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More people to sign up for food stamps. whether they say they want them or not. one of those efforts was in north carolina where 17% of the people get food stamps. more than double the number a decade ago. part of that increase? peter boyer found apparently it's efforts to break down mountain pride. ♪ >> reporter: the music, one of the oldest art forms in america. ♪ >> reporter: it's mournful and tells the story of a god-fearing people who have long lived in remote and unforgiving places like the vast appalachian regions of ashe county, north carolina. >> this is not been an environment in...

Mean, what we found was that part of the explanation of this explosive growth in the federal assistance rolls has to do with a determined effort by the federal government and its allies among the activists who push food stamps on people, some of whom are quite reluctant to accept them. bill: so you found the government is trying to put more people on the program? >> bill, you and i are both familiar with folks down south. we know that, for example, in north carolina which is one of the places we went people might be reluctant to go on public assistance and, in fact, they have this deeply-held ...

For overcoming mountain pride and getting more people to sign up. >> as if mountain pride were a bad thing. the reality is that in america today, the food stamp industry is an industry and part of that industry is encouraging and expanding people to sign up and use your money. >> sean: we continue now with peter and steve. so they're saying, the government is saying the fraud is less than 1% and know the defenders of this program are saying that, but the reality is you go to 30 stores and two out of three are willing to work a fraud. >> that's right. >> sean: it doesn't sound like less than 1%...

For overcoming mountain pride and getting more people to sign up. >> as if mountain pride were a bad thing. the reality is that in america today, the food stamp industry is an industry and part of that industry is encouraging and expanding people to sign up and use your money. >> sean: we continue now with peter and steve. so they're saying, the government is saying the fraud is less than 1% and know the defenders of this program are saying that, but the reality is you go to 30 stores and two out of three are willing to work a fraud. >> that's right. >> sean: it doesn't sound like less than 1%...

Apparently, they were good at recruiting people at -- and letting them know that, in fact, you do qualify for food stamps. apparently, some people don't realize that they do. and is it the job, then, of the federal government to reach out to these people and make sure they know that they can receive these government benefits? >> and i think it even goes further than this because this particular area of the country in north carolina has, well, even the mountains of the carolinas and through that area has something they locally call mountain pride which is we're going to do it ourselves. even if...