Arkansas will ban candy and sugary drinks from SNAP
Low-income Arkansans who rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will soon not be able to use the program to purchase candy or sugary drinks, including soda.
The big picture: Arkansas is among at least six states seeking to reform the program at the state level. The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved Arkansas' waiver request this week and has also recently approved waivers in Utah, Indiana, Iowa, Idaho and Nebraska.
What is specifically excluded in each state varies, with Nebraska specifically banning SNAP dollars from going toward energy drinks and soda, for example.
How it works: Arkansas will exclude "soda, low and no-calorie soda, fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50% natural juice, unhealthy drinks, and candy," according to the waiver.
Candy includes "confectionary products with flour and artificially sweetened candy."
What they're saying: "One-third of Arkansans have diabetes or pre-diabetes," a news release from Sanders' office states. "Studies have consistently shown the link between the overconsumption of sugary, highly processed foods like soft drinks and candy and chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension."
Yes, but: The request to add rotisserie chicken as an eligible item to be purchased with SNAP is still pending, Arkansas Department of Human Services spokesperson Keith Metz told Axios.
Sanders announced she would pursue that change in April and said the affordable, healthy protein should be an exception to the rule that excludes prepared foods from the program.
She will continue pursing the addition of rotisserie chicken through a separate waiver and ongoing discussions with USDA, Sanders' spokesperson Sam Dubke told Axios.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said during an announcement about the waiver that the department was working through the technicalities of being able to make that change.
By the numbers: As of April, 122,708 households in Arkansas were on SNAP. The state received about $40.8 million per month in federal SNAP benefits in the past year, Arkansas DHS spokesperson Gavin Lesnick told Axios this spring.
Data specific to the state regarding how much of the benefits go toward the types of items Sanders sought to exclude was unavailable.
However, Sanders has said about 23% of SNAP spending nationally goes toward soft drinks, unhealthy snacks, candy and desserts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
County officials warn of possible fly infestation
Although no Texas cases had been reported as of Tuesday, Johnson County Commissioner Larry Woolley warned of a potential screwworm fly infestation in mid to late summer. In May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended importations of cattle, horses and bison from Mexico into the U.S. to prevent New World screwworm movement north following detection in Veracruz, Mexico. 'A lot of people may not remember the last time one of these happened,' Woolley said during Monday's Johnson County Commissioners Court meeting. 'I was in high school. I remember it vividly. It's not a pretty site and it's not something to be taken lightly.' Commissioner Kenny Howell agreed. 'I remember that too,' Howell said. 'It was a huge problem.' Although the closest detection is still 700 miles away, the New World screwworm is of increasing concern across the southern U.S., as it can potentially cause losses in the livestock and wildlife-related industries if it moves across the Mexican border and reestablishes. The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is working with Mexican officials to train personnel and expand surveillance and eradication efforts in Mexico to better address the movement of the fly northward. Should the New World screwworm enter the U.S., this fly is estimated to cause losses, conservatively, of $2.1 billion to cattle and $9 billion to the hunting/wildlife industry in Texas. Where the larvae of other flies feed on carcasses, the larvae of these flies feed on the live flesh of animals including people. 'All it takes is a cut or a drop of blood to attract them,' Woolley said. 'They are flesh-eating larvae called screwworms.' The larvae of the New World Screwworm flies burrow into the flesh of warm-blooded animals resulting in damage, possible secondary infections and potentially death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'The control method then and now is the distribution of sterile male flies into the population, and that's something they're working on now,' Woolley said. Typical insecticide use on the New World screwworm is not as effective as with other insect pests due to its wide host range and occurrence on wildlife. Eradication is the best way to control screwworms. However, control/removal of the fly when found on hosts is critical to reducing the local population so that the sterile fly program succeeds more quickly and reduces animal suffering. The New World screwworm is incapable of overwintering in regions that experience low temperatures or extended dry periods — they don't do well below 45 degrees and certainly die if frozen, however, the larvae can burrow about 6 inches into the soil, changing the temperatures that they experience. This fly poses a serious threat to livestock and wildlife because it deposits eggs into the wounds of living animals, thereby leading to larval infestations. Because they can host on any living mammal, they can also affect pets and humans. This metallic green-blue fly with large orange eyes is about twice the size of a common house fly. New World screwworms do not bite animals; their damage comes from laying eggs in the open wounds of living, warm-blooded animals — though rarely birds. The immature fly larvae, or maggots, feed on the living tissues of hosts, burrowing into the animal's tissue, causing tremendous damage and often resulting in the host's death. Historically, ranchers have altered breeding dates to avoid birthing during the fly season. Common livestock management practices and events, such as castration, dehorning, branding and birthing in all animals and antler velvet shedding in deer, often resulted in infestations. Infestations can occur at the site of any recent wound, like a scrape, lesion or even a tick-feeding site. Other wounds of common infestation include those from ear tagging or shearing, as well as mucous membranes and antler shedding in deer. Newborn mammals are prone to infestations at the healing umbilical cord site. If a wound on a living animal is found to have larvae in it, a veterinarian must be contacted. Find an accredited veterinarian or Texas Animal Health Commission, TAHC, region office. The veterinarian is mandated by law to collect and submit the larvae for identification to the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory. Also, the animal should be immediately confined for wound care, and all larvae should be removed and placed into alcohol. After removing the larvae, treat the infestation with topical pesticides labeled for use on the animal to kill any larvae that may not have been removed and reduce the likelihood of re-infestation. The wound should be monitored until it fully heals. When dealing with livestock, all other animals in the herd should be checked for wounds and larvae. Anyone who finds fly larvae infesting a living animal, called myiasis, must report this to a state veterinarian. The protocol for reporting can be found on the Texas Animal Health Commission website or at the USDA-APHIS website. An informational webinar on the topic is available at and as a link through the county's website. 'I encourage people to watch that to be educated on the possible problems this may pose,' Woolley said. 'It can affect livestock, pets, people.'
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
CVS responds to Gov. Sanders' New York Times Op-Ed about PBMs
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — CVS Health is ramping up its campaign against a new Arkansas law that targets pharmacy benefit managers, publicly clashing with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders just hours after she defended the legislation in a guest essay for The New York Times. Act 624, signed by Sanders in April, bars companies from running both a pharmacy and a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), a model used by CVS. PBMs manage prescription drug benefits for insurers, negotiate prices with drug manufacturers and reimburse pharmacies. In her guest essay on June 10, Sanders wrote that PBMs 'forcibly steer patients away from independent operators' and inflate drug prices. She also wrote that Act 624 lets PBMs keep operating in Arkansas, but, she said, 'they just can't continue to mistreat patients and box out other pharmacies.' Sanders claimed the three largest pharmacy benefit managers handle 80% of U.S. prescriptions and earn 70% of specialty drug revenue through their affiliated pharmacies. 'Now, CVS is threatening to close down every pharmacy it operates in our state — preferring to take its ball and go home rather than divest from its pharmacy benefit management business and actually serve the patients it claims to care about,' Sanders wrote. CVS sues Arkansas over new pharmacy law CVS issued a statement later that day disputing Sanders' characterization of the law, claiming that the new law is about 'choosing winners and losers and rewarding special interests.' 'Out-of-state competitors are disadvantaged,' a CVS spokesperson said. 'In-state competitors, including Walmart, would handsomely benefit from the closures of pharmacies owned by us and others. The losers are the people of Arkansas who will pay more.' CVS says the law could force it to close 23 pharmacies in Arkansas, affecting 340,000 patients, and block its specialty pharmacy from treating 10,000 high-risk patients with cancer, HIV and rare diseases. The company is also challenging Act 624 in federal court, arguing it violates the U.S. Constitution. 'PBMs are the last line of defense between drugmakers that want to charge a lot of money, and the American businesses, unions, health plans, and government agencies that want to provide good benefits to people,' CVS said in its response on June 10. CVS argues the law is unconstitutional because it unfairly targets out-of-state businesses, treats similar companies differently, and conflicts with federal laws like ERISA and Medicare rules. The company also raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest. 'One state representative who co-sponsored this law owns 13 pharmacies by himself,' the company said, linking to state Rep. Brandon Achor's campaign website. Act 624, introduced as House Bill 1150, was backed by the Arkansas Pharmacists Association and Attorney General Tim Griffin, and passed easily. Act 624 is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2026. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Meet the tree that could save Florida's citrus industry
Matt Mattia used both hands to flip through the branch at his eye level, studying each side of every leaf as sunlight filtered from above. 'Just healthy leaves,' he said, noting the dark green color. He turned his attention to a young fruit that was still the same color as the leaf next to it. 'That looks pretty symmetrical,' he said, plucking it for further examination. 'That should develop into a nice, big orange.' Mattia is no farmer, and the tree was no ordinary plant. He works for the United States Department of Agriculture as a geneticist. The tree has a name: Donaldson. Mattia called it the most researched tree in the state of Florida. It's also the tree that growers hope will save the state's citrus industry. 'When I saw the Donaldson tree, I was like, 'Wow, this is something that's really unique and really different,'' Mattia said. Donaldson's notoriety has come from its unique combination of three attributes: its status as a genetically pure orange tree, its sweet taste, and most importantly, its resistance to the Huanglongbing disease, more commonly known as HLB or 'greening.' Since arriving in the United States from Brazil, greening has killed groves across the state of Florida and contributed to a 90% decline in citrus production over the past 20 years. Leaves of infected trees appear splotchy in color and can be abnormally shaped. The tree's fruit also takes on irregular characteristics – until the tree dies. While it has infected almost every variety of citrus tree, it hit one of two types of orange trees particularly hard: the Hamlin variety, which fruits early in the winter before the late-season Valencia oranges came in. Under FDA rules, Hamlins and Valencias are the two major types of oranges that are allowed to be used for Florida orange juice, Mattia explained. Without the Hamlin trees, growers' profits suffered. Donaldson is also an early season tree. It was planted 30 years ago when the USDA created its Groveland research farm with different citrus varieties that growers could fall back on, like a seed bank. Mattia found it by sampling 25,000 different trees to test for infection and fruit sweetness. He found other trees tolerated greening, but their fruit was bitter, bordering on inedible, he recalled. Donaldson, with its high sugar content, stood out. A Hamlin tree was planted near Donaldson at the same time. Mattia pointed at the spot, which was nothing more than the remnant of a trunk sticking out of the ground and a pink ribbon tied around it. Greening did most of the damage, and Hurricane Milton finished it off, he said. 'It just was a huge stark contrast between something that was really very, very sick and declining and something that appears to continue to produce a regular crop,' he explained. 'We took the fruit, we sampled the fruit, and we tasted it, and we were like, wow, this has industry potential.' Now that they've settled on a tree, Mattia and his team have been figuring out what it would take to make Donaldson a commercial success. Several researchers analyzed the taste, which to the average palette is identical to Hamlin and Valencia. The best method to produce orange juice was also looked at, with Mattia opening a bottle that had been created using a method new to their research. Mattia's team is now working on the next phase of their testing: monitoring young Donaldsons that had been grafted onto dozens of different rootstocks to see which combination of plants grow the strongest and fastest. One Hamlin tree planted among the Donaldsons as a control showed signs of greening infection. Mattia said it was highly likely many of the healthy-looking nine-month-old plants had already been hit, though as a researcher it only helped him get further to his goal. But the USDA isn't gate-keeping Donaldson, even though the tree itself is grown behind fences and locks. 'We're pushing it out to commercial usage,' Mattia said. 'If people want to test it in their own grove, it's available, and we have the data and the research going on here that supports that effort.' Florida is already on-board. Mattia said the state has propagated 18,000 Donaldsons that it's sending to growers across the state to accelerate the adoption effort. One of those potentially interested is Mary Graham, owner of Graham's U-Pick Farms, who had heard of Donaldson and wanted to know how many seeds each fruit had (five to seven) and whether the fruit was edible when freshly picked (yes). For a century, Graham's specialized in oranges. As of this year, they only grow peaches. 'We noticed greening hitting our grove probably about 15 years ago,' she recalled. 'About 10, 12, years ago, it started getting a little more aggressive. So at that point, we looked for an alternative crop.' Like her neighbors, Graham tried different methods to save her trees. She and her husband added more nutrients to the soil and cut down on chemicals, which she said helped the trees recover. Eventually, the disease won the battle, and her husband tore out the last of the trees in January. She's looking to plant new seedlings for her children to eventually care for, even though she said her peaches were better for business. 'We're hopeful about the Donaldson tree,' she said. 'With that one, what else can they come up with?' That's what Mattia is all about. He previewed 'future orange juice,' a blend of different citrus fruits that resembles orange juice but has a notable flavor difference that's being created as an alternative to Donaldson in case the tree doesn't work out. 'My mission is to really help people,' he said. 'So if they, if the industry and the processors find utility from this tree, I feel like our mission is accomplished.' Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
