Romney Blasts Obama over Food Stamp Record

Sep 06, 2012

USDA Report Shows Food Stamps Reached Record High June 2012

U.S. President Barack Obama was under fire yesterday after Republican candidate Mitt Romney blamed him for the size of the national debt and the record number of American citizens who are on food stamps. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, assists low-income people in the U.S. to buy food. It’s a national program that falls under the U.S. Department of Agriculture mandate and it’s administered by each state and their local agencies.

Making reference to the U.S. Department of Agriculture report, Romney said "the other number's forty-seven. Forty-seven million now on food stamps. When he came to office there were 32 million. He's added 15 million people.” The new figure shows a shocking 15 per cent of Americans reliant on food stamps.

Obama on the defense said “people become eligible for food stamps. Second of all, the initial expansion of food-stamp eligibility happened under my Republican predecessor, not under me. No. 3, when you have a disastrous economic crash that results in 8 million people losing their jobs, more people are going to need more support from government,” Obama said in a ABC News interview.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.