U.S. farm agency allows six more states to bar some items from food aid

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News/Reuters

Aug. 4, 2025, 9:03 PM EDT / Source: Reuters


WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department allowed six additional states Monday to bar participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from using their benefits to buy certain processed foods, such as sodas and candy.

The SNAP waivers for West Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas amend the statutory definition of food for purchase and put an end to the subsidization of popular types of junk food beginning in 2026.

The administration of President Donald Trump has encouraged all states to take such measures as part of its “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, named for the social movement led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The USDA had so far signed waivers to allow six states — Arkansas, Idaho, Utah, Iowa, Indiana and Nebraska — to place similar purchasing restrictions on SNAP recipients.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/us-farm-agency-allows-six-states-bar-items-food-aid-rcna222873

[littlemissmartypants]

1. Land of the free...?

I don't even know anymore.

[Dem2theMax]

2. I know how to 'Make America Healthy Again.'

I just can't say it out loud.

[OldBaldy1701E]

3. What? Cut out the fat?

The concept of that orange gibbon talking about making America healthy again is about the funniest thing I have ever seen or heard in a long time.

The guy cannot even waddle from the cart path to the green! He has to drive right up to it!

[GregariousGroundhog]

6. Excluding soda and candy isn't a bad thing

I don't know how much difference this will make, and the analogy of a broken clock being right twice a day seems fitting here.

[Blues Heron]

10. candy and soda are fine parts of a balanced diet. Eating too much is a problem, as with anything.

All food is unhealthy if over consumed. But the idea that candy is toxic or some kind of poison is wrong. Only when you overeat does it become a problem.

[OldBaldy1701E]

13. I would argue that excluding those two things from families with children...

could... could... create an inequity in their social circles as the 'rich kids' are scarfing candies and sodas while the 'poor kids' are left with a peanut butter sandwich (jelly being too expensive), thus creating an atmosphere of imbalance that has been proven to create class-based animosities.

But, with society in general starting to crumble, that argument seems very empty and esoteric by comparison. Other than that, I see nothing to say it is a bad thing, either.

[markodochartaigh]

4. "Won't somebody think about the

billionaires?"

[angrychair]

5. The problem with limitations

Is they are trying to force people to buy whole fruit and vegetables and other low processed foods but SNAP, despite Republican talking points otherwise, is very little and whole or organic foods are very expensive in comparison. Sometimes the nearest grocery stores are not fully stocked.
Its horribly cruel.

[Jose Garcia]

7. This will likely have very little impact as

there a probably very few truly needy people spending their SNAP benefits on candy and soda.

[Martin68]

8. Frankly, I agree with any decision to limit food aid to healthy food. When the government pays for something, it has a

right to consider health. That said, the government should also invest in solving the problem of so-called food deserts, where affordable healthy food is not available.

[niyad]

9. Goddess forfend that people using SNAP assistance should be able

to purchase a little pleasure. How fuckIng DARE they buy a candy bar, a soda, a treat?? Why aren't they growing their own food??

Honestly, the self-righteous, self- congratulatory, judgmental finger wagging about "healthy choices" from people at all levels who are not reichwing is fairly sickening. This kind of rhetoric one expects from them. I expect/demand better from our politicians and friends. Food deserts, meaning limited access to grocery stores and healthy and fresh food sources, for example, are a real thing. Do not attempt to justify it by saying you don't want to pay for someone else's poor choices. A: you don't know/don't care about their circumstances. B: as a society we are paying for many poor choices, including war and what our regulatory agencies are allowing corporations to do to us. So, before you congratulate yourselves, you governors, legislators, concerned citizens, think about how much of your stance is based on a desire to control an easy target, rather than addressing a whole host of bedrock issues.

[slightlv]

11. You stated my first thoughts

Beautifully, right to the point. Adults need a little treat once in a while to feel himan... even to maintain a sense of human dignity. But I'm especially thinking of the kids. Deprive them now and watch the other kids make fun of them. And then that sets up those kids for an unhealthy attachment to those foods in the future, as well as sending them negative thoughts about themselves in the present. Moderation in all things. Besides good, whole food is expensive, outrageously so with the tariffs and threats of tariffs, as we are rapidly discovering.

[niyad]

12. Thank you so much. What you pointed out about children is a very

important point.