Within the United States food system there are a handful of very large companies that producers of Grain, livestock, and vegetables farmers are forced to sell to through a series of middle men or directly.
I propose legislation making it not only possible but profitable for a butcher shop and a grain mill to be built and run in every county of every state. they do not need to be large scale just clean and functional within this legislation there should be stipulations that the resulting products should be sold locally to restaurants and individuals before being sold to larger manufacturers. This is because I believe if left to chance large packers/processors would buy at a premium to edge out local competitors resulting in the business eventually selling a majority of product to the large companies and begating the intention of the legislation
Stimulating this process would bring local jobs and money back to rural/local food production allowing for less ultra processed food in the American diet and stimulating the local economy at the same time.
Farm Bill Reform Question: “It seems like you’re proposing significant reforms to the Farm Bill by decentralizing food production and promoting local butcher shops and grain mills in every county. What do you think these reforms should look like for the Farm Bill to ensure local businesses can sell their products locally before being bought by larger corporations? How do you think this approach could benefit rural economies and food systems?”
Separation of Farm and Nutrition Bills Question: "What are your thoughts on separating the Farm Bill from nutrition assistance programs like SNAP, creating two distinct bills for agriculture and nutrition? Do you believe this could lead to more focused and effective reforms for both? What do you think these reforms should look like for each bill to better serve both farmers and those who rely on nutrition programs?
direct to consumer sales allows a larger profit margin for small farmers and ranchers everywhere I can tell you this from first hand experience. Farmers don’t have to pay the trucking, packers, processors, and grocery store with the same money; cutting out those processes also promotes more small farms which will naturally tend to grow their crops more organically because industrial farming practices are rarely economical on anything but an industrial scale; Meaning that our food supply would get healthier naturally over time. Small farms increase diversification of flora and fauna over the country’s farm land instead of large swaths of industrial rowcrop ground, we would be healing our soils through that process as well. I’m not well versed in legislation but my best stab at what this should accomplish legislatively is to lower the barrier to entry and promote incentives for Buisness startup specifically for humane and safe equipment and practices etc. providing automatic grants as requirements are met or tax/ cost breaks. And foster local economic competition and cooperation rather than large monopoly meat packers and grain processors haveing the majority market share of all base food items
once again not well versed in legislature; but I can tell you that separating nutrition from the people that grow your food is a bad idea on its face. the usda & fda are captured agencies which is regrettable but “trusting science” is easier said than done as science is just experience through experiments and no-one has more “experience” than the people trying to grow the crops and livestock themselves.
as far as food stamp programs go I can tell you this… where I live local gardeners often set out produce in public spaces with “free” signs attached, specifically because they have a surplus of produce. Perhaps we could add food banks to the local food program as well which could be connected on a national network to better service metropolitan areas, allow the food banks a budget to be spent on said local food from across the country which would allow a large and constant stockpile to be sold at reduced or no cost for those less advantaged in all areas of the country provided they could make it to the food bank. granted this would often be the produce a farmer could not sell or could not sell for a higher price like misshapen tomatoes and low quality grade ribeyes etc. while technically “lower visual or taste quality” this system would still provide far more nutritious food at a lower cost than ultra processed shelf foods.
I agree with you and I don’t, personally I think the department of education should be gutted and I’ll leave it at that so I don’t have to change topics if you want me to expand on my thoughts on that I will in another reply… But yes assuming we still had a national school system it would be good to allow them a budget specifically for purchasing food from the local butcher shop and grain mill to be prepared for the children attending, but ideally the school would be just another customer of the butcher like the local bakery would be just another customer for the mill and the economy goes on etc.
I am always interested in opinions and love to hear them. With that said, I believe the schools should and could source locally ( or regionally if needed). Fresh and healthy food should be available to all children regardless of ability to pay - I may die on this hill _smile:
Local producers would benefit from this helping to support business models. I do have grand plans so forgive me if i am lacking in details at the moment.
I have a host of things i think “could” happen just not the details of how at this time but researching it. This is why it is so important ( to me) to listen to what is being said from all angles.
The way to gut the teachers’ union’s oversized power is to regulate it as we do insurance company. Insurance companies cannot spread their losses outside the state they occurred in. The same should apply to school unions. Keep them within their state location.
In this scenario it would not be on the children or parents to pay, it would be written In the budget for the state therefore the tax payer/ideally national commerce and a balanced budget, would be responsible for the budget schools have to feed children by purchasing from local suppliers. In other words there would be money set aside by the community to make sure all children had at least one meal a day regardless of their home life. But under no circumstances should the producer or any other Buisness be it mill, butcher shop, or bakery should be coerced to give away their work for free that’s not realistic or rewarding.
I believe the original purpose of the farm bill was to ensure that our WWII troops were fed, and that supply lines to all of the armed services were secured by contracts. In my opinion the farm bill does not benefit the family farm since they usually do not seek government contracts. Having local food processing just makes sense when you see the global supply systems breaking down on a daily basis. Shipping, trucking, airlines, warehouses, logistics etc. All are being disrupted.