Concerns in US After Trump Administration Cancels Hunger Reports

The Trump administration has cancelled the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) annual reports on food security, sparking concerns amid cuts to food assistance programs.

The reports, established in the 1990s, provided data on food insecurity to federal and state officials. The most recent report indicated that 18 million households in the US faced food insecurity in 2023.

The USDA claimed the reports were "politicized" and "costly." However, analysts like Kyle Ross from the Center for American Progress disputed this claim, noting that the reports had been produced for decades by administrations of both parties.

Barbara Laraia, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, described the USDA report as the "gold standard" for studying food insecurity.

The cancellation comes at a time when federal funding for food assistance programs, such as SNAP, has been reduced.