I have said this multiple times on GAW and other sites.
The SNAP (Food Stamp) program is not a social services program. It is a farming program covered under the Farm Bill which is under the Department of Agriculture. It has nothing to do with social services.
Congress sets prices on commodities such as beef, pork, eggs, milk, and, yes, even sugar.
In the old days if a farmer or rancher produced a certain amount of their commodities and it wasn't sold the US government agreed to buy it. Usually what happened is that the raw food staples would go rotten in a government warehouse. This was not a good option. So then the government came up with the "Free Cheese" program in which the government hired contractors to convert the raw material into products that the government handed out to those who qualified as "needy".
But the problem was so much of it was very low quality and over half of the finished product ended up rotting in government warehouses.
So then the government came up with the idea easing regulations on prices and allowing farmers to be competitive and they took the money and issued it to those American people in need and allowed them to decide what products they would buy.
Now we're at a crossroad of where neediness meets luxury.
The farmers selling meat, tomatoes, potatoes, wheat, and eggs are totally allowed to receive the benefit of this program while the farmers who work their asses of in the thankless job of producing corn and sugar to be used for candy and soda are not allowed to take part in the program? How does that make sense?
If the SNAP program was a social services program it would make sense to limit what food people buy. But it's not. It's a farming program and all farmers should be allowed to benefit from it equally.
But things are the way the are at this time. We can wax poetics all we want about how things should be but right now we need to focus on how things are right now. Not how they would be in a perfect world.
I have said this multiple times on GAW and other sites.
The SNAP (Food Stamp) program is not a social services program. It is a farming program covered under the Farm Bill which is under the Department of Agriculture. It has nothing to do with social services.
Congress sets prices on commodities such as beef, pork, eggs, milk, and, yes, even sugar.
In the old days if a farmer or rancher produced a certain amount of their commodities and it wasn't sold the US government agreed to buy it. Usually what happened is that the raw food staples would go rotten in a government warehouse. This was not a good option. So then the government came up with the "Free Cheese" program in which the government hired contractors to convert the raw material into products that the government handed out to those who qualified as "needy". But the problem was so much of it was very low quality and over half of the finished product ended up rotting in government warehouses.
So then the government came up with the idea easing regulations on prices and allowing farmers to be competitive and they took the money and issued it to those American people in need and allowed them to decide what products they would buy.
Now we're at a crossroad of where neediness meets luxury. The farmers selling meat, tomatoes, potatoes, wheat, and eggs are totally allowed to receive the benefit of this program while the farmers who work their asses of in the thankless job of producing corn and sugar to be used for candy and soda are not allowed to take part in the program? How does that make sense?
If the SNAP program was a social services program it would make sense to limit what food people buy. But it's not. It's a farming program and all farmers should be allowed to benefit from it equally.
Free food is making people extremely fat in many cases.
We can give subsides to farmers another way, that doesn't harm the poor as much.
True.
But things are the way the are at this time. We can wax poetics all we want about how things should be but right now we need to focus on how things are right now. Not how they would be in a perfect world.
This is a discussion,we are not writing laws.
Using farmers as an excuse to harm people is not the way.