USDA Seeks Comments on Food System Supply Chains

• Bolstering local and regional food systems
• Developing new market opportunities (including for value-added agriculture and products)
• Creating fairer and more competitive markets
• Meeting the needs of the agricultural workforce
• Supporting and promoting consumers’ nutrition security, particularly for low-income populations
• Addressing the needs of socially disadvantaged and small- to mid-sized producers
• Advancing efforts in other ways to transform the food system

USDA said it is undertaking this effort to strengthen U.S. competitiveness with attention to farmers, ranchers, producers, food processors and other important links in the food supply chain. USDA said it is helping to accelerate a transformation of the country's food system. Goals of this transformation, it said, are to include a fairer, more competitive and transparent system where a greater share of the food dollar goes to those growing, harvesting and preparing our food, and one that promotes and strengthens the overall health and well-being of people, land and water, and the economy. Growing consolidation in food and agriculture, the general health of the population, a growing climate crisis and the need to ensure racial justice and equity are important factors, USDA said, to take into consideration as it looks at strengthening food and agricultural supply chains.