Food Equity
Food equity is a concept that all people have the ability and opportunity to grow and consume healthy, nutritious and affordable food, which is essential for a healthy life. Maintaining the ability to grow and produce food is at the heart of our food system. This effort is led by America’s agricultural retailers working with their farm and ranch customers.
Policy Solutions
Food Affordability
Ensuring food prices remain low by:
- Protecting farmers' essential tools (seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, biostimulants, precision ag technologies).
- Government decisions based on sound science and risk-based peer reviewed data.
- Exporting U.S. ag products and technologies.
Food Availability
Ensuring food supplies are produced and delivered in a timely, efficient manner by:
- Supporting U.S. agribusinesses and farmers as essential operations.
- Minimizing food waste and loss.
Food Security
Ensuring the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of the U.S. ag industry by:
- Maintaining farm safety-net programs, including crop insurance and disaster assistance.
- Investing in research and development to enhance crop yields and improve plant health.
Background
Every item that consumers eat in the United States and around the world starts out being grown or produced and eventually makes its way to our plates. It is critical for the federal government to make decisions based on sound science, peer-reviewed data and by following a risk-based approach. Farmers need to have access to critical crop input supplies (pesticides, fertilizers, seed) and precision agricultural technologies.
FIFRA
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) has been amended by Congress on several occasions to strengthen the regulatory standard for safety, including specific protections for infants and children. FIFRA provides for the federal regulation of pesticide distribution, sale, and use and establishes stringent safety standards and oversight. Farmers use pesticides to fight invasive insects, weeds, and plant diseases that attack fruit, vegetable, grain and fiber crops. All applicators are required to follow the EPA-approved FIFRA label to ensure each pesticide is used as intended without unreasonable adverse or unintended effects on human health or the environment.
Biotechnology
U.S. agriculture remains the leader in innovation for planting breeding innovation due to clear, predictable, and science-and risk-based regulations. Plant breeders continue to strive to provide solutions to new and emerging challenges facing farmers, consumers and the environment. Ag biotechnology such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and gene editing can help increase global food security. New innovations in plant breeding provides benefits such as reducing CO2 emissions, dramatically increasing crop productivity, providing more food to remote communities, and decreasing food waste.
Soil Health
For healthy and productive growth of nutritious food, plants also require essential nutrients in the soil. Fertilizers and biostimulants serve as a supplement to the natural supply of soil nutrients, build up soil fertility to help satisfy the demands of crop production, and compensate for the nutrients taken by harvested crops. Higher crop yields are well documented with better crop and soil management. Adopting nutrient stewardship contributes to the preservation of natural ecosystems by growing more on less land.
Questions? Send questions to the ARA policy team of experts via the DC Help Desk.