In February, Vice President JD Vance<\/a> announced at the State Department<\/u><\/a> that the administration must institute a price floor to protect the US critical mineral market. \u201cThis morning, the Trump administration<\/a> is proposing a concrete mechanism to return the global critical minerals market to a healthier, more competitive state: a preferential trade<\/a> zone for critical minerals protected from external disruptions through enforceable price floors,\u201d Vance explained. Meanwhile, the US\u2014and other countries around the world\u2014are deploying oil reserves<\/u><\/a> to buffer price shocks caused by the Israel-US attacks on Iran. Price floors and supply management programs seem common sense to these policymakers when it comes to oil<\/a> and minerals, but what about US farmers and our overall food system?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like oil and critical minerals, food and agriculture supply chains, such as corn, soy, and dairy, are vulnerable to global shocks<\/u><\/a>, including extreme weather<\/a> events, wars<\/u><\/a>, and other supply disruptions<\/u><\/a>. The public also needs to understand that without inflation-adjusted price floors, agricultural commodity prices may sink to disastrously low levels, leaving farmers no choice but to increase production with more chemicals and GMO<\/a> seeds at the expense of our land and water<\/a>. Congress and the US Department of Agriculture can avoid low prices by creating reserves accumulated during large harvests and, just like the federal petroleum reserve, bringing them back on the market to stabilize prices in times of shortage. We can all agree that food shortages would be disastrous, so guaranteeing its citizens food security should be imperative for any democratic government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So while Republicans<\/a> can recognize the importance of price floors and supply management during this administration, Democrats should look at history<\/u><\/a> to understand how the same instruments were developed for agriculture during the Great Depression under the Democratic Party\u2019s New Deal. The twin crises of farm bankruptcies and the Dust Bowl spurred militant farm organizations to demand a response from the federal government. The response was parity farm bills that stopped farm bankruptcies and stabilized the farm economy so that conservation measures and preservation of diversified farming could lead to food security and a balanced economy. Federal leadership in the White House<\/a> and Congress recognized that price and supply management benefited both farmers and society as a whole. The policy was simple and transparent: The farm bill would ensure that during years of good harvests, public grain reserves<\/u><\/a> would purchase the surplus at the parity rate (price floor adjusted for inflation<\/a>) and store it to protect consumers in future times of shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, both parties abandoned this common-sense approach to farm policy in the early 1950s, so that costs of farming have totally outpaced commodity prices. Subsequently, headlines warning of a farm crisis in 2026, like during the Great Depression and the 1980s, are not uncommon. The prices paid to farmers for commodities such as corn, soybeans, wheat, and dairy have dropped to record lows in real dollars<\/u><\/a>. Over the years, this imbalance has led to the loss of family farms, the consolidation of agribusiness and food processing monopolies, along with their profits benefiting handsomely. Stabilizing the ratio of farm prices to farm costs (the correct goal of any Farm Bill) is the key to a sustainable agriculture that avoids soil loss, water pollution<\/a>, and the decline of rural communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A supply management program would not only help revive family operations and rural economies but would also be essential to combat the expansion of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and lower costs for taxpayers. As reported by Food & Water Watch<\/a>, CAFOs are a disaster for our climate, air, and water<\/u><\/a>, especially for nearby communities. CAFOs are among the most egregious features of today\u2019s low-price, commodity-based industrial agriculture. Thousands of livestock (owned or vertically integrated with large food processors) are confined in small facilities without fresh air or sunlight and fed cheap corn and soy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CAFOs have been replacing conscientious family farmers who are stewards of the soil and their animals. When family farmers are forced out of livestock production, they face the dilemma of \u201cget big or get out\u201d and often have no farming alternatives other than to tear up their pastures to grow corn and soybeans that will end up feeding animals in CAFOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration is applying often-forgotten policy instruments to sustain our fossil fuel dependence and our high-tech future, rather than prioritizing a resilient, sustainable economy. Managing a price floor and creating federal food reserves in the agriculture sector are necessary to combat the adverse effects of food processor monopolization, farm consolidation, soil and water degradation, and external shocks, such as wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A productive agricultural economy that conserves our resources, challenges agricultural consolidation, and offers economic opportunity in rural communities should be a top priority for all our citizens. \u201cWe love farmers<\/em>\u201d and \u201cWe put America\u2019s farmers first<\/em>\u201d are just political slogans to get votes with no substance behind them. These slogans lead to the usual sleight of hand to send taxpayer dollars to get some farmers through the next planting season. This policy leaves the disastrous cheap commodity regime in place\u2014encouraging CAFO production and exporting commodities at a loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The administration\u2019s discovery of the logical policy of price floors and reserves for oil and minerals must open new doors to applying these logical and transparent mechanisms to agriculture to restore the security of family farmers and conservation of our precious resources\u2014after all, we can\u2019t eat petroleum or precious minerals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Price floors and supply management programs seem common sense to policymakers when it comes to oil and minerals, but what about US farmers and our overall food system? By: Patti Naylor, FFD president, George Naylor, FFD board member, and Laurel … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/70662110007-reagan-protest-985361363.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n