PFPC Submits Comments to USDA on Creating More Resilient, Diverse, Secure Supply Chains
On Monday, June 21, the PFPC submitted comments to the USDA in response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14017 to support more resilient, diverse, and secure food supply chains. The USDA requested comments in the following areas:
- Bolstering local and regional food systems,
- Developing new market opportunities (including for value-added agriculture and products),
- Creating fairer and more competitive markets,
- Meeting the needs of the agricultural workforce,
- Supporting and promoting consumers’ nutrition security, particularly for low-income populations,
- Addressing the needs of socially disadvantaged and small to mid-sized producers, and
- Advancing efforts in other ways to transform the food system.
The PFPC, with help from the Steering Committee, wrote recommendations largely based on goals and strategies from the Greater Pittsburgh Food Action Plan (GPFAP), putting forward several of the plan’s food systems priorities for the region. Key GPFAP recommendations in the PFPC’s comments include, but are not limited to:
The comments also advocate for a minimum wage increase to at least $15 per hour in order to better support food chain workers, and strengthening and increasing funding for nutrition assistance programs such as SNAP and WIC to support nutrition security for residents.
To read PFPC’s full comments to the USDA, visit the Federal Register webpage here. For more information, check out comments submitted by other food systems-focused organizations: the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and Friends of the Earth/Center for Science in the Public Interest.
