It is a travesty that the fates of some 35 million Americans who need food aid are tied to the farm bill, which comes up every five years. The House passed an inadequate version last summer, and the Senate has failed to advance its own. It is time to ask why feeding the hungry must include a trough for multibillion-dollar agribusiness.

As it has pressed to keep its subsidies, about $26 billion in the current bill, agribusiness has contributed $415 million to federal political campaigns since 1990, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The hungry don’t have much of a lobby. But those who cannot consistently put food on the table need the help promised in the bill, including more than $4 billion in improvements in the food stamp program and for emergency assistance. If the aid remains in the farm bill, and if it remains in a logjam, aid would continue at current, inadequate levels.

Food stamps regularly help 26 million people get something to eat. But the previous farm bill did not peg benefits to inflation, so as food prices have skyrocketed, families who were just barely getting by are now in a much worse place. Some 800,000 food stamp recipients  disproportionately elderly or disabled  are being told to make due on a minimum benefit of $10 per month. That amount has remained unchanged in 30 years.

As The Times recently reported, food banks and soup kitchens across the nation are being depleted by demand so overwhelming that the needy are being turned away, or given help so minimal, it is hardly worth the energy expended to get it.