Junk-food Bans for SNAP Users To Begin in January
Americans using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in some states will be prohibited from purchasing certain kinds of junk food
Americans using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in some states will be prohibited from purchasing certain kinds of junk food.
Beginning in January, 18 states will restrict the purchase of certain foods.
The ban is being carried out under the aegis of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Participating states have had to submit a waiver to the Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees SNAP.
Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, and West Virginia will implement purchase restrictions on 1 January, 2026. Idaho, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Colorado, Texas, Virginia, and Florida have starting dates from February to April. Arkansas, Tennessee, Hawaii, South Carolina, North Dakota, and Missouri will begin their bans between July and October.
Under the new rules, candy, soda and energy drinks, as well as some kinds of prepared foods, will not be available to SNAP recipients.
In Tennessee and Iowa, SNAP recipients will not be able to buy processed food, categorised as food that has been changed in any way from its natural state.
Prepared desserts will be off the menu in Florida and Missouri.
Meanwhile, in Iowa, foods that are prepared for consumption of come with eating utensils will be unavailable. Bread, fruit and canned goods will still be permitted.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said these are “bold” and “historic” steps to reduce the burden of chronic disease in the US.
“We are restoring SNAP to its true purpose—nutrition,” Rollins said in a written statement.
“With these new waivers, we are empowering states to lead, protecting our children from the dangers of highly-processed foods, and moving one step closer to the President’s promise to make America Healthy Again.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, “We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create.”
These restrictions are the first in the history of the program.
Between 2000 and 2024, the USDA repeatedly denied requests from states to restrict foods available under the program.
In 2007, the USDA explained that “no clear standards exist for defining foods as good or bad, or healthy or not healthy.”
The Best “Go Paid” Deal on Substack! You Get REAL Stuff!!
Go paid at the $5 a month level, and we will send you both the PDF and e-Pub versions of Etienne’s new book: To See the Cage Is to Leave It - 25 Techniques the Few Use to Control the Many and a coupon code for 10% off anything in the https://artofliberty.org/store/.
Go paid at the $50 a year level, and we will send you a free paperback edition of Etienne’s new book: To See the Cage Is to Leave It - 25 Techniques the Few Use to Control the Many OR “Government” - The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed! OR a 64GB Liberator flash drive if you live in the US. If you are international, we will give you a $10 credit towards shipping if you agree to pay the remainder.
Support us at the $250 Founding Member Level and get a signed high-resolution hardcover of “Government” - The Biggest Scam in History... Exposed! + Liberator flash drive + a signed high-resolution hardcover of Etienne’s new book: To See the Cage Is to Leave It - 25 Techniques the Few Use to Control the Many + everything else in our “Everything Bundle” of the best in voluntaryist thought delivered domestically. International pays shipping. Our only option for signed copies besides catching Etienne @ an event
USDA is a pathetic, murderous joke. It's Natl Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is a revolving door travesty. The industry representatives turned USDA officials who serve on that board are heinous people. They spend their days trying to add more and more chemicals to the defninition of Organic.
The Food Babe just reported lab tests performed by Mothers Across America that showed orgnic cereals (Cascadian Farm and Kashi) had double the glyphosate residues of the non-organic breakfast cereals. That is intentional Big Food industry poisoning... just like the drugs, hormones, and pesticide residues in fast food that the USDA fails to stop.
So, ending junk food purchases in the SNAP program will leave folks with what to purchase exactly? Wouldn't it be something if the poor started to detox, saw what is being done to them and how intentional it is, and actually revolt in some impactful way. What a concept.
The real problem is Socialism. Taxpayers shouldn't be funding at gunpoint other people's problems. It's immoral.