Thrifty Food Plan comes under criticism
1979
The campaign to lift the food stamp spending ceiling has intensified criticism of the Thrifty Food Plan, the least expensive of four family food plans reported on monthly by the Consumer and Food Economics Institute of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA). A new report by the Ford Foundation notes that the Thrifty diet is less adequate than USDA's 'low cost' food plan and cites another study showing that a mother with two teenage children would have to spend $60 a month beyond the food stamp allotment to provide minimum adequacy. Other criticisms of the Plan are: 1) it lacks enough iron for childbearing women, folic acid, magnesium, zinc, and vitamin B6; 2) it requires a trained nutritionist to obtain an adequate diet; 3) it does not allow for health problems or extra exertion; and 4) it fails to account for regional price variations and inflation. USDA will revise the food plans based on the 1977-78 Food Consumption Survey and on new Recommended Dietary Allowances expected later this year.
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