The Dean of Iowa State’s School of Agriculture says she’s worried budget cuts are crippling the system used by the federal government to monitor nutrition in America. Catherine Woteki says the system depends on surveys conducted by various agencies to evaluate government nutrition programs. She says the information is used to make policy decisions on food safety and nutrition programs, and she fears the programs will be “imperiled by a lack of information.” Woteki chaired the American Society for Nutritional Sciences task force that looked at the issue. She says the agencies doing the interviewing have had to cut in half the number of people they’re interviewing on a weekly basis. Woteki says the problem with the surveys has built over the last several years.She says the agencies that’re making policy decisions have come to rely on the studies, and the use has increased, while the agencies that conduct the surveys have been neglected. Woteki says they hope to send a message to legislators to get some funding back.She says literally billions of dollars in government food assistance programs rely on the information and they’ll be hurt if the situation isn’t taken care of. Woteki admits though, it’s tough to get attention for the problem with the federal budget being tight.