Doctors Say House Farm Bill Is Missing Plan for Improving SNAP Nutrition

WASHINGTON—The Physicians Committee—a nonprofit with 12,000 doctor members—says that the House Agriculture Committee’s draft farm bill released on April 12 lacks a concrete plan for providing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants good nutrition. The group is calling on Chairman Mike Conaway to incorporate the group’s Healthy Staples plan.

“House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway lost a historic opportunity in this draft of the farm bill to provide SNAP recipients the good nutrition they have long deserved,” says Physicians Committee president Neal Barnard, M.D., F.A.C.C. “But it’s not too late to modify the farm bill to include the Healthy Staples plan, ensuring participants get the fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes they need to fight obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.”

Just two of the SNAP sections of the farm bill—Sec. 4002. Retailer-Funded Incentives Pilot and Sec. 4003. Gus Schumacher Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Program—could provide limited incentives for purchasing fruits and vegetables.

According to the USDA, SNAP participants are more likely to be obese than income-eligible nonparticipants. They also have an increased risk of death from heart disease and diabetes, compared to SNAP-eligible nonparticipants.

Dr. Barnard detailed Healthy Staples in “A Proposal for Improvements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 

Healthy Staples would subsidize participating grocers who supply basic healthful foods: grains, vegetables, beans, fruits, and basic multiple vitamins. SNAP participants choosing solely from Healthy Staples would likely get more than twice the fiber, iron, vitamin E, and folate; almost twice the potassium, calcium, and magnesium; almost 40 percent more vitamin D; and more than five times more beta-carotene than those following a typical American diet. A Healthy Staples participant would also consume 65 percent less fat and 85 percent less saturated fat, and the excess of 250 milligrams of cholesterol consumed daily would be reduced to essentially zero.

Healthy Staples is inspired by the USDA’s Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC, which is based on the use of packages that include foods deemed to provide good nutrition. When WIC began promoting more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, childhood obesity declined for participants, according to a recent study in JAMA Pediatrics. Children make up nearly half of SNAP participants.

Healthy Staples would also be a boon to retailers by curtailing the economic rationale for stocking less nutritious foods and instead reimbursing them for stocking foods that help keep their communities healthy.

Earlier this year, the American Medical Association also asked the USDA to incentivize healthful foods and discourage or eliminate unhealthful foods.

To speak to Dr. Barnard or another expert, please contact Jeanne Stuart McVey at jeannem [at] pcrm.org (jeannem[at]pcrm[dot]org) or 202-527-7316.