, he grew increasingly alarmed by where China owns America’s farmland. 
 
“The ability to own large tracts of land, especially close to sensitive U.S. military and government facilities, can pose an enormous problem given the nature of technology today, which is that hostile actor from all across the world can very easily exploit access to land, access to buildings and warehouses, access just to a shipping container or two and do enormous damage, either in intelligence terms or in military terms,” Feith told 60 Minutes.

Feith cited Ukraine’s recent drone attack in Russia as an example. In June, the Ukrainian military attacked Russian nuclear-capable bombers with remotely operated drones it had smuggled into the country.

For China, Feith explained, owning farmland in the United States gives America’s geopolitical rival more operating room for potential strikes.

“It’s an entirely new way of war,” he cautioned.

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3 Reasons Why Zohran Mamdani’s City-Run Grocery Stores Will Fail

New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani says City Hall needs to get into the grocery business because New Yorkers are being “priced out” of private supermarkets. If elected, Mamdani says he’ll spend $60 million on opening one government-run grocery store in each of the five boroughs that would deliver healthier produce at lower prices. Here’s why that’s a terrible idea.

1. Mamdani-Marts Can’t Compete With Discount Grocery Chains

Mamdani says that New Yorkers should think of city-run grocery stores as a “public option” that would deliver cheaper food by saving on rent and taxes. And they wouldn’t need to make a profit.

Except profit margins for grocery stores are typically below 2 percent, and private grocers keep costs down by utilizing complex supply chains and economies of scale that Mamdani’s stores won’t have access to.

“The grocery business is really tough,” says Scott Lincicome, who is the vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute. Private grocery stores provide “a vast variety of fresh frozen produce and other goods that everybody wants all the time, which is actually really difficult to do, particularly at reasonably low prices.” In Kansas City, a government-run grocery store scheme lost nearly $900,000 just last year. 

Lincicome says that if New York politicians want to give their constituents access to cheaper groceries, they could allow Walmart in the Big Apple. But New York politicians have used zoning regulations to keep the nation’s largest and most affordable supermarket from opening a store anywhere in the five boroughs. 

“Walmart is the absolute leader in supply chain efficiencies,” Lincicome told Reason. It “does this via a truly global network of warehouses and trucks and airplanes and all of these amazing things that shave off fractions of a penny off of every transaction.” The idea that New York “could somehow try to replicate Walmart’s global supply chain and entire business model is just laughable.”

2. New York Has Fewer “Food Deserts” Than Any Other City 

Mamdani says his grocery stores will help address the problem of neighborhoods lacking easy access to fresh food. But Lincicome cites a recent study showing that “ranked the Big Apple the No. 1 U.S. metro area in terms of residents’ ‘equitable access’ to a local supermarket.”

“You can basically walk almost everywhere in New York City in 10 minutes and find a grocery store,” he told Reason.

Lincicome cites multiple studies (1, 2, 3) showing that new grocery stores don’t improve food access. But this is old news: In 2012, Reason covered three earlier studies that exploded the myth that adding neighborhood supermarkets improves the diets of their surrounding communities.

3. It’s a waste of money

Mamdani said that he is going to pay for his grocery stores by “redirecting” $140 million worth of city funding that is already being spent subsidizing corporate grocers. As the Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney was the first to notice, that number is based on a misreading of a city website. The city subsidizes some private grocery stores at a cost of about $3.3 million per year.. As some Bronx residents told Fox News‘ Kennedy in a new video published by Reason, the city should focus instead on helping the homeless, dealing with “rats the size of cats,” and cleaning “all of the needles on the street.”

Direct assistance is a more cost-effective and less destructive way to support low-income households than government-run supermarkets, and it’s something the federal government already does in abundance. Through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, 1.79 million New Yorkers—20 percent of the city’s population—receive help purchasing groceries each month.

As one New Yorker told Kennedy in Reason‘s latest video, “you’re focusing on the wrong things, Mamdani.”

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Who gets food stamps? Viral chart misleads about SNAP recipients’ race, ethnicity

With millions of people at risk of losing access to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program starting Nov. 1, a viral chart claimed to show the majority of the nation’s food stamp recipients are non-white and noncitizens.

The chart, titled “Food Stamps by Ethnicity,” listed 36 groups of people and said it showed the “percentage of U.S. households receiving SNAP benefits.” 

The groups were labeled by nationality such as “Afghan,” “Somali,” “Iraqi,”  along with the racial groups “white,” “Black” and “native.” The chart appeared to show that Afghan people were the largest group receiving SNAP benefits, at 45.6%, followed by Somali (42.4%) and Iraqi (34.8%). White people, represented on the chart with the American flag, were third to last at 8.6%.

The federal government shutdown, which started Oct. 1, is the cause of the looming SNAP funding lapse. SNAP provides food purchasing benefits to low-income households. Conservatives have peddled the misleading narrative that Democrats are pushing for healthcare for illegal immigrants, and people commenting on the chart rehashed a similar talking point.

“Who is getting their EBT cut,” read the caption of an Oct. 25 X post sharing the chart, which had 3.1 million views as of Oct. 27. EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer, which is a SNAP payment system.

“Only 18.7% of EBT or food stamp recipients are American. Let that sink in…” read another post sharing the chart, seemingly mistakenly referring to the figure next to the word “Armenian”; there was no “American” category in the chart. “We are subsidizing foreigners on the taxpayers dime.”

The chart doesn’t show the full picture of SNAP recipients by race or ethnicity. The most reliable source for the breakdown of SNAP recipients by demographics comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program. 

According to the most recent USDA data available, from 2023, white people are the largest racial group receiving SNAP benefits, at 35.4%. African Americans are next, making up 25.7% of recipients, then Hispanic people at 15.6%, Asian people at 3.9%, Native Americans at 1.3% and multiracial people at 1%. The race of 17% of participants is unknown.

The same report found that 89.4% of SNAP recipients were U.S born citizens, meaning less than 11% of SNAP participants were foreign-born. Of the latter figure, 6.2% were naturalized citizens, 1.1% were refugees and 3.3% were other noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents and other eligible noncitizens.

While large shares of the groups listed in the chart may receive food stamps, “they are certainly a tiny share of the households and spending on SNAP,” said Tracy Roof, University of Richmond associate professor of political science.

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Food Lines Are Already Growing Longer All Over America

It is already happening.  There has been a lot of talk that there will be a surge in demand at America’s overwhelmed food banks once funding for the food stamp program ends in early November, but the truth is that we are already witnessing a surge in demand.  So what is going to happen if the current government shutdown persists for an extended period of time?  On one recent evening, the line at a food bank in downtown Kansas City “snaked through the parking lot, down a driveway and into the street”…

On a recent Thursday evening, the line of cars waiting to pick up food at Redemptorist Social Services Center in midtown snaked through the parking lot, down a driveway and into the street.

Demand for free food is soaring across Kansas City, as job cuts increase, food inflation remains persistently high and federal food assistance is slashed by the Trump administration.

Julie McCaw, executive director at Redemptorist, called the situation “alarming.” Families with working parents, senior citizens and people who simply cannot find work increasingly are turning to food pantries like hers for help.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

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Trump Says SNAP Benefits Will Be Solved for Next Month

President Donald Trump said that he believes Republicans will solve how to fund food stamps, when he was asked about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the government shutdown.

SNAP is slated to expire by Nov. 1, potentially ending benefits for millions of people across the United States.

“We’re going to get it done,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Oct. 29. “The Democrats have caused the problem, unfortunately. All they have to do is sign, and if they sign, I’ll meet with them.”

The president then suggested that the shutdown is linked to broader talks on health care and an extension of subsidies. Senate Democrats have refused 13 times to pass bills to reopen the government because those measures do not include health care provisions, including an extension of Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) subsidies slated to expire at the end of the year.

“We have to fix health care because Obamacare is a disaster,” Trump said, referring to the Affordable Care Act. “When you see the increases in Obamacare, it never worked, it never will work, and we could do something with the Democrats much better than Obamacare. Less money and better health care.”

Trump then said that health insurance companies are “making too much money” and said that talks are needed between Republicans and Democrats when the shutdown ends.

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Food Stamps To Be Paused For 42 Million Americans: What To Know…

Food stamps are set to be paused on Nov. 1 because of the government shutdown.

Some 42 million Americans will not receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) until Congress approves new funding, according to federal officials, although some states have taken steps to intervene.

Congress made money available for SNAP for October before failing to reach a new government funding agreement, which resulted in the government shutting down on Oct. 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a letter to regional and state SNAP officials.

There is not enough money to pay full SNAP benefits to the approximately 42 million SNAP recipients in November, the USDA says.

“Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the USDA said on Oct. 25.

“At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01.”

As Ryan McMaken details below, via The Mises Institute, according to the Treasury Department’s report on federal spending for fiscal year 2025, total spending on food stamps—also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—was $106 billion for the twelve-month period ending September 30. Even in our post-covid age of runaway monetary inflation, 106 billion dollars is still, as they say, “real money,” and SNAP spending doesn’t even include other food-subsidy programs like WIC and school lunch programs.  

In spite of much talk about how the Trump administration is supposedly defunding these programs, they’re not going anywhere. For the calendar year of 2025, the US is on pace to see an increase of six to seven billion dollars over 2024’s SNAP spending total of $99.7 billion. This only continues the longer term upward trend in food-stamp spending. 

Indeed, since the Great Recession (i.e., 2008), when total SNAP spending was $52 billion, total spending on the program has doubled—even when measured in inflation-adjusted dollars. 

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Senator Blackburn backs bill to maintain SNAP benefits amid government shutdown

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn is backing a new bill to keep food assistance flowing during the government shutdown.

The Keep SNAP Funded Act aims to ensure uninterrupted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, even as government funding stalls.

“Roughly one in 10 Tennesseans receive SNAP benefits for food assistance, and they shouldn’t have to worry about where their next meal will come from…” said Blackburn.

The announcement of the new bill comes after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Friday that SNAP recipients across the state face a benefit lapse starting Nov. 1.

Sen. Josh Hawley is leading the charge on this legislation, with support from Blackburn and other senators including James Lankford, Susan Collins, Bernie Moreno, Kevin Cramer and Lisa Murkowski.

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