State Food Resilience Compacts: Building Regional Food Security

As global supply chains face increasing disruption—from climate disasters to geopolitical conflicts—states across the U.S. are quietly building something remarkable: mutual aid compacts for food security.

These aren't your grandmother's emergency food reserves. Modern food resilience compacts are sophisticated agreements that include shared grain storage, regional soil testing laboratories, and coordinated cold storage networks.

Why Food Resilience Matters Now

The fragility of our food system became painfully clear during the COVID-19 pandemic. Empty grocery shelves, disrupted supply lines, and processing plant closures revealed just how dependent we've become on long-distance, just-in-time food distribution.

But the problems run deeper than pandemic disruption:

• Climate volatility is making crop yields unpredictable
• Corporate consolidation has concentrated food processing in vulnerable chokepoints
• Soil degradation threatens long-term agricultural productivity
• Energy costs make cross-country shipping increasingly expensive

The USDA Framework

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its Food System Transformation Framework, which explicitly called for "partnering with producers to strengthen and explore new revenue streams, creating more resilient supply chains."

This federal framework has provided cover and coordination for state-level compacts that might otherwise face political resistance.

Key Components of Food Resilience Compacts

Regional Grain Reserves

Unlike the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve, there is no equivalent national grain reserve. States are filling this gap by establishing coordinated grain storage across state lines.

These reserves serve multiple purposes:

• Price stabilization during market volatility
• Emergency food supply during disasters
• Buffer stock for regional distribution networks

Shared Soil Testing Infrastructure

Healthy soil is the foundation of food security, but comprehensive soil testing is expensive. State compacts are pooling resources to establish regional soil laboratories that can:

• Monitor soil health across agricultural regions
• Identify nutrient deficiencies before they affect yields
• Track contamination from industrial sources
• Provide affordable testing for small farmers

Cold Storage Networks

The pandemic exposed critical gaps in cold storage capacity, particularly for regional processing. Compacts are coordinating investment in:

• Distributed cold storage facilities
• Mobile refrigeration units for emergency response
• Shared processing facilities for regional producers

Looking Toward 2026

As we approach 2026, several factors make food resilience compacts increasingly urgent:

1. Climate projections suggest continued disruption to traditional growing regions
2. Geopolitical tensions threaten imported fertilizer supplies
3. Agricultural debt levels put many farms at risk of closure
4. Urban food deserts remain a persistent equity issue

States that establish robust food resilience infrastructure now will be better positioned to weather whatever challenges emerge.

What You Can Do

Individual action can complement state-level planning:

• Support local farmers markets and regional food hubs
• Advocate for food policy councils in your municipality
• Learn about your region's agricultural capacity and vulnerabilities
• Build community food networks through churches, schools, and civic organizations

This article is part of Prism Writing's Knowledge Graph on Economic Resilience. For related analysis, explore the full graph on our homepage.