California Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, Ballot Language

CALIFORNIA FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT

                      SCARCITY IS A POLICY CHOICE

Filed with the California Attorney General Title and Summary prepared pursuant to Elections Code Section 9004

Signature Requirement: 546,651 valid signatures (initiative statute) (Five percent of total votes cast for Governor at the November 8, 2022 general election)

Circulation Deadline: 180 days from date of filing (Elections Code Section 9014)

BALLOT TITLE

SHALL THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA ENACT THE CALIFORNIA FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH:

    (1) CREATING A CALIFORNIA FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM OPERATED BY THE
    DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE TO SELL GROCERY PRODUCTS AT
    AT-COST PRICING TO ALL CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS THROUGH STATE-OPERATED
    FOOD ASSURANCE CENTERS, WITH NOT FEWER THAN FIFTEEN PILOT CENTERS
    WITHIN TWO YEARS, INCLUDING FOUR IN LOS ANGELES, TWO IN THE BAY
    AREA, TWO IN SAN DIEGO, TWO IN THE CENTRAL VALLEY, AND FIVE IN
    OTHER REGIONS, AND FIFTY CENTERS STATEWIDE WITHIN FIVE YEARS,
    MODELED ON THE 159-YEAR MILITARY COMMISSARY PRECEDENT;

    (2) CREATING A CALIFORNIA ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM THROUGH THE
    GOVERNOR'S OFFICE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TO PROCURE
    AND DISTRIBUTE CLOTHING, HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES, HYGIENE PRODUCTS, AND
    OTHER ESSENTIAL GOODS AT BELOW-RETAIL PRICING;

    (3) APPROPRIATING TWO HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS ($250,000,000)
    FROM THE GENERAL FUND AS STARTUP FUNDING, REPRESENTING APPROXIMATELY
    0.11 PERCENT OF THE STATE'S APPROXIMATELY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT
    POINT FOUR BILLION DOLLAR GENERAL FUND?

SUBMISSION CLAUSE

    [ ] YES / FOR THE MEASURE

    [ ] NO / AGAINST THE MEASURE

BALLOT TEXT

This measure adds Division 24 (commencing with Section 80000) to the Food and Agricultural Code to create the California Food Assurance Act, a single operative program for food and commodity assurance.

THE FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM

This measure creates:

    - A California Food Assurance Program operated by the Department of
      Food and Agriculture, establishing state-operated food
      distribution centers where all California residents may purchase
      the full range of grocery products at at-cost pricing (production
      cost plus a facility surcharge not exceeding 5%);

    - Not fewer than fifteen pilot centers within two years: four in
      the Los Angeles metropolitan area (including South LA and the San
      Fernando Valley), two in the Bay Area, two in San Diego, two in
      the Central Valley (Fresno and Bakersfield), one in Sacramento,
      one in the Inland Empire, one in Salinas-Monterey, one in the
      Imperial Valley, and one in Northern California;

    - Expansion to fifty statewide centers within five years, with at
      least one center in each of California's congressional districts
      and at least ten centers serving rural communities and food
      deserts;

    - California-first procurement: 50% California-sourced within three
      years, increasing to 70% within five years, supporting the state's
      $61.2 billion agricultural economy;

    - A California Essential Goods Program distributing clothing,
      household supplies, hygiene products, tools, and other essential
      goods at below-retail pricing through manufacturing partnerships
      and direct procurement.

EVIDENTIARY BASIS: The USDA ERS Food Dollar Series establishes the farm share of the food dollar at 24.3 cents, with 75.7 cents in markup. The United States military commissary system has operated at-cost food distribution for 159 years under 10 U.S.C. Section 2484, at commissary stores on more than a dozen California military installations, funded by California taxpayers but restricted to military families. California's agricultural output of $61.2 billion (2024), the highest of any state in the nation, produces over 400 commodities. Yet approximately 8.8 million Californians, more than one in five, experience food insecurity. In the Central Valley, forty-five percent of Latino farmworkers, the people who grow America's food, cannot afford to eat. Approximately $12 billion in CalFresh (SNAP) benefits, all federally funded, is distributed in California each year through commercial retailers where 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup rather than food.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH BASIS: The measure is grounded in the finding that food insecurity and economic hierarchy are medical conditions with documented physiological pathways. The Whitehall Studies (Marmot) found that the lowest employment grade among British civil servants had three times the mortality of the highest grade, with standard risk factors explaining less than forty percent of the gradient. Primate research (Sapolsky on baboons, Shively on macaques) and Nobel Prize-winning telomere research (Blackburn) document the same gradient across four research programs, six decades, and three species. Hierarchy itself kills. A food and commodity assurance program is a structural public health intervention, not charity.

PROPONENT STATEMENT

This initiative proposes a state-level reform of food distribution in the state best positioned to prove it works.

THE CALIFORNIA PARADOX: California is the number-one agricultural state in the nation. Our farms and ranches generated $61.2 billion in 2024, the first time any state exceeded $60 billion. We produce over 400 commodities. We feed the country. We feed the world.

And yet approximately 8.8 million Californians, more than one in five, cannot consistently feed themselves.

In the Central Valley, the people who grow America's food go hungry. Forty-five percent of Latino farmworkers in the Central Valley reported food insecurity. They pick the strawberries, the almonds, the lettuce, the tomatoes. They grow twenty-five percent of all food consumed in the United States. And they cannot afford to eat.

This is not irony. This is the grocery proof. The USDA documents that 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup, not food. The military commissary has distributed food at cost for 159 years to military families, at stores on more than a dozen California military installations. California taxpayers fund those stores. California taxpayers are denied access.

THE ECONOMY ARGUMENT: California's GDP is $4.1 trillion. We are the fourth-largest economy in the world; we passed Japan in 2024. We have approximately 35,000 manufacturing establishments, more than any other state. We have the infrastructure, the agricultural output, and the economic capacity to make this work. If this proposal succeeds anywhere, it succeeds here.

THE HEALTH ARGUMENT: Six decades of research establish that hierarchy produces measurable disease: - Marmot: three times the mortality at the bottom of the hierarchy, even with universal healthcare; - Sapolsky: subordination produces cortisol damage in primates; - Shively: subordinate status produces coronary artery disease; - Blackburn (Nobel Prize): chronic stress shortens telomeres, the protective caps on DNA.

Food assurance is not charity. It is a public health intervention with a documented physiological basis. Reducing food insecurity reduces healthcare costs.

THE COST: $250 million in startup funding, approximately 0.11 percent of the state's $228.4 billion general fund. Approximately $12 billion in CalFresh benefits is already distributed in California each year, routed through commercial retailers at full retail markup. At-cost routing delivers close to four times the food value per benefit dollar. The food assurance program is designed to scale toward self-sufficiency over seven years through volume and the facility surcharge.

Originally proposed: 2016 (Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation, Colorado DPOS Registration). California adaptation: March 2026 (Historical Apoplexy series, Cooper).

FISCAL IMPACT SUMMARY

(Prepared pursuant to Government Code Section 88003 and Elections Code Section 9005, Legislative Analyst's Office format)

INITIAL APPROPRIATION: $250,000,000 from the General Fund for the first fiscal year of implementation, as startup funding.

PERCENTAGE OF GENERAL FUND: approximately 0.11 percent of approximately $228.4 billion.

BREAKDOWN:

    Food Assurance Program (CDFA):                   $200,000,000
    Essential Goods Program (GO-Biz):                 $50,000,000

PROGRAM TARGET AT FULL SCALE:

    The full at-cost food baseline for California's approximately 39.5
    million residents is approximately $24.1 billion per year at
    production cost ($609 per resident per year), approximately 10.5
    percent of the general fund. The $250 million appropriation is
    startup funding; the program scales toward the full baseline over
    seven years, offset by the facility surcharge and by the
    redirection of existing food expenditure.

PROJECTED ONGOING COSTS:

    Food assurance operations: estimated $150-200 million annually
    during the expansion phase (years 3-7), declining toward
    self-sufficiency through the facility surcharge.

PROJECTED SAVINGS:

    CalFresh efficiency: at-cost pricing delivers close to four times
    the food value per benefit dollar. Routing the existing federally
    funded CalFresh expenditure (approximately $12 billion annually in
    California) through food assurance centers yields a substantial
    per-dollar food value improvement.

    Federal SNAP cost-shift offset: Federal H.R. 1 (2025) raised the
    state share of SNAP administrative costs from fifty to seventy-five
    percent. The efficiency gain from at-cost routing independently
    offsets that cost-shift.

    Healthcare cost reduction: improved nutrition and a compressed
    hierarchy gradient are projected to reduce healthcare costs, based
    on the Whitehall documentation of hierarchy-related healthcare
    utilization. California's Medi-Cal program serves over 15 million
    enrollees; nutrition-related chronic disease is a major cost driver.

CONTEXT:

    California total state budget: approximately $321.1 billion (FY2025-26)
    California general fund: approximately $228.4 billion
    California CalFresh (SNAP) benefits distributed: approximately $12
      billion annually, all federally funded
    California GDP: approximately $4.1 trillion (fourth largest in the world)
    Initial appropriation as share of the general fund: approximately 0.11%

ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF THE MEASURE

(As would appear in the California Voter Information Guide)

California grows twenty-five percent of America's food. Our farms produced $61.2 billion in 2024. We are the number-one agricultural state in the nation.

And yet approximately 8.8 million of us, more than one in five Californians, do not know where the next meal is coming from.

In the Central Valley, forty-five percent of farmworkers, the people who actually grow the food, cannot afford to eat.

The military commissary has sold food at cost for 159 years. It operates stores on more than a dozen California military installations. Your taxes fund those stores. You are not allowed to shop there. This measure extends the same at-cost model to all Californians.

The science is established: hierarchy produces disease. The Whitehall Studies documented three times the mortality at the bottom of the gradient, even with universal healthcare. Blackburn won the Nobel Prize documenting that chronic stress shortens the protective caps on DNA. These are measured, replicated findings, not opinions.

Cost: approximately 0.11 percent of the general fund. California already distributes approximately $12 billion in CalFresh benefits through commercial retailers at full retail markup. At-cost routing delivers close to four times the food per dollar.

We have the farms. We have the economy. This is the proof of concept.

Vote YES.

REBUTTAL TO ARGUMENT AGAINST THE MEASURE

(As would appear in the California Voter Information Guide)

Opponents will argue cost. The initial appropriation is approximately 0.11 percent of the general fund, startup funding. California already distributes approximately $12 billion in CalFresh benefits that buy food at full retail markup. At-cost routing delivers close to four times the food value per dollar. This measure improves the return on money the state and its residents already spend.

Opponents will argue government overreach. The United States military has run at-cost commissaries for 159 years, with stores on more than a dozen California military installations. If at-cost distribution is sound enough for military families, it is sound enough for the taxpayers who fund it. The program contracts with private producers; farms, trucks, and processing stay private.

Opponents will argue it is too ambitious. California is the fourth-largest economy in the world. We produce over 400 agricultural commodities. We invented the ballot initiative. If any state on Earth can do this, it is California.

The people who grow our food deserve to eat. The people who pay taxes deserve access to at-cost distribution they already fund.

Vote YES.

SIGNATURE LINES

I, the undersigned registered elector of the State of California, do hereby petition the Attorney General of the State of California to submit to the registered electors of the State of California an initiative measure amending the Food and Agricultural Code, concerning the establishment of the California Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, as set forth herein:

Print Name: ___________________________________________

Signature: ____________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________

Date: ___________________

County of Residence: __________________________________

(Repeat as needed. 546,651 valid signatures required.)

END OF BALLOT LANGUAGE

CALIFORNIA FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT Citizen Initiative Pursuant to Article II, Section 8, California Constitution

Prepared by: The Amanuensis, theamanuensis.com Originally proposed: 2016 (Cooper) California adaptation: March 2026

"The Central Valley grows twenty-five percent of America's food. Forty-five percent of its farmworkers go hungry. California is the proof of concept. This is where it starts."

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