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Re:

USDA Ends Annual Food Security Report Series, Citing Politicization

USDA ended future Household Food Security Reports, citing cost, redundancy and politicization. The latest official figures cover 2024; whether other data can replace the series’ national and state coverage remains disputed.
From TheFinanceBase Team4 min to read
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on September 20, 2025, that it would end future Household Food Security Reports. USDA called the studies “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous”; that is the agency’s stated rationale, not independent proof that the survey was politically biased. The latest official report available in USDA’s cited data page covers 2024.

What happened, and when?

USDA announced the termination of future Household Food Security Reports on September 20, 2025. The announcement came as the agency was about to release data for the 2024 survey year, according to contemporaneous reporting. USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) now lists the 2024 report and its statistical supplement.

The survey and report series have different start dates. A September 2025 Senate Agriculture Committee letter says the survey was created in 1995 following the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990. Reuters reported that the annual report series had been published since 1998. The letter also notes that the survey operated under both Republican and Democratic administrations and underwent a 2006 reassessment by the National Academies’ Committee on National Statistics.

What did the USDA food security survey measure?

The survey measured whether households had consistent access throughout the year to enough food for an active, healthy life for all members. USDA classifies a household as food insecure when limited resources interrupt that access at some point during the year.

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  • Low food security: A household may have reduced the quality, variety, or desirability of meals while generally managing to get enough food.
  • Very low food security: Some household members reduce food intake or disrupt their normal eating patterns because they cannot get enough food.

“Food insecurity” is broader than physiological hunger. A household can receive that classification because members compromise food quality or variety without a substantial reduction in the amount they eat. A household-level classification also should not be applied automatically to every person in that household, and an episode at some point in a year does not mean it occurred every day. USDA’s definitions and reporting guidance appear on its Food Security in the U.S. media resources.

What were the latest official figures?

USDA ERS’s page, updated July 28, 2026, reports the following household figures for 2024:

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Measure 2024 Comparison with 2023
Food insecurity 13.7% of U.S. households, or 18.3 million households 13.5%, or 18.0 million households; USDA says the difference was not statistically significant.
Very low food security 5.4% of U.S. households, or 7.2 million households 5.1%, or 6.8 million households; USDA says the difference was not statistically significant.

These are household estimates, not counts or percentages of individual Americans who were hungry. The figures and statistical interpretation are reported by USDA ERS.

Why did USDA end the annual report?

In its September 20 announcement, USDA said the studies were “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous” and “do nothing more than fear monger.” Contemporaneous reporting attributed to the department the position that other data sets are more timely and accurate.

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Those are USDA’s claims. The announcement did not provide a detailed technical comparison identifying replacement datasets or demonstrating how they match the canceled reports’ coverage and methods. The available evidence establishes the decision and the department’s public explanation, but does not independently establish political bias or a motive to suppress unfavorable data.

Why did senators and researchers object?

On September 26, 2025, Senator Amy Klobuchar, the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, and other senators asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to reverse the decision. Their letter described the survey as a benchmark used by public-health departments and rural communities, and as evidence informing policy and grant planning. Those points represent the signatories’ case for retaining the reports.

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Other critics emphasized the survey’s reach and uses. The Washington Post reported Center for American Progress policy analyst Kyle Ross’s argument that the data were not redundant because the survey was the official source for food-insecurity statistics. Reuters quoted Megan Lott, deputy director of Duke University’s Healthy Eating Research program, describing it as the most comprehensive source. Reuters also reported advocates’ concern that losing the series could make it harder to assess how nutrition-program changes affect food insecurity. These are attributed assessments, not proof that no other datasets exist.

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Will USDA still publish food insecurity data?

The termination announcement concerns future Household Food Security Reports; it does not mean that all food-related government data cease to exist. USDA said other datasets are available, but its announcement did not set out a complete replacement plan. A dataset may track related indicators without measuring household food insecurity in the same way.

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To determine whether another source can fill a particular need, compare whether it:

  • covers the nation, individual states, or local areas;
  • measures household food insecurity directly or tracks a related indicator;
  • is collected frequently enough and released promptly enough for the intended use;
  • uses consistent methods over time; and
  • can support evaluation of nutrition-assistance programs.

Reuters reported critics’ concern that the canceled series was unusually useful because it offered both national and state-level information. The cited accounts do not provide a complete technical inventory of alternative data sources, so they do not settle whether another source can reproduce that combination.

What the change means for household and program tracking

For people comparing conditions over time, the 2024 figures remain the latest official estimates in the cited ERS page. The practical gap is about future comparable reporting: if a replacement differs in geography, questions, frequency, or methodology, a new figure may not be directly comparable with the old series. That matters to communities and policymakers seeking to track changes or assess nutrition programs.

As Reuters reported, Alliance to End Hunger president Eric Mitchell said, “There’s no way to determine what that impact will look like if the government isn’t tracking the data.” His comment referred to evaluating possible effects of nutrition-program cuts; it was an advocate’s warning about the consequences of losing measurement, not a finding that every relevant data source has disappeared.

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