Building a Food System that Works for Everyone

Our food system is the core of American life. Healthy, affordable, accessible food is essential for people to live with dignity and realize the American dream. Food is also a backbone of the American economy: farmers, food processors, food workers, food companies, and restaurants are engines of economic growth. We deserve food that serves our culture and is free from chemicals and additives so we can live healthy lives. Moreover, our systems of food production, transport, and distribution are among the largest determinants of America’s ability to prevent climate catastrophe. Across all these dimensions, our food policy can and should create a healthy, just, equitable, prosperous, and responsible economy that serves all Americans. 

For far too long, however, our food systems have been abused by wealthy, powerful corporations. We demand policies that return power to regular people; make food affordable; treat workers, consumers, and farmers fairly; and protect our planet, animals, and local environment. It should serve local communities by reinvesting in the people who actually make our food, not the multinational corporations that pull the strings from above. Our two parties are far too narrow in their approach: Democrats focus on food assistance through SNAP and WIC, while Republicans focus on subsidies for rural farmers. There is so much more to food policy than this.

We have a moral duty to look beyond and fight the system that empowers corporations to industrialize and over-process our food. We must return our food system to local communities who demand healthy, affordable, and responsible food. As your Representative, I will fight for a food system that works for all of us.

Creating Public Grocery Stores

To prosper, communities must have consistent, dependable sources of food that will not close and create food deserts or other gaps in access. Grocery stores are traditionally low-margin businesses. Running grocery stores publicly will help reduce food costs and provide benefits to underserved communities. Public grocery stores are an excellent way to deliver stability to food-insecure communities. Furthermore, they will create space to pilot and demonstrate best practices for labor, supply-chain management, and new entry by brands and food suppliers that otherwise would be excluded from the corporate food system. This can include avoiding practices such as slotting and shelving fees or “category captain” arrangements, where dominant brands can exclude their rivals and raise prices. For a local entrepreneur with a food product idea, it can cost $10,000–$100,000, to launch a single product in a “big box” food store.

That is part of why I support a federally-subsidized public grocery store system to bring access and stability to food-insecure communities. These stores do not replace private grocery stores, but serve as stabilizing presences in markets where food deserts, food insecurity, and unfair practices are prevalent. I would push for a system in which public grocery stores can serve in areas of critical need, while supporting stores with more sustainable models. Examples of these include independent, cooperative, or community owned stores. These grocery stores can also support economic development and jobs. Forty Acres and The Sugar Beet, as well as The Hatchery (which nurtures and educates food-related entrepreneurs and small food companies) are blueprints in the district. These models need to be supported and replicated across the district, state, and country.

Providing Food Assistance Through Public Grocery Stores 

Public grocery stores may also serve as a platform for the delivery of SNAP and WIC benefits that require less bureaucratic verification. It is reasonable to imagine public grocery stores that offer free or reduced-cost staples to anyone in the community. America already spends about $140–$145 billion per year on food and nutrition assistance (including SNAP, WIC, and school meals). There is tremendous administrative complexity for verifying and policing eligibility which ultimately discourages people who qualify from using the programs. The more important challenge is ensuring that anybody hungry has a meal. People with full bellies are healthier and cost less to all of us, including taxpayers and businesses, who contribute to the healthcare system. People who are fed are more productive and contribute more to their local economies. People who are fed are citizens with dignity, health, and the ability to pursue the promise of the American dream.

Driving Public Food Distribution

Food distribution to local grocery stores and restaurants is unfortunately rife with abuse by dominant middlemen.  From hidden fees, abusive after-the-fact charges, spoilage, and “chargebacks”, our current system prohibits innovation and traps local businesses in a vicious cycle.  Large distributors create incentives for sameness, blandness, and poor-quality food. This system is frankly best thought of as a public utility. The drive to profit in this essential infrastructure tends to create incentives toward unfair extraction. I support creating public structures for local food distribution, which can open pathways to a wider variety of foods and remove the fear of retribution among our local businesses. 

Expanding Local Food Incentives

The federal government has previously invested in efforts to grow and distribute more food locally. We can and should continue expanding this to a much larger scale. This includes incentives for local farmers growing crops that are not just soybeans or corn, but produce that can actually feed local communities, and creating structures to get these crops to local markets. In Congress, I would fight to expand insurance, funding, and marketing pathways for “specialty crops” (the food people eat) and shift our focus away from the exclusive industrial production of animal feed and commercial crops that make processed foods. This includes prioritizing federal food purchasing to support local food production. Successful incentive models already exist in the district, such as the Farm on Ogden, which works in partnership with Lawndale Christian Health, and fruit and vegetable incentives for SNAP customers at the Garfield Park Farmers Market. I would fight to support and expand these models. 

Halting Food Market Consolidation

The food supply chain is profoundly over-consolidated. The top four beef packers control 85% of the national market, and the same applies to the poultry and pork industries. In our community two grocery chains account for a large majority of retail sales. Production of dairy, fertilizer, seeds, chemical inputs, and agricultural technology are likewise dominated by a handful of companies. In Congress, I will fight for an indefinite moratorium on further consolidation in agribusiness, especially by packers, processors, distributors, and major retailers. I also support legislation that would require rigorous reviews of previously-allowed mergers. This will allow us to review and address consolidation across our food system systematically.  

Backing Universal School Lunch

Regular healthy meals are an essential part of our children’s growth and development. You would not send your child to a school that lacked electricity, heat, or water. School meals are no exception. Children should not be sent to schools that lack infrastructure or funding for food. I would fight to ensure that in schools and other mandatory-attendance institutions, healthy meals are both guaranteed and funded by the federal government. I would also continue the work that First Lady Michelle Obama and others started: to invest in school meals to make them healthier, tastier, and more nutritious. I would support farm to school programs that encourage and incentivize schools to source locally. This not only results in local economic activity and support for local small businesses, farmers and food producers, but also provides our children with an opportunity to learn where their food comes from, who grows it, and the critical role it plays in our lives and communities. 

Food-as-Medicine

Produce, prescriptions, medically-tailored groceries, and meals should be a covered benefit through health insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare. I will fight to expand and scale current Medicaid 1115 waivers and permit coverage for diabetes, hypertension, pregnancy, and cardiovascular risk and conditions. We can deliver benefits on a no-fee EBT-style card or through public and participating grocers with culturally appropriate options. Alongside this, we should fund nutrition counseling by clinicians or community health workers and report outcomes on A1c, blood pressure, and avoidable emergency department visits. These programs can use local and regional procurement wherever possible to keep food dollars cycling through local communities. There are already models in the district that do this, such as the Farm on Ogden. These models have succeeded with little federal or marketplace support. I propose aligning our federal programs and policies with better health outcomes which will result in lower costs for all of us and better quality of life, particularly for those with diet-related diseases. 

Increasing Environmentally Conscious Production

Large-scale American commercial farming practices are among the most environmentally intensive processes in the world.  Our government should lead the way in developing technologies and infrastructure that allow farmers to produce food in a clean, sustainable way.  This includes revitalizing our ability to produce fertilizers that are greener, less energy-intensive, and less reliant on foreign imports. For example, we could revive and expand the fertilizer research and production program that once existed at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), producing cutting-edge fertilizer technology that plugs into green energy and is produced closer to point of use, rather than requiring shipment by boat, rail, and truck across the country. We should also expand this model to more than fertilizer, to create government structures that support raising livestock and growing crops outside factory-farming models. Beyond being inhumane, factory-farming produces nutrient-poor products and damages the environment, and we can drive the next generation of practices with democratic institutions rather than hoping for change from corporate farming. 

Empowering Public Seed Research

Most seed patents are held by a handful of powerful agriculture businesses. As a result, four multinational corporations control half of the national commercial seed supply. Higher prices for farmers means higher prices for Chicago residents, which is unacceptable as the cost of living continues to rise. We must direct increased resources to public plant breeding, seed stewardship, and germ plasm development. I support the use of 28 U.S.C. § 1498 and the Bayh-Dole Act to ensure that seed innovations developed in the public interest or with federal funds are made available to farmers on reasonable terms. I also support legislation explicitly requiring that new seed breeders have access to research-use exceptions to develop new varieties for farmers. I would also fight to revive the Seed Liaison program, killed by the Trump administration, that helped connect seed growers with intellectual property administrators, antitrust regulators, licensing and labeling enforcers, and other federal partners.

Re-Evaluating “Self-Inspection” and Line Speed Waivers

Large poultry and hog processors operating under the New or Modernized Poultry and Swine Inspection Systems (NPIS/NSIS), and similar beef waivers, perform many tasks once handled by federal inspectors. These self-inspection regimes prioritize large corporations that can dedicate in-house inspection staff, while small and midsize companies face higher per-unit compliance costs or remain on the less advantageous traditional lines. Likewise, faster line speeds are a major worker safety issue that are only set based on food safety concerns, not the concerns of the safety of our workers. We currently allow waivers at many plants to increase these line speeds to unsafe levels, putting our workers in harm's way to simply make a profit. We must reassess and modify or rescind these waivers. Specifically, we should repeal and reconsider the NSIS, NPIS, and beef inspection waivers to prevent their use by dominant firms in concentrated industries. Also, we should eliminate line speed waivers that create worker safety or health risks.

Modernizing Fairness Laws

The Packers and Stockyards Act prohibits unfair practices in livestock and poultry markets.  I will fight for a law prohibiting unfair methods of competition and unfair trade practices across all markets that contribute to feeding America, not just livestock. I will also push to restore the strength of the existing Packers and Stockyards Act and increase resources for enforcement. This includes demanding an enforcement arm for this law that exists independently, outside of the part of the USDA responsible for marketing and agribusiness liaising. We can increase the effectiveness of this with a Special Investigator with additional subpoena power for both the existing PSA and the new unfair agricultural markets law. 

Ending Irresponsible Agricultural-Production Advantages

Noncompliant livestock operations benefit from a de facto regulatory subsidy by skirting labor, environmental, or import tracing laws and still selling into American markets. For example, large swine production facilities can impose pollution and toxic byproducts on neighboring communities. Likewise, some international sellers market meat tied to illegally cleared rainforest lands. We should work to prohibit these behaviors across food markets. This would correct market distortions, rewarding efficiency and ethical practices rather than rule evasion. 

Passing a Right-to-Repair Law

Everyone in Chicago, from smartphone users to car owners, should have the right to fix their own possessions.  I support a federal right-to-repair law for all machinery, but particularly for farm equipment, commercial refrigeration, kitchen equipment, and point-of-sale systems. Any law must require manufacturers to provide parts, tools, and diagnostic software on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms. My proposal prohibits serialized-parts lockouts, forced subscriptions for basic fixes, and warranty voiding for lawful third-party repairs. I would also update DMCA § 1201 to protect repair rights and ban “software-bricking” tied to independent servicing. I also support data portability for machine logs with practical security safeguards such as access logs and signed firmware.

Banning Food Junk Fees and Surveillance Pricing

People should see one honest and consistent price up front. I support all-in pricing for groceries and food delivery, with taxes and mandatory fees included in the first price shown. This price should be consistent for every person and not swing based on personal data collection. For delivery platforms, I would require pre-checkout disclosure of any markup over in-store prices and prohibit drip pricing, dark-pattern tip defaults, and exclusivity clauses that penalize lower walk-in prices. In wholesale and retail grocery, I will work to standardize fee schedules, limit post-audit chargebacks, require prompt-pay terms for small suppliers, and verify that promotional allowances advertised as consumer savings are passed through at the shelf. 

Strengthening Food Worker Rights

Food workers deserve a government that fights for them. I will make sure federal food contracts like those for the USDA, schools, and the VA, go only to companies that protect their workers. That means fair scheduling with advance notice premium pay for last minute changes, and strong protections for organizing, safety reporting, and wage claims.  I will also fight to ensure that no federal money goes to businesses that fail to protect workers from the heat or cold. Warehouses, kitchens, and retail sites must have proper hydration, ventilation, and cold-stress protections.  I would require yearly certification, random DOL/USDA audits, real penalties, a confidential tip line, public reporting, and preferences for responsible employers.

Addressing Fair Meat Buying Markets Rule

We should address dominant meatpackers’ use of Alternative Marketing Agreements (AMAs) to evade open, competitive cash markets and thereby control livestock prices. I will fight to implement the WORC rule proposal from 1996 and require large packers to disclose AMA pricing terms and include transparent, firm base prices. It will also prohibit packers from owning feeder cattle and other livestock unless they are sold on the open cash market. The rule will also propose conditions on acceptable benchmarks to be used in AMAs. These conditions will determine whether they are appropriately robust and representative of a substantial cash market or are invalid.

Mandating Country of Origin Labeling

People deserve to know where their food comes from. We used to have a law on the books that required U.S. beef and pork producers and retailers to label the country of origin for their meats. This allowed people to choose to buy locally sourced meat if they wanted. Today especially people deserve to know the source of their food, as the Trump administration plays bizarre games with importing beef from Argentina to prop up their economy as a favor to their right-wing government. There are reports that this imported beef is potentially unsafe and mixing it carelessly with the American food supply is irresponsible for public health, climate, and economic sustainability. 

Reforming the Checkoff Program

The USDA sanctions 22 different checkoff programs from watermelon to beef and pork. These programs are functionally a tax that forces producers to pay into a general fund for the marketing of the specific crop. Smaller producers have complained that these mandatory programs are used to entrench dominant producers by spending on their priorities, not the priorities of a broad, competitive, sustainable market. I would support reforms requiring audits of the use of funds and new accountability mechanisms across checkoffs on how to avoid promoting consolidation, unsustainable practices, and unfair allocation of funds. I would also fight for reforms to require small and medium businesses to be integrated into the planning and actual allocation stage of checkoff funds.

Strengthening the Robinson Patman Act

Small and medium-sized businesses deserve a level playing field. Not just because it is fair, but because it builds our communities and reduces reliance on dominant market players. The Robinson Patman Act protects small grocers and brands from discriminatory pricing, services, and facilities. It is critically important that we revitalize enforcement of this law with funding specifically earmarked for these infractions. It is also crucial that we correct and clarify existing precedent to ensure that the law can be appropriately enforced.