Statement on USDA Announcement on Food System Transformation Framework

Washington DC - Rural Coalition lauds the Biden-Harris Administration for thinking innovatively in their framework to transform the food and farm system. The Food System Transformation Framework that US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today directly addresses the “longstanding structural challenges that were revealed and intensified by the pandemic” including the consequences of market chains that have long been too concentrated and extractive. It “builds on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

“Rural Coalition and the hundreds of vulnerable rural communities, farmers, ranchers, farm and food workers, and tribal communities we serve to welcome the concrete proposals Secretary Vilsack and USDA have set forth,” said Rural Coalition Chairperson, John Zippert. “We look forward to working as partners with USDA in this historic and transformational effort to at long last reorient food production and exchange toward a much more resilient food and agriculture system. On behalf of our Coalition, we express our gratitude to the Secretary and USDA for the careful thought that went into proposals that, if implemented with the same care, could lead to transformative change for farmers and ranchers, workers, small businesses, urban and rural communities, and all who eat,” Zippert concluded.

The Rural Coalition, born of the civil rights and anti-poverty rural movements, has worked for 30 years to assure that diverse organizations from all regions, racial, and ethnic groups and by gender have the opportunity to work in solidarity on the issues that affect them all. The foundation of this work is strong local, regional and national organizations that work to assure the representation and involvement of every sector of this diverse fabric of rural peoples.