Don’t look up statistics on hunger, says USDA. It only causes “fear mongering.” To make sure we don’t have to worry about that, the agency is canceling the survey research on food insecurity it’s been doing for 30 years. That’s right. USDA announced over the weekend that measurement of food insecurity is unnecessary:

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the termination of future Household Food Security Reports. These redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous studies do nothing more than fear monger.

“For 30 years, this study—initially created by the Clinton administration as a means to support the increase of SNAP eligibility and benefit allotments—failed to present anything more than subjective, liberal fodder.”

The Biggest Cuts Ever to Food Assistance

This decision comes shortly after the administration pushed through the biggest cuts ever to the U.S. SNAP food assistance program. The Campaign Against Hunger is a Brooklyn nonprofit that saw a crisis building as massive federal budget cutting loomed. CEO Melonie Samuels told the Associated Press:

“We were already in a bad state. But now we have been plunged head down into a crisis that should never have been. If major cuts like these continue, I would imagine that our doors will close.”

Signs of Strain in Food Security

Those cuts started taking effect this month and already, anecdotal reports suggest that food security is dropping further. Food prices are climbing and the shaky economy has many families reaching for cheap food options to fill up on a limited income. Sally Lyons Wyatt, a food marketing consultant at Circans, explains:

“Cost-of-living expenses are up. Eating and drinking expenses are up. Consumers are looking for foods that fill them up for the least amount of money.”

And thus Hamburger Helper is having a resurgence in this economy where working families face huge pressures even though wealthier households feel little strain. Consumers are reaching for store brands and cheaper fast food to get by.

Call It Fear Mongering and Look Away

Can we make food insecurity disappear simply by closing our eyes to it, by stopping efforts to measure and report on it? Dismissing reports of growing food insecurity as fear mongering is not a strategy that will work forever. People get angry when they feel hungry and shafted. Problems don’t go away when you ignore them. They get worse.

Click here, here, and here for more on the USDA decision to stop looking at food insecurity.

Parable of the Blind, painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder / WikiArt