USDA Objects to Food Stamp Plan: The...

USDA Objects to Food Stamp Plan: The Agriculture Department raised objections this week over permitting 27 million low-income people to buy vitamins or mineral supplements with food stamps. The plan may result in “substituting supplements for food” and reduce the chance that poor people will learn good dietary habits, Yvette Jackson, deputy administrator of the USDA’s $28.8-billion program, told a House Agriculture subcommittee.

Lawmakers, university nutritionists and consumer groups clashed this week over the proposal adopted earlier this month by the subcommittee. The panel approved an amendment by Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Mo.) that broadens the 31-year-old program to include the purchase of vitamins and mineral supplements.