When grocery chains want government handouts

Supervalu Joins Farmers Behind U.S. Food Stamps at $71.8 Billion - Businessweek: "Driven by high unemployment, food-stamp use nationally has soared by two-thirds since the end of 2007 to more than 46 million recipients, about a seventh of the U.S. population. The government spent a record $71.8 billion on the program in the last fiscal year, or about 12 percent of the national grocery bill, underscoring the benefit’s importance as revenue for grocers led by Kroger Co., Safeway Inc. and Supervalu Inc., the three biggest U.S. chains by sales.

A coalition of farmers, grocers and anti-poverty activists has helped food stamps survive federal budget-cutting pressures and maintain bipartisan support in Congress, said Dale Moore, a former U.S. Department of Agriculture chief of staff. In times of high unemployment, the aid serves as a cash infusion that has kept communities afloat and people working, he said.

“There’s no politically sure way to ratchet back benefits,” Moore, who now lobbies for the American Farm Bureau Federation, the biggest U.S. farmer group, said in an interview."

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