But there are conflicting pressures. Groups that support large farmers want the farm bill passed now. As DTN’s Agriculture Policy Editor Chris Clayton noted, if the farm bill passes this Congress, farmers will get a higher base price in 2025. If it doesn’t pass, the benefits will be delayed until at least 2026. (https://www.dtnpf.com/…)
Republicans are not only the party of rural America, they are also the party of big agriculture, representing 81 of the top 100 congressional districts as measured by agricultural sales. They care about the opinions of commercial farmers.
Republicans should also pay attention to something that doesn’t get enough attention from the perspective of the party of rural America: food insecurity is as much a rural issue as it is an urban issue.
Of course, there are more hungry people in cities than in rural areas because there are more people living in cities than in the countryside. But consider this:
— According to a paper published in October 2023 by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, 14.7% of households outside metropolitan areas are food insecure, compared to 12.5% of households in metropolitan areas. (https://www.ers.usda.gov/…)
— An Iowa farmer’s wife who volunteers at a food bank in a nearby town of 1,500 people said that two years ago 10 families relied on the food bank; now that number is 50.
— According to the nonprofit organization Feeding America, 9 of the 10 U.S. counties with the highest rates of food insecurity are rural. (https://www.feedingamerica.org/…)
— Wages in rural America tend to be low, so many rural SNAP recipients are people with full-time jobs, such as an Oklahoma mother with three teenage kids recently profiled in the Washington Post. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/…)
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 24.1% of adult SNAP recipients in 2020 worked every month, and an additional 14.3% worked some months. (https://www.census.gov/…) Republicans want SNAP to encourage work and discourage reliance on government, but many SNAP recipients end up relying on government as well as working.
These points don’t seem to impress Republicans. House Republican staffers have denounced Feeding America and other groups that advocate for a more generous food stamp system as “hunger kooks,” arguing that they are only interested in using the poor to keep their cushy jobs. Clumsy language and unnecessarily offensive choices aside, does this accusation mean anything?
According to tax returns released by Feeding America, the company paid six-figure salaries to 18 executives in 2022, with the CEO making nearly $1 million. (https://www.feedingamerica.org/…)
But six-figure salaries are common in large, complex organizations, and Feeding America’s revenue has reached nearly $5 billion.
The organization used its profits to provide cash and food to over 240 food banks across the country. (The list of food banks and the amount given to each takes up several pages of the tax return.) According to Forbes magazine, 98% of Feeding America’s total expenses go toward achieving the organization’s charitable objectives, well above the national average of 87%. (https://www.forbes.com/…)
In May, the University of Notre Dame awarded Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux Fontenot the Laetare Award, the highest honor given to an American Catholic. (https://laetare.nd.edu/…)
I’ll let you decide for yourself whether the “starving freak” comment was fair.
Urban Lehner can be contacted at urbanize@gmail.com.
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