No, you should not be able to spend your food stamps at Whole Foods

We need to talk about food stamps.

Last week, Donald Trump’s new Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, announced a plan to stop Americans on food stamps from buying junk food, mirroring efforts in Congress to stop people spending their food stamps on things like “soft drinks, candy, ice cream, prepared desserts such as cakes, pies, cookies, or similar products.”

Through SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), over 42 million Americans receive food stamps every year, costing the taxpayer $112.8 billion annually, with an average benefit to each user of $211.93 every month.

Look, I support food stamps. But I don’t support food stamps in this current system.

Food stamps exist to prevent hunger, and in some cases that’s what they do. But in others, they bankroll unhealthy habits or fund gourmet shopping sprees, leaving everyday Americans who pay for these benefits buying fewer and lower-quality items than those on the supposed starvation-prevention food stamps.