The Trump administration announced Saturday that it was canceling an annual US food insecurity survey, claiming it had become "overly politicized," its latest attack on government data gathering.
"The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), following continuous review of programs and economic reporting, will discontinue future Household Food Security Reports," the agency said in a statement to AFP.
According to the USDA, the report "became overly politicized and upon subsequent review, is unnecessary to carry out the work of the Department."
The move to cancel the three-decade-old survey comes after President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress passed major reforms this year to the US food assistance program known as SNAP, which independent analysts say will lead to millions losing access to the program.
The 2023 report showed 13.5 percent of US households faced food insecurity, the highest level since 2014.
The USDA statement criticized the survey gathering process, saying the "questions used to collect the data are entirely subjective and do not present an accurate picture of actual food security."
"The data is rife with inaccuracies slanted to create a narrative that is not representative of what is actually happening in the countryside as we are currently experiencing lower poverty rates, increasing wages, and job growth under the Trump Administration," the statement said.
{{/usCountry}}"The data is rife with inaccuracies slanted to create a narrative that is not representative of what is actually happening in the countryside as we are currently experiencing lower poverty rates, increasing wages, and job growth under the Trump Administration," the statement said.
{{/usCountry}}It was not clear if the USDA statement was referring to hunger data gathered this year, which would not be made public until 2026.
US economic data has shown slowing growth and a tightening labor market this year.
Trump has dismissed these numbers as inaccurate and fired the head of the Labor Department's statistics bureau.
He has nominated E.J. Antoni, a right-wing economist whose commentary has consistently backed the Republican president, to fill the position.