Following the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s continued war on Ukraine, the USDA announced the details for a new food system framework built on lessons learned and supply chain disruptions. The framework aims to transform food systems in order to benefit consumers, producers and communities by providing more options, increased access and better markets for small to mid-size producers.
The Biden-Harris Administration and USDA acknowledge the considerable supply chain disruptions and accept the U.S. cannot return to the food system used before these major occurrences. A strengthened food system across the supply chain, beginning with how food is produced to how it is acquired is the ultimate goal of the USDA’s Food System Transformation framework.
The USDA expressed four primary goals for the framework:
1- Build a More Resilient Food Supply Chain, While Reducing Carbon Pollution
“The pandemic and recent supply chain disruptions have revealed the perils of a national food system that depends on capacity concentrated in a few geographic areas and requires many steps to get from farm to fork,” shared a press release from the USDA.
To combat these challenges, the future food system must be distributed and local, believes the USDA. The ability to gather, process, transport and store food in various geographic locations provides more options for producers to generate value-added products and sell locally, resulting in the opportunity for economic-growth and job creation in rural communities.
Regional capacity also provides consumers with additional options to buy locally produced products, increasing food availability and reducing the food supply chain’s impact on the climate.
2– Create a Fairer Food System with Better Local Market Options
Producers’ power in the marketplace has seen a decline over the past 50 years, with a handful of companies dominating the food system, according to the news release. The USDA’s investments will, “deliver a better deal for farmers, ranchers, growers and consumers.”
3- Make Nutritious Food More Widely Available and Affordable
The pandemic revealed and intensified the negative impacts of food and nutrition insecurity in the U.S., highlighting the number of families that do not have access to affordable and nutritious food.
In order to reduce these challenges, the USDA’s framework includes programs to guarantee that all consumers have access to fresh, healthy, nutritious food.
4- Emphasize Equity
“For too long, rural communities, underserved communities, communities that experience persistent poverty, and the people who live there have been left behind. Where you live should not determine a fair shot to economic opportunity. It is in these communities where most of our food comes from; where most of the water that we drink comes from; and where most of the energy we consume comes from,” stated the USDA in the release.
The Food System Transformation investments could produce more economic opportunities for those communities, speeding up the transition to more equitable growth.
Funds are supplied by the American Rescue Plan Act and additional relief legislation.
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