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Finance Economist, 5/12/26
"You Have No Idea What Starving Americans Will Do"
"The USDA confirms 47.9 million Americans lived in food-insecure households last year. One in seven households. 14.1 million children. Over 50 million turned to food banks for help. Shoplifting in America has surged 93 percent since 2019 and 45 percent of shoplifters are stealing food. Retail theft losses reached $112 billion in 2023, the highest in American history. Urban shoplifting rates ran 24 percent higher in 2024 than the year before. Stores catch shoplifters approximately 2 percent of the time. The Food Research and Action Center called the SNAP cuts in the reconciliation law the deepest in the history of the program. $187 billion eliminated over the next decade. Benefits cut approximately $100 per month for 600,000 households. Work requirements expanded to ages 55 to 64 for the first time. On April 30th the House passed a Farm Bill 224 to 200 that fails to reverse the cuts. The USDA announced it is terminating the Household Food Security Report, the only comprehensive federal survey tracking hunger in America for nearly 30 years. World Bank data showed urea fertilizer prices surged 46 percent in a single month as the Iran war disrupted the Strait of Hormuz. The Carnegie Endowment warned fertilizer is not getting through.
The World Food Programme projects 45 million additional people pushed into acute hunger by mid-2026. The FAO Food Price Index is at its highest level since December. Farm bankruptcies climbed throughout 2025. American grocery shelves carry approximately 72 hours of inventory. Feeding America documented that over 50 million Americans turned to food banks last year while food bank practitioners overwhelmingly acknowledge that charity cannot solve hunger in America. Food insecurity is rising even in households above 185 percent of the poverty line. 36.8 percent of single-mother households are food insecure. Black households at 24.4 percent, more than double white households at 10.1 percent. Grocery stores are responding to theft by locking products behind glass, reducing hours, and closing locations, deepening food deserts in the communities that need access most. You don't want to see what starving Americans will do."
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