Food stamp junk food ban advances in Ark.

by Reid Wilson - 01/18/17 12:22 PM ET

A new proposal making headway in the Arkansas House of Representatives could make the state the first in the nation to prohibit food stamp recipients from purchasing unhealthy food on the government’s dime.

The legislation, which passed a state House committee Tuesday, would require the Arkansas Department of Human Services to develop nutritional guidelines. Recipients of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aid would be barred from purchasing any product that does not meet those guidelines.

“I want the kids in our state to have sippy cups full of milk and juice, not Mountain Dew and Pepsi,” the measure’s sponsor, state Rep. Mary Bentley (R), told the committee, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

{mosads}State grocers oppose the measure, which they say would impose onerous new requirements on small businesses, including new software that flags banned foods in checkout lines.

The measure would require a waiver from the federal Department of Agriculture before the state could move forward in creating new food bans. The Agriculture Department has never granted such a waiver, despite requests from lawmakers in Maine and Minnesota.

A Tennessee state lawmaker this week pulled a similar bill, citing the waiver requirement. A spokesman for state Rep. Sheila Butt (R) said she hoped the incoming Trump administration and the Republican-led Congress would pass new requirements for SNAP purchases.

Nearly 400,000 Arkansans receive federal SNAP benefits. More than 35 percent of Arkansas residents are considered obese, the highest rate in the nation, according to a 2015 report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Agriculture Department said in a November report that about 20 percent of SNAP benefits were spent on sodas, desserts, candy and sugar. SNAP recipients spent $608 million in 2011 on sugary drinks, the report found, more than on milk and fruit combined.

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