USDA report on hunger challenged

Questions about the decision have been sent to the USDA by lawmakers.
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON -- It's Thanksgiving, a week since the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual hunger -- er, food security -- report, and it's likely that a few folks in the department are ready for a holiday break.
For the first time, the USDA's annual report on Americans' access to food omitted the word hunger in describing the condition of 11 million people who at times can't afford to feed themselves. These people, among a group of 35 million who had trouble keeping food on the table at least part of last year, shall heretofore, according to the government, be described as experiencing "very low food security."
That raised hackles on the Hill, where Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., initiated a letter to the USDA signed by 64 lawmakers, all but one of them Democrats, asking to "better appreciate your response" to the following questions:
"1. Before making the decision to replace the term 'hunger' with 'very low food [security],' did USDA consider the possibility that this decision might influence key nutrition policy debates, media perception, and/or philanthropic efforts?
"2. If so, who did the Department speak with? Were any legislators, policy experts, or anti-hunger advocates involved in this decision?
"3. And if these parties were consulted, what were their recommendations?"
No response
The letter was sent Monday, and the agency has not responded.
Mark Nord, a USDA sociologist and the lead author of the report, repeated this week that hunger is not a scientifically quantifiable term. He had made that contention earlier in a Washington Post article, saying that the word was removed after a panel of scientists recommended doing so.
Nord said that the Post story was too "tongue in cheek, given the gravity of the issue" and that it suggested the agency was unsympathetic.
Far from it, he said: "USDA has more money in food assistance than in farming and forestry programs combined."