Executive Summary

On the eve of 2012, Congress is negotiating dramatic cuts in the federal budget. Cuts to programs designed to overcome the effects of poverty are in neither the short- nor the long-term interests of the nation.

The recommendations in the 2012 Hunger Report are all the more relevant because the budget decisions are so urgent.

America’s farmers and the federal government are natural allies in the fight against domestic hunger and malnutrition—and this alliance is enshrined in the nation’s farm policies. The U.S. public needs farm policies to ensure a safe and affordable food supply, to protect the sustainability of vital natural resources that agricultural production depends on, and to produce well-balanced, nutritious foods.

Preventing people in the United States from going hungry is the single most important objective of federal nutrition programs. In times of high unemployment and reduced incomes, government spending on nutrition programs increases to help people cope with these difficult economic conditions.

For more than a century, agriculture has been an entry point into the labor market for immigrants in the United States. Presently, close to three-fourths of all U.S. hired farm workers are immigrants, most of them unauthorized. Their unauthorized legal status, low wages, and inconsistent and sometimes unpredictable work schedules contribute to a precarious economic state.

The United States responds directly to hunger and malnutrition in the developing world with food aid and agricultural development assistance.

U.S. food aid programs and agricultural development assistance are increasingly focused on pregnant and lactating women and children younger than 2.

After college I served in South Africa for a year through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Following a year of enriching experiences, I had to decide whether to stay in sub-Saharan Africa or return to the United States. I thought I could make more of a difference back home, working in Washington, DC, where the U.S. government makes decisions every day that affect the lives of millions of hungry and poor people around the world.

Farm policies should lean more towards the production of healthy foods.