Nutrition, SNAP, and Healthy Eating

THROUGHOUT 2007 AND 2008, Farm Bill negotiations were dominated by discussions of the country’s deepening nutrition crises. Onethird of US adults and 17 percent of children were classified as clinically obese. The ranks of citizens affected by food insecurity swelled to more than 50 million people. Nutrition programs, which already made up 50 percent of Farm Bill spending, were eventually awarded another $10 billion from Congress. The goal was to boost consumption of fruits and vegetables and increase benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade. In the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, record numbers of Americans applied for government assistance each month, and SNAP received 80 percent of that increase.1 Per-meal allowances, also known as the Thrifty Food Plan, were raised modestly, after not being updated in more than a decade.