Obesity, Hunger, Addiction

Here is the conundrum of obesity, food scarcity, and wasted food. The problem in the United States is particularly acute: among OECD countries, the US ranks poorly in adult and child obesity; despite the abundance of food produced in America, millions of people suffer from food insecurity; and when it comes to throwing away perfectly edible food, we are unequalled. It is indeed a puzzling set of circumstances.

👎 While drug overdoses cut across rural-urban boundaries, death rates from overdoses in rural areas now outpace the rate in large metropolitan areas, which historically had higher rates—Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2022)

👎 Food insecurity will undoubtedly remain a central dilemma and embarrassment in a nation of plenty. The problem will not have a sympathetic ear from the second Trump administration. Feeding America estimates that in just the first few months of 2025, the administration has cut about $1 billion in federal aid to anti-hunger groups.

👎 Hunger in America? Food insecurity? Nah, let’s just not issue any more reports, and by the way, put on administrative leave the researchers who wrote the report. (September 2025)

Every year, the US Department of Agriculture publishes a report on Food Insecurity. But the Trump administration said it was terminating the report because it had become “redundant, costly, and politicized” and that “extraneous studies do nothing more than fear monger.” The Agriculture Department statement said, “For 30 Years, this study . . . failed to present anything more than subjective, liberal fodder.” In 2023, some 13.5 percent of American households were food insecure at some point during the year, according the previous USDA reporting.

Source: Tami Luhby, “Trump Administration Puts Hunger Researchers on Leave After Canceling Food Insecurity Report,” CNN, September 23, 2025, https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/23/politics/usda-hunger-researchers-on-leave