SNAP Fraud Funding and WA GMO Wheat

SNAP Fraud Funding and WA GMO Wheat

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Network, I'm Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.

**The USDA has awarded nearly $5.1 million in SNAP Fraud Framework grants to fund innovative state projects designed to reduce recipient fraud and enhance integrity in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The grants focus on implementing different aspects of the SNAP Fraud Framework, a collection of recently formulated procedures, innovative ideas and best-practices designed to improve efforts by state agencies to more effectively detect, investigate and prevent SNAP fraud.

**The plant-based foods business is booming. Sales of plant-based foods are up 11% year-over-year, reaching a total of $4.5 billion last year, and retailers no longer see them as hyper-niche products relegated to small sections of the grocery store.

According to agweb.com, overall U.S. retail food dollar sales grew 2% last year, including both animal- and plant-based segments. Compared to TWO years ago, plant-based food sales are up 31%.

Retail sales of plant-based meat alternatives were up 9.6% through April.

https://www.agweb.com/article/plant-based-food-sales-rise-11?mkt/

**The GMO wheat discovered growing wild in a Washington State field this spring actually sprouted from two different strains developed by Monsanto.

The USDA reports volunteer herbicide-resistant plants have been confirmed four times in the Northwest more than a decade after field trials ended.

According to agriculture.com, testing identified the wheat as two Monsanto strains. One of those strains was the first case of rogue GMO wheat found in eastern Oregon back in 2013.

https://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/usda-identifies-two-monsanto-strains-in-rogue-gmo-wheat-in-washington-state

Previous ReportChina Pork Output Down and USDA Farm to School Grants
Next ReportUSDA Funds Vet Farmers and DOL Improves H-2A