Taco Bell, KFC lobby federal government to subsidize fast food through food stamps

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: food stamps, Taco Bell, health news

(NaturalNews) Soviet-style government food distribution is quickly becoming standard practice in the rapidly decaying United States of America, with more than 20 percent of Americans now participating in the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. And if the fast food industry gets its way, food stamps may soon cover buckets of fried chicken at KFC and Meximelts at Taco Bell.

Food stamp benefits have more than doubled within the past six years, skyrocketing from $28.5 billion in 2005 to $64.7 billion in 2010. With this rise came the addition of 53,000 newly eligible businesses as well, which included convenience stores, dollar discount stores, and even gas stations. And now the fast food industry wants a piece of the pie, too.

According to a recent report in USA Today, Louisville, Ky. based Yum! Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver restaurant, and Pizza Hut, is lobbying the federal government to permit SNAP enrollees to use food stamps at their restaurants. And they claim doing so will help prevent hunger.

But many in opposition are decrying the proposition as ridiculous, and a blatant misuse of public funds in support of junk foods rather than health foods.

"It's preposterous that a company like Yum! Brands would even be considered for inclusion in a program meant for supplemental nutrition," said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

If the federal government ends up granting the fast food industry inclusion in the food stamps program, it will essentially be funneling taxpayer money into a system that promotes both abuse of the system and ill health. After all, fast food is laden with toxic chemicals and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and contains little to no nutritional value.

And if participation in the food stamp program continues to rise -- which is expected, based on a continually plummeting economy -- the end result will essentially be a government-run system of food distribution in which most Americans have no choice but to eat the garbage peddled by their local fast food joints.

Sources for this story include:

http://gothamist.com/2011/09/06/taco_bell_an...