A Wall Street Journal op-ed downplayed the seriousness of food insecurity in the United States, claiming that government research on the topic “isn't about hunger” and dismissing the millions of Americans who faced uncertain access to food last year.

On September 2, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual report on household food security in the United States, finding that 17.5 million households in the country were food insecure in 2013, meaning that they had “limited or uncertain” access to “nutritionally adequate and safe food.”

In response to the USDA report, The Wall Street Journal published a September 3 opinion piece by James Bovard attacking government focus on food insecurity as a measurement of widespread hunger in the United States. Bovard suggested thatmembers of food-insecure households are not legitimately hungry because “widespread hunger” has been “debunked” by another USDA report that found children in low-income households consume more calories on average than those in higher-income households. Bovard cited the higher consumption of calories by children in low-income households as evidence of a “paradoxical relationship between food stamps and food insecurity” and demanded more transparency on what food stamp benefits are being spent on.

But by denying the legitimacy of measuring food insecurity, Bovard erased food insecurity's pervasive impact across the United States. Although hunger and food insecurity are in fact separate issues, as Bovard pointed out, the USDA underscores that they are still “related.” According to the USDA, “Food insecurity is a household-level economic and social condition of limited access to food, while hunger is an individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity.” The USDA began to distinguish between food insecurity and hunger in the department's research due to a “lack of consistent meaning of the word” hunger.

Citing higher calorie consumption among children in low-income households as evidence that debunks child hunger is also misleading. As the Food Research and Action Center points out, food insecure and low-income people are especially vulnerable to obesity, due to "[l]imited resources and lack of access to healthy, affordable foods," which are primary factors in those living in poverty consuming higher-calorie foods. The center says that healthy food is often more expensive and less available than energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods.

Conservative media consistently push the false claims that the food insecure are lazy and that programs addressing their needs are wasteful and frequently misused.