The U.S. food system is structurally fragile.

For decades, policy, capital concentration, and market design have shifted control over inputs, processing, and pricing away from farmers and communities—and transferred systemic risk onto individual producers. The result is a system that appears efficient in stable conditions but fails under stress.

This White Paper outlines the structural causes of that fragility and presents the National Food System Stability Act (NFSSA)—a federal, rule-based framework designed to stabilize the food system before failure occurs.