Colorado Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act

VERIFICATION CHAIN (publisher and date only; sources cited inline through the bill body and listed in the References section):

COLORADO FISCAL FRAMEWORK - FY2026-27 enacted state budget: $46.8 billion total / $17.4 billion General Fund (HB 26-1410 "Long Bill," signed by Governor Polis April 2026; Colorado Newsline April 16 2026; Colorado Politics April 28 2026; Grand Junction Sentinel April 12 2026; NASBO Colorado Budget page). - FY2027 Polis recommended budget (not yet enacted): $50.5 billion total / $18.5 billion General Fund operating, +3.9% / +1.6% over FY2026 (NASBO; Colorado Newsline; recommended October 31 2025, amended January 2 2026). - Population: 6,012,561 as of July 1 2025, first time exceeding six million (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 release January 27 2026; Pueblo Chieftain February 2 2026). - Per-capita state-only General Fund expenditure: $2,894 ($17.4B GF / 6,012,561 residents). Places Colorado in the Table 2 cluster for the Division I food and commodity assurance target.

COLORADO AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD FACTS - Colorado farm cash receipts: $8.95 billion per year (USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2024 Colorado Agricultural Statistics Bulletin). - Colorado SNAP enrollment: approximately 796,000 residents; spending approximately $1.44 billion per year routed through commercial retailers (Feeding Colorado; Food Bank of the Rockies; USDA ERS 2023). - Federal H.R. 1 (2025): SNAP administrative cost-shift effective October 1 2026, increasing the state-share obligation without corresponding benefit increase (KFF 2025).

COLORADO LEGAL ANCHORS - Lobato v. State, 304 P.3d 1132 (Colo. 2013): Colorado Supreme Court upheld the Public School Finance Act on rational-basis review of the Article IX § 2 adequacy claim. The constitutional duty itself remains; the question is operational. - Colorado Constitution Article IX § 2: "thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state." - TABOR: Colorado Constitution Article X § 20, revenue and expenditure cap on new programs. - Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation (SMRF): founded by Imran Cooper 2016, registered with the Colorado Department of Higher Education Division of Private Occupational Schools (DPOS). First nonpartisan civic education trade school in the United States.

UNIVERSAL HISTORICAL APOPLEXY ANCHORS (Papers I, III, VII, VIII) - Augustus annona civica (formalized circa 27 BC, approximately 200,000 Roman citizens, 400-plus year duration): Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars; Appian, Civil Wars 4.5; Cassius Dio, Roman History. - Augustus tyrant record: 300 senators and 2,000 equestrians proscribed under the Second Triumvirate; Suetonius, Life of Augustus 27 (Pinarius stabbed at public assembly for taking notes). - Nerva alimenta: state-funded child nutrition; Tabula Alimentaria from Veleia, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XI 1147 (bronze inscription still housed at the Parma Museum). - Mabu Co archaeological site, Tibetan Plateau, 4,446 m elevation, sedentary settlement 4,400 years ago with approximately 800-year duration (Yang et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, September 2024). - Azolla Event: freshwater fern Azolla-Anabaena symbiosis drove Arctic Ocean CO2 drawdown approximately 49 million years ago over 800,000 years, contributing to the Eocene hothouse-to-icehouse transition (Brinkhuis et al., Nature 441, pages 606 to 609, 2006). - Defense Commissary Agency: established 1867 (Army Subsistence Department), codified at 10 U.S.C. § 2484, 236 stores worldwide, approximately 2.8 million authorized users, approximately $4 billion annual sales, 17 to 44 percent below civilian retail, approximately $1.3 billion annual federal appropriation (GAO-19-344; DeCA official reports). - USDA Food Dollar Series: farm share 24.3 cents per dollar / marketing share 75.7 cents per dollar (USDA Economic Research Service). - U.S. food-insecure population 47.9 million; cost to close the gap approximately $32 billion per year; annual food markup above production cost approximately $496 billion per year; ratio 15 to 1 (USDA ERS; Feeding America; Cooper, Paper III, 2025). - Federal structural overload: 22 federal shutdowns since 1976; 2025 shutdown 43 days, longest in U.S. history; 762,000 constituents per House representative since the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act; Senate cloture motions over 2,000 per decade; debt ceiling raised 78 times since 1960 (Cooper, Paper VII, 2026). - Swiss Federal Council multi-executive precedent: 7 members, rotating presidency, since 1848 (178 years), over 80 percent citizen trust (gfs.bern; Cooper, Paper VII, 2026).

UNVERIFIED (flag for the next pre-distribution audit pass) - Exact Colorado SNAP recipient count for state fiscal year 2026 (reconcile against current Colorado Department of Human Services dashboard). - Exact Colorado Medicaid SFY2026 expenditures and FMAP rate. - Exact Colorado opioid settlement annual disbursement status.

---

                          SENATE/HOUSE BILL ____

BY __________ (Introduced by request)

CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A STATE PROGRAM FOR FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE TO ENSURE THE MATERIAL SECURITY AND PHYSIOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF ALL COLORADO RESIDENTS, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, AMENDING TITLES 24 AND 35 OF THE COLORADO REVISED STATUTES, MAKING APPROPRIATIONS, AND PROVIDING EFFECTIVE DATES.

                             A BILL FOR AN ACT

LONG TITLE

AN ACT CONCERNING THE CREATION OF THE COLORADO FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, ESTABLISHING THE COLORADO FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM BY ADDING ARTICLE 32.5 TO TITLE 35 OF THE COLORADO REVISED STATUTES; CREATING THE COLORADO ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM BY ADDING PART 4 TO ARTICLE 46 OF TITLE 24 OF THE COLORADO REVISED STATUTES; MAKING APPROPRIATIONS; AND PROVIDING FOR EFFECTIVE DATES.

LEGISLATIVE ROUTING NOTE

Colorado has a citizen ballot initiative process. Under Article V, Section 1 of the Colorado Constitution, citizens may propose legislation by petition. The signature requirement for statewide initiative petitions for 2023 through 2026 is 124,238 valid signatures (five percent of total votes cast for all candidates for the office of Secretary of State at the November 8, 2022 general election, which totaled 2,484,758) [SOURCE: Colorado Secretary of State, Initiative Signature Requirements].

FILING: An initiated statute is filed with the Colorado Secretary of State. Before circulation, proponents must submit a draft petition to the Title Board for review. The Title Board sets the ballot title and submission clause. This process is governed by Article V, Section 1 of the Colorado Constitution and Articles 40 and 41 of Title 1, C.R.S. [SOURCE: Colorado General Assembly, How to File Initiatives].

Alternatively, this bill may be introduced through the General Assembly by any member of the Senate or House of Representatives.

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT: Upon introduction, this bill would likely be assigned to the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee or the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee, with referral to an Appropriations Committee for fiscal review.

FISCAL NOTE: The Legislative Council Staff and Office of State Planning and Budgeting prepare fiscal notes for all bills with budgetary impact per Joint Rule 26 of the Colorado General Assembly.

FLOOR VOTE: Simple majority in each chamber (18 of 35 Senators; 33 of 65 Representatives). Governor's signature or veto override (two-thirds of each chamber).

SESSION: The 75th General Assembly (2025-2026). Colorado legislative sessions convene on the second Wednesday of January and last no more than 120 calendar days unless extended by the Governor.

HISTORY: A version of this proposal was first developed 2015-2016 through the Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation (SMRF), the first nonpartisan civic education trade school in the United States, registered with the Colorado Department of Higher Education, Division of Private Occupational Schools. The 2016 proposal was sidelined during the 2016-2017 legislative cycle. Every metric it addressed has worsened in the decade since. The present version incorporates the evidentiary foundation of the Historical Apoplexy series (Cooper, Papers I-X, 2025-2026), the academic work that establishes the diagnostic frame. The companion Education bill (Lane 3) is being prepared separately and is not part of this Act.

LEGISLATIVE DECLARATION

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado:

SECTION 1. Legislative findings and declaration.

    (1) The General Assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares
    that:

    FINDINGS RELATING TO THE STRUCTURAL IMPERATIVE FOR STATE ACTION:

    (a0) THE FEDERAL STRUCTURAL OVERLOAD. The United States federal
    government is not failing through corruption but through structural
    mismatch between its founding scale and its current scale. Twenty-
    two federal government shutdowns have occurred since 1976, including
    the 2025 shutdown of forty-three days, the longest in U.S. history,
    which furloughed approximately 670,000 federal employees. The House
    of Representatives has been frozen at 435 members since the
    Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, producing a representation
    ratio of approximately 762,000 constituents per representative, the
    worst in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
    Senate cloture motions now exceed 2,000 per decade. The debt
    ceiling has been raised 78 times since 1960. The Swiss Federal
    Council has rotated 7 co-executives since 1848 with over 80 percent
    citizen trust, a 178-year operational record. Federal H.R. 1 (2025)
    shifted SNAP administrative costs onto the states effective October
    1 2026, imposing a new obligation on Colorado without a
    corresponding increase in benefits. These are structural failures,
    not partisan ones (Cooper, Paper VII, 2026);

    (a1) Colorado presented a version of this proposal to members of
    the General Assembly in 2016 through the Sassafras and Maple
    Research Foundation (SMRF), the first nonpartisan civic education
    trade school in the United States, registered with the Colorado
    Department of Higher Education Division of Private Occupational
    Schools, and founded by Imran Stanton Cooper. The proposal was
    sidelined. Ten years later, every metric it addressed has worsened.
    The federal government has since imposed the SNAP cost-shift this
    bill was designed to absorb. The General Assembly's authority to
    act has always existed. The urgency is now measured in federal
    mandates the state cannot decline;

    (a2) DENIAL IS NO LONGER NEUTRAL. The General Assembly finds that
    inaction by a state legislature possessing the constitutional
    authority, the fiscal capacity, and the documented need to act
    constitutes active harm. The burden of justification rests on
    denial, not on action;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO FOOD AND COMMODITY INSECURITY IN COLORADO:

    (a) According to the United States Department of Agriculture
    Economic Research Service, 13.5 percent of United States households
    experienced food insecurity in 2023, and 5.1 percent experienced
    very low food security. Applied to Colorado's population of
    6,012,561 (U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025, the state's first time
    exceeding 6 million), approximately 796,000 Coloradans lack
    consistent access to adequate food [SOURCE: Feeding Colorado; Food
    Bank of the Rockies; USDA ERS, 2023];

    (b) Colorado's agricultural sector generates approximately $8.95
    billion in annual cash receipts from farm marketings [SOURCE: USDA
    National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2024 Colorado Agricultural
    Statistics Bulletin]. This output substantially exceeds the
    population's food requirements. Food insecurity in Colorado is a
    distribution problem, not a production problem;

    (c) The United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research
    Service Food Dollar Series establishes that the farm share of the
    U.S. food dollar is 24.3 cents, with the remaining 75.7 cents
    allocated to processing, transportation, wholesale, retail, and
    food-service markup. Total U.S. food-at-home spending is
    approximately $1.09 trillion; production cost is approximately
    $213 to $327 billion. The difference of approximately $496 billion
    represents markup above production cost [SOURCE: USDA ERS Food
    Dollar Series; Cooper, Paper III, 2025];

    (d) The cost to close the food insecurity gap for all 47.9 million
    food-insecure Americans is approximately $32 billion, which
    represents 6.5 percent of the $496 billion markup between
    production cost and retail price. The cost to feed them all is
    6.5 percent of what is currently spent on permission (Cooper,
    Paper III, 2025);

    (e) The United States military commissary system, established by
    the Military Commissary Act of 1867 and codified at 10 U.S.C.
    § 2484, has operated at-cost food distribution continuously for
    one hundred fifty-nine (159) years, delivering savings of 17 to
    44 percent below civilian retail prices to approximately 2.8
    million authorized users through 236 stores worldwide [SOURCE:
    Defense Commissary Agency; GAO-19-344]. This program is funded by
    all federal taxpayers at approximately $1.3 billion per year but
    available only to military families and retirees. The taxpayer who
    pays for the commissary cannot use the commissary. Not charity.
    Engineering;

    (f) The geographer Albrecht Penck calculated in 1925 that Earth's
    carrying capacity was 8 billion people using 1920s agricultural
    technology. World population is now approximately 8 billion. The
    productive capacity for universal food provision has been a
    settled scientific question for one hundred years [SOURCE: Penck
    1925; Cohen, How Many People Can the Earth Support? 1995];

    (g) The United States has approximately 293,000 manufacturing
    facilities. Ten thousand to fifteen thousand facilities would
    suffice for universal material abundance. The ratio is 19.5 to
    29.3 times overcapacity. U.S. manufacturing currently operates at
    approximately 77 percent capacity utilization [SOURCE: Federal
    Reserve G.17; Cooper, Paper III, 2025];

    (h) In 2024 alone, 7,325 retail grocery store locations closed in
    the United States, with 15,000-plus closures projected nationally
    for 2025, while 54 million Americans live in food deserts (Cooper,
    Paper IV, 2025). The commercial retail grocery model is collapsing
    as a distribution system. The choice before this legislature is
    not whether the model changes. The choice is whether the transition
    is designed or chaotic;

    (i) The economist John Kenneth Galbraith described in The Affluent
    Society (1958) the condition of "private opulence and public
    squalor," the coexistence of substantial private productive
    capacity with inadequate public provision of basic needs. The
    condition persists in Colorado, where the state's agricultural and
    manufacturing output substantially exceeds the population's
    material requirements;

    (j) The economist Thorstein Veblen documented in The Engineers and
    the Price System (1921) the deliberate restriction of production
    capacity by business interests to maintain prices above production
    cost. The gap between Colorado's productive capacity and its
    residents' material security reflects this same dynamic;

    (j1) Augustus Caesar (63 BC to 14 AD) formalized the annona civica,
    monthly grain distribution to approximately 200,000 Roman citizens,
    as civic infrastructure. Augustus was a tyrant: the Second
    Triumvirate proscriptions listed approximately 300 senators and
    2,000 equestrians for execution, and Suetonius records him ordering
    a Roman knight named Pinarius stabbed on the spot for the offense
    of taking notes at a public assembly (Suetonius, Life of Augustus
    27). Even Augustus, who would have a man killed for taking notes in
    the wrong room, understood that hungry citizens are broken
    infrastructure. The annona operated for over four hundred years.
    Emperor Nerva (96-98 AD) expanded the program with the alimenta,
    state-funded child nutrition recorded on the Tabula Alimentaria
    from Veleia, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XI 1147. The bronze
    inscription still exists, housed in the Parma Museum, and can be
    visited;

    (j2) In September 2024, Nature Ecology & Evolution documented a
    permanent settlement at 4,446 metres elevation on the Tibetan
    Plateau (Mabu Co) sustaining sedentary abundance for 800 years
    beginning 4,400 years ago, using fishing hooks and environmental
    knowledge (Yang et al., 2024). Approximately 49 million years ago,
    the freshwater fern Azolla in symbiosis with the cyanobacterium
    Anabaena azollae sequestered enough atmospheric CO2 across the
    Arctic Ocean over 800,000 years to contribute to the Earth's
    hothouse-to-icehouse transition (Brinkhuis et al., Nature 441,
    pages 606 to 609, 2006). Azolla fixes nitrogen autonomously,
    requires no soil, doubles biomass every two to five days, and
    contains 15 to 30 percent protein by dry weight. The fern is
    operationally relevant to Colorado as a nitrogen-fixing aquaculture
    feedstock for poultry and aquaculture operations;

    (j3) The state therefore inherits three operational records
    establishing at-cost distribution and abundance maintenance as
    sustainable infrastructure: the U.S. military commissary (159
    years of statutory operation), the Roman annona (400-plus years of
    archaeological record), and the biological record across geologic
    time (800,000 years of Azolla planetary editing). Three records.
    Three time scales. One mechanism: when a system is built to
    deliver, the system delivers (Cooper, Paper I, 2025);

    (j4) THIS IS NOT GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION.
    The government does not own farms, processing plants, or trucks.
    Division I operates distribution centers that contract with
    private Colorado agricultural producers at production cost plus a
    5 percent surcharge. The upstream supply chain stays entirely
    private. Currency continues for luxury, custom, and specialty
    goods. The Defense Commissary has operated this exact model since
    1867 without acquiring a single farm; the agency contracts with
    private suppliers and runs a retail point at cost. Costco operates
    a private-sector parallel: membership-based, volume purchasing,
    near-cost pricing on a defined basket. The contrast case is the
    New York City municipal grocery proposal advanced by Mayor Zohran
    Mamdani, which has the city own and operate the stores directly
    (the La Marqueta model). This Act does not adopt that model. This
    Act provides a floor. It does not replace the market;

    (j5) The retail collapse and autonomous freight are eliminating
    distribution and retail jobs regardless of this Act. Aurora
    Innovation operates driverless freight without a safety driver on
    public roads in the Dallas-Houston corridor today. Boston Dynamics
    Atlas runs 10-hour production shifts at Hyundai Motor Group
    today. Agility Digit has moved 100,000-plus totes in Amazon and
    GXO Logistics warehouses today. The bill does not cause the
    displacement. The bill catches displaced workers: Division I feeds
    them, and the companion Education and Public Service framework
    (tracked in Lane 3) will provide the developmental pipeline into
    whatever comes next. The commissary has truckers. At-cost
    distribution does not eliminate distribution labor. It eliminates
    the 75.7 percent markup on top of distribution labor. Adam Smith
    warned in The Wealth of Nations (1776) Book V Chapter I Part III
    Article II about exactly this person, "the man whose whole life is
    spent in performing a few simple operations" without education to
    match. The retail and trucking workforce displaced by the
    collapse Smith described is the workforce this Act catches;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WHY THE PROGRAM REACHES
    BEYOND BARE SURVIVAL:

    (k) Sir Michael Marmot's Whitehall Studies, commencing in 1967
    and continuing to the present with 10,308 British civil servants,
    established that among a population with universal healthcare,
    full employment, and no absolute poverty, the lowest employment
    grade experienced three times the mortality rate of the highest
    grade. Standard risk factors (smoking, cholesterol, blood pressure)
    explained less than 40 percent of the gradient. Low control at
    work was the largest single factor. Hierarchy itself, independent
    of absolute material deprivation, produces lethal health outcomes
    [SOURCE: Marmot, Whitehall I and II; Marmot, The Status Syndrome
    2004];

    (l) Dr. Robert Sapolsky's 30-year study of wild baboon populations
    in the Serengeti demonstrated that subordinate social position
    produces chronically elevated cortisol, atherosclerosis, immune
    suppression, and cognitive impairment. When a tuberculosis outbreak
    eliminated the most aggressive males from a troop, the hierarchy
    collapsed, and the surviving subordinates' cortisol levels
    normalized. The biology followed the social structure [SOURCE:
    Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers 1994; Behave 2017];

    (m) Dr. Carol Shively's 30-year study of female cynomolgus
    macaques at Wake Forest University demonstrated that subordinate
    social status directly causes visceral fat accumulation,
    atherosclerosis, and coronary artery disease, with cingulate cortex
    serotonin identified as the neurological nexus linking depression
    to cardiovascular disease [SOURCE: Shively 2009; 2014];

    (n) Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in
    Physiology or Medicine, demonstrated that chronic psychological
    stress shortens telomeres, the protective caps on chromosomal DNA,
    accelerating cellular aging. Caregivers of chronically ill children
    had measurably shorter telomeres proportional to years of stress.
    Subordination ages the body at the molecular level [SOURCE:
    Blackburn and Epel, The Telomere Effect 2017];

    (o) THE GAP IS THE GRADIENT. The gap is not the deprivation. The
    findings of Marmot, Sapolsky, Shively, and Blackburn collectively
    establish that the mortality and morbidity gradient is produced
    by hierarchy itself, not by absolute scarcity. Treating sickness
    downstream of an untreated gradient is documented to fail across
    four programs, six decades, three species. Hierarchy itself kills.
    A food and commodity assurance program that compresses the
    gradient at its base, at the level of daily caloric and material
    access, is therefore a public-health intervention with measurable
    physiological consequence, not a transfer payment;

    (p) THE TARGETING ERROR (Bowles-Gintis Corner-Trap). Samuel
    Bowles and Herbert Gintis named the right disease at the wrong
    site in Schooling in Capitalist America (1976). Stratification is
    the ocean, not the cup. The gradient is the disease; any single
    institution is downstream of it. Hierarchy itself kills, and the
    gradient runs through every institution. Targeting any single
    institution as the cause misses the structural mechanism (Cooper,
    Paper V, 2025). Division I addresses the mechanism at the point
    of daily caloric access, the most upstream intervention available
    to a state legislature;

    (q) UNIVERSE 25 REBUTTAL. The Calhoun mouse experiment ("Universe
    25") is frequently invoked against any abundance-distribution
    proposal. The argument is a misread. Calhoun's mice collapsed not
    because they had abundance, but because abundance arrived without
    institutional infrastructure: food, water, nesting material, and
    space, with no education, no governance, no intergenerational
    transmission, no civic role. Abundance of resources plus abundance
    of ease produces Universe 25. Abundance of resources plus
    structured civic obligation produces the Augustus annona (400
    years), the Defense Commissary (159 years), and the Mabu Co
    settlement (800 years). The Roman grain dole was distributed to
    citizens who had civic obligations: military service, public
    works, jury duty, voting. The commissary is distributed to
    military families inside an institution that defines daily
    structure. The institutional scaffolding is what distinguishes
    sustainable abundance from collapse;

    (r) THE PROGRAM REACHES BEYOND BARE SURVIVAL because the
    physiology requires it. Marmot, Sapolsky, Shively, and Blackburn
    established that the gradient itself produces measurable disease
    and mortality. Compressing the gradient at the point of daily
    material access is the only intervention available at the
    upstream end. The companion Education and Public Service
    legislation, tracked in Lane 3 and prepared separately, will
    address the downstream developmental requirements. This Act
    addresses the upstream physiological one. Denial is no longer
    neutral.

    (2) The General Assembly further finds that the food and commodity
    assurance program established in this Act is the foundation upon
    which the companion Education and Public Service legislation will
    rest. Material insecurity is the upstream constraint that no
    downstream policy can compensate for: students cannot learn
    food-insecure, workers cannot train food-insecure, citizens cannot
    participate food-insecure. This Act resolves the upstream
    constraint. The companion Education bill (Lane 3, in preparation)
    will resolve the downstream developmental one.

DIVISION I, COLORADO FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE

SECTION 2. Article 32.5 of Title 35, Colorado Revised Statutes, is added to read:

ARTICLE 32.5 Colorado Food Assurance Program

35-32.5-101. Short title.

    This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Colorado Food
    Assurance Act."

35-32.5-102. Definitions.

    As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

    (1) "At-cost pricing" means the price of a food product calculated
    as the sum of the direct production cost paid to the producer or
    supplier plus a facility surcharge not to exceed five percent (5%)
    of the production cost, with no additional profit margin, markup,
    or marketing cost applied.

    (2) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of agriculture.

    (3) "Department" means the Colorado Department of Agriculture.

    (4) "Food assurance center" means a state-operated facility
    established under this article for the purpose of distributing food
    products to Colorado residents at at-cost pricing.

    (5) "Facility surcharge" means a charge not to exceed five percent
    (5%) of the production cost of a food product, applied to cover the
    operational costs of a food assurance center, including but not
    limited to facility maintenance, labor, utilities, and
    transportation.

    (6) "Production cost" means the cost of producing a food product
    as determined by the department based on wholesale acquisition
    price from producers, cooperatives, or the most proximate point in
    the supply chain to the point of original production.

35-32.5-103. Colorado food assurance program; creation; purpose.

    (1) There is hereby created in the Department of Agriculture the
    Colorado food assurance program.

    (2) The purpose of the program is to establish state-operated food
    distribution centers where all Colorado residents may purchase the
    full range of grocery products at at-cost pricing, modeled on the
    United States military commissary system as authorized by 10
    U.S.C. § 2484 and as operated by the Defense Commissary Agency
    continuously since 1867.

    (3) The program shall:

        (a) Establish and operate food assurance centers throughout
        the state of Colorado;

        (b) Purchase food products directly from Colorado producers,
        cooperatives, and wholesale suppliers at or near production
        cost;

        (c) Sell food products to Colorado residents at at-cost
        pricing as defined in section 35-32.5-102;

        (d) Prioritize procurement from Colorado farms and ranches to
        the maximum extent practicable;

        (e) Accept all forms of payment including but not limited to
        cash, electronic benefit transfer (EBT), Supplemental Nutrition
        Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and Women, Infants, and
        Children (WIC) vouchers;

        (f) Operate without profit motive, with all revenue above
        operational costs reinvested in program expansion.

35-32.5-104. Pilot food assurance centers; locations; timeline.

    (1) Within two (2) years of the effective date of this article,
    the department shall establish not fewer than five (5) pilot food
    assurance centers in the following regions:

        (a) Two (2) centers in the Denver metropolitan area;

        (b) One (1) center in the Colorado Springs metropolitan area;

        (c) One (1) center in the Northern Colorado region, including
        but not limited to the Fort Collins-Loveland-Greeley corridor;

        (d) One (1) center in the Western Slope region, including but
        not limited to Grand Junction, Montrose, or Durango.

    (2) Within five (5) years of the effective date of this article,
    the department shall expand the program to not fewer than twenty
    (20) food assurance centers statewide, with at least one center in
    each congressional district and at least three (3) centers serving
    rural communities as defined by the department.

    (3) The department shall prioritize locations with the highest
    rates of food insecurity, the greatest distances to existing
    grocery retail, and the largest populations residing in food
    deserts.

35-32.5-105. Colorado food assurance fund; creation.

    (1) There is hereby created in the state treasury the Colorado
    food assurance fund.

    (2) The fund shall consist of:

        (a) Moneys appropriated by the General Assembly;

        (b) Revenue from facility surcharges collected by food
        assurance centers;

        (c) Grants, gifts, and donations from any source, public or
        private;

        (d) Any federal funds made available for food distribution
        programs.

    (3) Moneys in the fund are continuously appropriated to the
    department for the purposes of this article.

    (4) The department shall maintain separate accounting for each
    food assurance center and shall publish annual financial reports
    demonstrating the production cost, facility surcharge, and total
    cost to consumers for each product category.

35-32.5-106. Colorado producer priority.

    (1) The department shall establish procurement protocols that
    prioritize Colorado-produced food products. Not less than fifty
    percent (50%) of the total wholesale acquisition value of food
    products purchased by food assurance centers shall be from
    Colorado producers in the first three (3) years, increasing to
    not less than sixty-five percent (65%) by the fifth year.

    (2) The department shall establish guaranteed purchase contracts
    with Colorado farms, ranches, and cooperatives to provide stable
    revenue for Colorado agricultural producers and to reduce producer
    dependence on commodity market price volatility.

35-32.5-107. Reporting.

    (1) The department shall submit an annual report to the General
    Assembly by January 31 of each year, beginning the second year
    after the effective date of this article, containing:

        (a) The number and locations of food assurance centers in
        operation;

        (b) Total sales volume and number of customers served;

        (c) Average savings per customer compared to commercial retail
        pricing;

        (d) Percentage of procurement from Colorado producers;

        (e) Operational costs and surcharge revenue;

        (f) Progress toward self-sufficiency through surcharge revenue;

        (g) Impact on SNAP benefit utilization rates in served areas.

SECTION 3. Part 4 of Article 46 of Title 24, Colorado Revised Statutes, is added to read:

PART 4 COLORADO ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM

24-46-401. Short title.

    This part shall be known and may be cited as the "Colorado
    Essential Goods Act."

24-46-402. Definitions.

    As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:

    (1) "Below-retail pricing" means a price calculated as the
    production cost plus a surcharge not to exceed ten percent (10%)
    of the production cost.

    (2) "Essential goods" means basic consumer products necessary for
    daily life, including but not limited to:

        (a) Clothing and footwear;

        (b) Household cleaning and maintenance supplies;

        (c) Personal hygiene products;

        (d) School and educational supplies;

        (e) Basic home furnishings;

        (f) Basic tools and hardware.

    (3) "Office" means the Colorado Office of Economic Development
    and International Trade.

24-46-403. Colorado essential goods program; creation; purpose.

    (1) There is hereby created in the Office of Economic Development
    and International Trade the Colorado essential goods program.

    (2) The purpose of the program is to create procurement contracts
    with Colorado manufacturers to produce and distribute essential
    goods at below-retail pricing through the food assurance centers
    established under article 32.5 of title 35 and through dedicated
    distribution points established under this part.

    (3) The program shall:

        (a) Identify essential goods categories suitable for Colorado
        manufacturing;

        (b) Establish guaranteed purchase contracts with Colorado
        manufacturers to produce essential goods at production cost;

        (c) Distribute essential goods at below-retail pricing through
        food assurance centers and through dedicated distribution
        points;

        (d) Stimulate Colorado's advanced manufacturing sector through
        guaranteed demand contracts.

    (4) The United States has approximately 293,000 manufacturing
    facilities, of which 10,000 to 15,000 would suffice for universal
    material abundance. Colorado's advanced manufacturing sector has
    the capacity to meet the state's essential goods requirements
    through targeted procurement [SOURCE: Federal Reserve G.17; Cooper,
    Paper III, 2025].

24-46-404. Distribution model.

    (1) The distribution of essential goods shall follow a tiered
    structure adapted from the at-cost universal-service model
    operated by the Defense Commissary Agency:

        (a) Constant-need goods, including food and consumable
        supplies, shall be distributed on a recurring basis through
        food assurance centers;

        (b) Semi-permanent goods, including clothing and household
        supplies, shall be distributed on a need-based schedule with
        reasonable limits established by rule to prevent hoarding;

        (c) Currency continues for luxury, custom, and specialty goods
        not covered by the essential goods program. This Act provides
        a floor. It does not replace the market.

24-46-405. Reporting.

    (1) The office shall submit an annual report to the General
    Assembly by January 31 of each year, beginning the second year
    after the effective date of this part, containing:

        (a) Total procurement volume and value of contracts awarded
        to Colorado manufacturers;

        (b) Number and types of essential goods distributed;

        (c) Average savings per consumer compared to commercial retail
        pricing;

        (d) Number of Colorado manufacturing jobs created or sustained
        through program contracts.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

SECTION 4. Appropriation and fiscal convergence.

    (1) For the fiscal year 2027-28, the following sums are
    appropriated from the general fund to the departments indicated:

        (a) To the Department of Agriculture, for the Colorado food
        assurance program established in section 35-32.5-103:
        FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS ($50,000,000);

        (b) To the Office of Economic Development and International
        Trade, for the Colorado essential goods program established
        in section 24-46-403:
        TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS ($20,000,000);

        (c) TOTAL APPROPRIATION:
        SEVENTY MILLION DOLLARS ($70,000,000).

    (2) The total startup appropriation of $70,000,000 represents
    approximately 0.40 percent of Colorado's $17.4 billion General
    Fund for fiscal year 2026-27 [SOURCE: HB 26-1410 Long Bill, signed
    Polis April 2026].

    (3) DIVISION I FOOD PROGRAM TARGET. The at-cost food assurance
    program established in Division I, serving Colorado's population
    of 6,012,561 [SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025, January 27
    2026], scales over seven years toward an annual operating target
    of approximately $1.858 billion per year (at $309 per resident per
    year for a baseline staple basket distributed at the commissary
    at-cost methodology). The target represents approximately 10.7
    percent of the $17.4 billion FY2026-27 General Fund and
    approximately 4.0 percent of the $46.8 billion total state budget
    [SOURCE: HB 26-1410]. The Table 2 per-capita target applies
    because Colorado's state-only General Fund per-capita expenditure
    is $2,894 ($17.4B / 6.01M residents). The expansion goal of $609
    per resident per year (approximately $3.66 billion per year, 21.0
    percent of GF or 7.8 percent of total) is retained as the
    multi-decade horizon once the program achieves operational
    self-sufficiency through volume surcharges.

    (4) THE FEDERAL SNAP COST-SHIFT. Federal H.R. 1 (2025) shifted
    SNAP administrative costs onto the states effective October 1
    2026. Colorado currently routes approximately $1.44 billion per
    year in SNAP benefits through commercial retailers where 75.7
    cents of every food dollar pays for markup rather than food
    [SOURCE: USDA ERS Food Dollar Series]. At at-cost routing through
    Division I, approximately 95 cents of every dollar reaches the
    recipient as food (production cost plus 5 percent surcharge), a
    3.9-fold increase in delivered food value per SNAP dollar that
    independently offsets the federal cost-shift.

    (5) THE FISCAL CONVERGENCE. The arithmetic says ending the gap
    costs single-digit percentage of the markup the state already
    pays. The operational template has run for one hundred fifty-nine
    years inside the same federal apparatus the state already funds.
    Colorado is not asked to attempt something untested. Colorado is
    asked to deliver to its own residents what its veterans have
    received since 1867.

    (6) TABOR AND CONSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT. TABOR (Colorado
    Constitution Article X § 20) constrains revenue but does not
    constrain the redirection of existing state expenditure toward a
    more efficient distribution model. This Act does not raise
    taxes. This Act redirects existing SNAP expenditure plus a startup
    allocation through a distribution channel that delivers 3.9 times
    the food value per dollar. The fiscal question is not whether to
    spend, but whether to continue spending the markup on the less
    efficient version of the same program while the federal
    government shifts administrative cost onto the state. Denial is
    no longer neutral.

SECTION 5. Severability.

    If any provision of this Act or the application thereof to any
    person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity shall not
    affect other provisions or applications of this Act which can be
    given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to
    this end the provisions of this Act are declared to be severable.

SECTION 6. Safety clause.

    The General Assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that
    this Act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public
    peace, health, and safety.

SECTION 7. Effective dates.

    (1) Division I (Colorado Food Assurance Program): This division
    takes effect July 1, 2027. Pilot food assurance centers shall be
    operational within two (2) years of the effective date. Statewide
    expansion to twenty centers shall be operational within five (5)
    years.

    (2) Colorado Essential Goods Program: This part takes effect July
    1, 2027, with first procurement contracts awarded within one (1)
    year of the effective date.

SECTION 8. Repeal of conflicting provisions.

    All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this Act are hereby
    repealed.

REFERENCES

The research and citations incorporated in this Act include but are not limited to:

COOPER, HISTORICAL APOPLEXY SERIES (2025-2026): - Cooper, Imran Stanton. Historical Apoplexy: On the Stroke-Like Loss of Civilizational Memory and the Deliberate Severance of Intellectual Lineage. Paper I (December 2025). - Cooper, Imran Stanton. Historical Apoplexy: Historical Arc. Paper II (January 2026). - Cooper, Imran Stanton. The Mathematics of Abundance: Two Proofs That Scarcity Is a Policy Choice. Paper III (December 2025). - Cooper, Imran Stanton. Stolen Futures: The Intergenerational Theft of Technical Possibility. Paper IV (December 2025). - Cooper, Imran Stanton. The Targeting Error. Paper V (2026). - Cooper, Imran Stanton. The Resuscitation Document. Paper VI (2026). - Cooper, Imran Stanton. The Structural Overload. Paper VII (2026). - Cooper, Imran Stanton. Venus Prime: Biological Planetary Engineering and the Venus Biosphere Thesis. Paper VIII (2026). - Cooper, Imran Stanton. The Maturity Void: Subclinical Affluence Pathology and the Developmental Arrest of the Middle Class. Paper X (2026).

FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE PRIMARY SOURCES: - Penck, Albrecht. Earth carrying capacity calculation (1925). - Cohen, Joel. How Many People Can the Earth Support? (1995). - United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Food Dollar Series; Household Food Security in the United States in 2023 (December 2024). - Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), operational since 1867, codified at 10 U.S.C. § 2484. Government Accountability Office, Defense Commissaries: DOD Needs to Improve Business Practices and Assess Alternative Business Models, GAO-19-344 (2019). - Federal Reserve Board, Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization (G.17). - Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, manufacturing establishments by subsector (Q4 2024). - Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Affluent Society (1958). - Veblen, Thorstein. The Engineers and the Price System (1921). - Feeding America. Map the Meal Gap (2025). - USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2024 Colorado Agricultural Statistics Bulletin. - Feeding Colorado; Food Bank of the Rockies. - KFF. Health Provisions in the 2025 Federal Budget Reconciliation Bill (July 2025).

PUBLIC HEALTH AND HIERARCHY (PHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENTIARY BLOCK): - Marmot, Michael. Whitehall Studies I and II (1967 to present); The Status Syndrome (2004); The Health Gap (2015); WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (2005-2008). - Sapolsky, Robert. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (1994); Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017). - Shively, Carol. Social Stress, Visceral Obesity, and Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis (2009); Stress, Depression, and Coronary Artery Disease (2014). - Blackburn, Elizabeth. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2009); The Telomere Effect (2017, with Epel). - Bowles, Samuel and Gintis, Herbert. Schooling in Capitalist America (1976). - Calhoun, John B. Universe 25 mouse experiment (1968-1973); see also Cooper, Paper X (2026) for the rebuttal-by-institutional-scaffolding.

HISTORICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PRECEDENT: - Suetonius. Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Life of Augustus 27 (Pinarius episode). Loeb Classical Library. - Appian. Civil Wars 4.5 (Triumviral proscriptions). - Cassius Dio. Roman History (annona and alimenta). - Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XI 1147 (Tabula Alimentaria from Veleia, Parma Museum). - Yang, Y., et al. Lake-centred sedentary lifestyle of early Tibetan Plateau Indigenous populations at high elevation 4,400 years ago. Nature Ecology & Evolution, volume 8, pages 2297-2308 (September 2024). - Brinkhuis, H., et al. Episodic fresh surface waters in the Eocene Arctic Ocean. Nature 441, pages 606-609 (2006).

FEDERAL AND STRUCTURAL: - Congressional Research Service. Government Shutdowns: Frequently Asked Questions (updated 2025). - 10 U.S.C. § 2484 (Defense Commissary Agency pricing requirements). - H.R. 1 (2025), 119th Congress (SNAP administrative cost-shift). - Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, 46 Stat. 26. - gfs.bern. Swiss Federal Council citizen-trust surveys (1848 to present).

COLORADO-SPECIFIC SOURCES: - Colorado Secretary of State, Initiative Signature Requirements (2023-2026). - Colorado General Assembly, How to File Initiatives. - Colorado Revised Statutes, Titles 1, 24, and 35. - Colorado Department of Agriculture. - Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. - Colorado Sun; Chalkbeat Colorado; Colorado Newsline; Colorado Politics; Grand Junction Sentinel; National Association of State Budget Officers (Colorado Budget page); FY2026-27 enacted budget ($46.8B total / $17.4B GF, HB 26-1410, Polis April 2026). - U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 State Population Estimates (January 27, 2026): Colorado 6,012,561. - Lobato v. State, 304 P.3d 1132 (Colo. 2013). - Colorado Constitution Article IX § 2 (thorough and uniform system of free public schools). - Colorado Constitution Article X § 20 (TABOR). - Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation (SMRF), Colorado DPOS registration (2016).

END OF BILL

COLORADO FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT

Scarcity is a Policy Choice.

Prepared for the Seventy-Fifth General Assembly of the State of Colorado, Second Regular Session.

Version 2. Originally drafted 2015-2016 (Colorado, SMRF). Updated 2026 (Historical Apoplexy series, Cooper).

Filed by: _________________ [Sponsor or Proponent] Address: _________________ [Colorado address required] Date: ___________________

---

Verification notes & full source chain

Constitutional path: Citizen-initiative-capable.

Distribution-model precedent: The U.S. Defense Commissary Agency (10 U.S.C. § 2484), operational since 1867, sells groceries at cost plus a five-percent maintenance surcharge with no profit allowed by law. 2.8 million authorized users, 236 stores worldwide, $4 billion annual sales, $1.3 billion federal appropriation paid by all taxpayers including the 330+ million civilians denied access. This bill extends the same at-cost distribution model to all residents of Colorado.

Public-health-equity evidence: The Marmot Whitehall Studies (1967-present), Sapolsky's Serengeti baboons, Shively's cynomolgus macaques, and Blackburn's Nobel-winning telomere research establish that hierarchy itself kills across four research programmes, six decades, and three species. The gap is the gradient. Food assurance reaches beyond bare survival because the gradient damages population health even where calorie minimums are met.

Abundance arithmetic: 293,000 U.S. manufacturing facilities at 77 percent utilization; 19.5-29.3× the productive overcapacity required to provide universal abundance in consumer goods. 47.9 million Americans food-insecure; $32 billion ends domestic hunger; $496 billion is the annual U.S. food-industry markup over production cost; the gap is operational evidence of manufactured scarcity, not evidence of resource constraint. See Paper III, The Mathematics of Abundance.

Benchmark source: The Colorado proposal was originally drafted in 2016 through the Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation. See the SMRF acceptance letter (Colorado DPOS, September 7, 2016) at /assets/smrf-acceptance-letter.pdf and the SMRF page at /smrf.