In June, the Florida Food Policy Council (FLFPC) joined 77 organizations in submitting comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) urging them to improve and transform the U.S. food supply chain as it pertains to the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products.

In support of this important initiative, FLFPC joined farmer, worker, environment, health, and animal-centered groups including The Family Food Action Alliance, Food Chain Workers Alliance, Regenerative Organic Alliance, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Wellness in the Schools, Slow Food USA, Friends of Family Farmers, the West End Revitalization Association, the ASPCA, and The Humane Society of the United States among other organizations which represent more than 19.9 million members and supporters, including thousands of farmers, 17,000 physicians, and 375,000 workers.

This initiative represents the commitment to creating a more just, reliable, and sustainable food system that equitably represents and serves all communities throughout the United States.

Some of the challenges currently seen in U.S. food supply chain are: economic, health and safety risks for our farming communities; the worsening of the climate crisis on a local and global level; the undermining of regional food systems and nutritional security; and the perpetuation of systemic inequalities.

To address the challenges posed by our food system, USDA has been urged to:

1. Invest in food that nourishes people.

2. Invest in a healthy public food safety net.

3. Invest in farmers’ and farm workers’ interests, not in corporate profit margins.

4. Invest in a just and sustainable future, not simply a less unjust or less unsustainable food system.

 

Read the full letter here.