America’s Roots Run Through Its Farms
Farm Security Initiative White Paper
American agriculture is experiencing a recurring crisis that is routinely misdiagnosed. Public debate treats farm failure as cyclical, cultural or individual, the result of weather, management decisions or market discipline, and responds with temporary relief after damage has already occurred.
This framing is wrong.
The persistent instability of the U.S. food system is the predictable outcome of structural design choices that concentrated control, distorted price signals, stripped redundancy and transferred uncontrollable risk onto individual producers. These mechanisms operate quietly under normal conditions and become visible only under stress, when shocks propagate through consolidated systems faster than producers can adapt.
This White Paper examines the agricultural collapses of the 1930s, the 1980s and the present moment as variations of the same underlying failure pattern. In each case, market rules ignored biological and physical constraints, reassigned systemic risk downward and produced consolidation as a mechanical outcome rather than a corrective market response.
The paper argues that consolidation is not the root cause of agricultural fragility but a symptom of deeper rule-level failures. It identifies six structural mechanisms that destabilize the food system and explains why piecemeal reform, discretionary relief and traditional antitrust enforcement cannot restore durability.
Finally, the paper presents Theme VI of the Farm Security Initiative as a unified, rule-based framework designed to correct these mechanisms together. Rather than managing prices or losses after failure occurs, the framework restores competition, risk assessment and stabilization before irreversible production commitments are made, including through pre-season mechanisms that limit exposure to systemic price collapse without displacing market function.
Food security is not a sectoral concern. It is a national one. This paper proceeds from the premise that systems a nation depends upon must be governed to survive stress, not merely optimized for efficiency under ideal conditions.
OUR OUTREACH
Building a National Conversation
The Farm Security Initiative has moved its work beyond the page and into active public engagement. Since the release of White Paper v1.4, FSI has conducted multiple rounds of outreach to every state Democratic and Republican Party chair, as well as national farm and conservation NGOs, women-in-agriculture networks, farmer cooperatives and rural advocacy organizations. This engagement has continued through the recent release of White Paper v4.5 (Public).
Direct conversations are underway with state and national stakeholders including the Office of the Governor of Minnesota, Regeneration International, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Women, Food and Agriculture Network. Candidates and policymakers in multiple states, including Minnesota, North Dakota, Utah, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin and Colorado, have responded positively, reflecting bipartisan interest in strengthening rural ownership, land security and agricultural resilience.
Across these exchanges, the tone has been pragmatic and solutions-oriented. Stakeholders consistently acknowledge the urgency of farmland loss and the value of concrete, ready-to-use policy tools. As outreach continues, FSI’s role remains constant: to provide clear legislative frameworks and precedent, to elevate rural perspectives, and to support leaders, regardless of party, working to keep American farmland in family and community hands.
Highlights
Multiple rounds of outreach to all 50 state Democratic and Republican Party chairs, beginning with White Paper v1.4 and continuing through White Paper v4.5 (Public)
Targeted engagement with more than two dozen national NGOs and advocacy networks, including American Farmland Trust, National Family Farm Coalition, Land Trust Alliance, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Regeneration International, the Union of Concerned Scientists and multiple women-in-agriculture organizations
Positive responses from NGOs including follow-up requests and early discussions around alignment with FSI’s focus on land security and local ownership
Engagement with political candidates and campaigns in multiple states, including Minnesota, North Dakota, Utah, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin and Colorado
Multiple campaigns and state party offices have reviewed the White Paper, circulated it internally and initiated substantive follow-up conversations