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

FLORIDA FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT

                       SCARCITY IS A POLICY CHOICE

Filed with the Florida Secretary of State Prepared for review by the Florida Supreme Court pursuant to Article IV, Section 10, Florida Constitution (Advisory Opinion on Ballot Language Clarity)

Version 2, Florida adaptation (Cromwell-Mode re-weave and Option B restructure, 2026-05-21). This petition is the companion constitutional-amendment version of the food-only Florida Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act. Originally drafted 2015-2016 as the Colorado food assurance bill.

Initiative Type: Constitutional Amendment Initiative

Signature Requirement: 880,062 valid signatures (Eight percent of the approximately 11.0 million votes cast for all candidates for the office of President of the United States at the November 2024 general election in the State of Florida; Florida Division of Elections, 2026 Petition Signature Requirements)

Supermajority Requirement: Sixty percent (60%) approval required for adoption, pursuant to Article XI, Section 5(e), Florida Constitution, as amended by Amendment 3 (2006)

Single-Subject Requirement: This initiative addresses a single subject, the establishment of a state food and commodity assurance program, as required by Article XI, Section 3, Florida Constitution. The food assurance program and the essential goods program are two expressions of one subject: the at-cost provision of staple commodities to Florida residents through state-operated distribution centers.

Financial Impact Statement Required: A Financial Impact Statement prepared by the Financial Impact Estimating Conference is required before signature collection may begin, pursuant to section 100.371, Florida Statutes.

BALLOT TITLE

SHALL THE STATE OF FLORIDA AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO ESTABLISH THE FLORIDA FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH:

    (1) CREATING A FLORIDA FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM OPERATED BY THE
    DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES TO SELL GROCERY
    PRODUCTS AT AT-COST PRICING TO ALL FLORIDA RESIDENTS THROUGH
    STATE-OPERATED FOOD ASSURANCE CENTERS, THE STATE PURCHASING
    WHOLESALE FROM EXISTING FLORIDA FARMS, PRODUCERS, AND SUPPLIERS
    AND NATIONALIZING NO INDUSTRY, WITH NOT FEWER THAN SEVEN PILOT
    CENTERS WITHIN TWO YEARS IN MIAMI-DADE, ORLANDO, TAMPA,
    JACKSONVILLE, AND PENSACOLA, AND THIRTY CENTERS STATEWIDE WITHIN
    FIVE YEARS, MODELED ON THE 159-YEAR MILITARY COMMISSARY PRECEDENT
    OPERATING AT MACDILL AFB (CENTCOM AND SOCOM), NAS JACKSONVILLE,
    NAS PENSACOLA, AND OTHER FLORIDA INSTALLATIONS, AND DESIGNED TO
    SERVE AS HURRICANE AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS INFRASTRUCTURE;

    (2) CREATING A FLORIDA ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM THROUGH THE
    DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY TO PRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE
    CLOTHING, HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES, HYGIENE PRODUCTS, AND OTHER
    ESSENTIAL GOODS AT BELOW-RETAIL PRICING, WITH EMPHASIS ON
    SUPPORTING FLORIDA MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT;

    (3) APPROPRIATING FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS
    ($530,000,000) INITIALLY FROM THE GENERAL REVENUE FUND,
    REPRESENTING APPROXIMATELY 1.05 PERCENT OF THE STATE'S
    APPROXIMATELY $50.3 BILLION GENERAL REVENUE FUND, SCALING TOWARD
    FULL COVERAGE OVER FIVE YEARS, WITH NO NEW TAXES CREATED AND NO
    STATE INCOME TAX REQUIRED OR PROPOSED?

SUBMISSION CLAUSE

    [ ] YES, FOR THE AMENDMENT

    [ ] NO, AGAINST THE AMENDMENT

75-WORD BALLOT SUMMARY

(Required by Florida law; the Florida Supreme Court reviews for clarity)

Establishes at-cost food and essential-commodity distribution through state-operated centers that purchase wholesale from existing Florida farms, producers, and suppliers, modeled on the 159-year military commissary. Directs not fewer than seven pilot centers within two years and thirty statewide within five years, built to serve as hurricane and disaster-preparedness infrastructure. Appropriates $530 million initially, about 1.05 percent of general revenue. Creates no new taxes and requires no state income tax.

[Word count: 69, within the 75-word limit]

BALLOT TEXT

This measure amends the Florida Constitution and directs the Legislature to create the Florida Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, creating sections within chapter 570 and chapter 288, Florida Statutes.

FLORIDA FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE

The Legislature shall create:

    - A Florida Food Assurance Program operated by the Department of
      Agriculture and Consumer Services, establishing state-operated
      food distribution centers where all Florida residents may
      purchase the full range of grocery products at at-cost pricing
      (production cost plus a facility surcharge not exceeding 5
      percent). The state purchases food from existing companies at
      wholesale. No company is nationalized, no production is seized,
      and every brand remains available;

    - Not fewer than seven pilot centers within two years: two in
      Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach (including service to
      Immokalee agricultural communities), two in Orlando and Central
      Florida (the I-4 corridor), one in Tampa Bay (near MacDill
      AFB), one in Jacksonville (near NAS Jacksonville), and one in
      Pensacola and Northwest Florida (near NAS Pensacola);

    - Expansion to thirty statewide centers within five years, with
      at least one center per congressional district;

    - Hurricane and disaster preparedness: all centers built to
      Florida Building Code hurricane standards, with surge-capacity
      protocols activated within 24 hours of a declared emergency;

    - Florida-first procurement: 50 percent Florida-sourced within
      three years, increasing to 70 percent within five years;

    - Tribal consultation: centers serving Seminole or Miccosukee
      communities developed in government-to-government partnership;

    - A Florida 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 Economic Research Service Food Dollar Series, measuring the entire United States grocery industry, every retailer and every brand from premium to generic, establishes the farm share of the food dollar at 24.3 cents, with 75.7 cents in markup. This is the industry-wide structural average, not data from expensive stores. The United States military commissary system has operated at-cost food distribution for 159 years under 10 U.S.C. Section 2484, operating at MacDill AFB (the headquarters of US Central Command and US Special Operations Command), NAS Jacksonville, NAS Pensacola, Patrick SFB, Eglin AFB, and other Florida installations. Florida is a leading agricultural state, first in national production of oranges, grapefruit, sugarcane, and fresh-market tomatoes, with output that exceeds its population's food requirements. Approximately 3.2 million Floridians (13.5 percent) experience food insecurity. The state distributes approximately $4.2 billion annually in SNAP benefits through commercial retailers.

THE CAPITALISM DISTINCTION: This program does not seize production. It does not place farms under government ownership. It does not eliminate private companies. The contrast case is the municipal-grocery model advanced by New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, in which a city government owns and operates the store itself. This act is the opposite model: a wholesale purchaser that contracts with private producers and displaces none of them. Companies keep their profits. Workers keep their jobs. The state removes the consumer markup by buying in bulk, the same way the Defense Commissary Agency and Costco already do.

WHY THIS PROGRAM REACHES BEYOND BARE SURVIVAL: Sixty years of research across four programs and three species, the Whitehall Studies (Marmot), the Serengeti baboon studies (Sapolsky), the macaque studies (Shively), and the Nobel-recognized telomere work (Blackburn), establish that poverty and social hierarchy are not merely economic conditions but medical conditions with documented physiological pathways. The gap is the gradient, not the deprivation. Hierarchy itself kills. Food and commodity assurance is therefore a public health intervention with quantifiable healthcare cost reduction potential. This is why the program reaches every resident, not the indigent alone.

APPROPRIATION:

    Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
    (food assurance: pilot centers and procurement):    $500,000,000
    Department of Economic Opportunity
    (essential goods program):                           $30,000,000
    TOTAL INITIAL APPROPRIATION:                         $530,000,000

    This initial total represents approximately 1.05 percent of
    Florida's $50.3 billion general revenue fund and approximately
    0.46 percent of the total state budget of approximately $114.77
    billion (enacted FY2025-26 budget after vetoes).

    FULL-SCALE TARGET: $309 per person per year times approximately
    23.4 million residents equals approximately $7.2 billion per
    year, approximately 14.3 percent of the general revenue fund at
    full coverage, scaled over five years. The approximately $4.2
    billion in annual SNAP benefits, rerouted through the program,
    offsets a substantial portion before any new appropriation.

    NO NEW TAXES. NO STATE INCOME TAX. This act is funded entirely
    from existing general revenue sources. The food assurance program
    is designed to approach self-sufficiency within five to seven
    years through volume surcharges and SNAP rerouting offset.

EFFECTIVE DATE: The Florida Food Assurance Program and the Florida Essential Goods Program take effect July 1, 2028, with pilot food assurance centers operational within two years.

SEVERABILITY: If any provision is held invalid, the remaining provisions continue in effect.

TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY: Nothing in this act diminishes any treaty right or sovereign authority of the Seminole Tribe of Florida or the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. The Seminole Tribe never signed a peace treaty with the United States. Partnership, never imposition.

PROPONENT STATEMENT

This initiative proposes a state food and commodity assurance program built on a federal operating model that has run for 159 years.

THE PROBLEM: Florida is a leading agricultural state, first in national production of oranges, grapefruit, sugarcane, and fresh-market tomatoes, yet approximately 3.2 million Floridians cannot consistently feed themselves. The USDA documents that 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup, not food. That figure comes from the entire grocery industry, every retailer and every brand, premium to generic. The military commissary has distributed food at cost for 159 years to military families at MacDill AFB, NAS Jacksonville, NAS Pensacola, and every other Florida base. The Florida taxpayers who fund it are denied access.

THE IMMOKALEE PARADOX: In Immokalee, Florida, the tomato capital of the United States, migrant farmworkers harvest roughly 90 percent of America's winter tomatoes while food-insecure themselves. Two hundred miles north, the MacDill AFB commissary sells food at cost to military families. The people who pick the tomatoes cannot afford the tomatoes. The taxpayers who fund the commissary cannot shop there.

THE DISNEY PARADOX: Walt Disney World employs more than 75,000 people, many at wages that qualify for SNAP. Florida's tourism industry generates more than $100 billion annually through workers who serve abundance to visitors while qualifying for food assistance themselves.

THE HURRICANE ARGUMENT: Every major hurricane empties Florida's grocery stores within 48 hours. Hurricane Ian cost roughly $110 billion. A permanent food assurance network with state-level warehousing and regional distribution centers is disaster preparedness infrastructure: it serves daily and during emergencies.

THE NO-TAX ARGUMENT: Florida has no state income tax. This act does not create one. This act does not create any new taxes. This is a market-efficiency program: the state buys wholesale and sells at cost, removing the 75.7 percent markup. It saves money by removing the middleman markup rather than spending money to subsidize it.

THE CAPITALISM DISTINCTION: This is not a command economy. The contrast case is the municipal-grocery model in which a city government owns and operates the store itself. This program does the opposite: it purchases from private producers at wholesale. The USDA data covers every company in the grocery industry, premium brands, generic brands, and everything in between. The program keeps every company in the loop and buys from them. Companies keep their profits. Workers keep their jobs. The state removes the consumer markup by buying in bulk, the same way the Defense Commissary Agency and Costco already do. The distinction is absolute.

THE STRUCTURAL ARGUMENT FOR STATE ACTION: The federal government has shut down 22 times since 1976; the 2025 shutdown ran 43 days, the longest in U.S. history. Federal H.R. 1 (2025) shifts the state share of SNAP administrative cost from 50 percent to 75 percent effective October 1, 2026. The State of Florida must act because the federal government cannot deliver at the scale and cadence this program requires.

WHY THE PROGRAM REACHES BEYOND BARE SURVIVAL: Sixty years of research, the Whitehall Studies, the Serengeti baboon studies, the macaque studies, and the Nobel-recognized telomere work, establish that poverty and social hierarchy damage the body at the cellular level. The gap is the gradient. Hierarchy itself kills. Food assurance is therefore a public health intervention as well as an economic-efficiency measure, and the state has a direct and measurable interest in the food security of every resident.

THE COST: $530 million initial appropriation, about 1.05 percent of Florida's $50.3 billion general revenue fund. Scales toward full coverage over five years. No new taxes. No income tax. Florida currently spends approximately $4.2 billion annually on SNAP benefits routed through commercial retailers, where 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup. At-cost pricing delivers roughly four times the food value per benefit dollar. Florida is not asked to attempt something untested. Florida is asked to deliver to its own residents what its veterans have received since 1867. Denial is no longer neutral.

Originally drafted 2015-2016 (Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation, Colorado DPOS registration). Adapted to Florida 2026 (Historical Apoplexy series, Cooper, 2025-2026).

FISCAL IMPACT SUMMARY

(Prepared for the Financial Impact Estimating Conference pursuant to section 100.371, Florida Statutes)

INITIAL APPROPRIATION: $530,000,000 from the general revenue fund for fiscal year 2028-29.

PERCENTAGE OF GENERAL REVENUE FUND: approximately 1.05 percent of the approximately $50.3 billion general revenue fund (FY2025-26).

PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL STATE BUDGET: approximately 0.46 percent of the approximately $114.77 billion enacted FY2025-26 budget after vetoes.

FULL-SCALE TARGET: $309 per person per year times approximately 23.4 million residents equals approximately $7.2 billion per year, approximately 14.3 percent of the general revenue fund at full coverage. Scaled over five years; SNAP rerouting (approximately $4.2 billion) offsets a substantial portion.

BREAKDOWN (initial appropriation):

    Food Assurance Program:                 $500,000,000
    Essential Goods Program:                 $30,000,000

PROJECTED ONGOING COSTS:

    Food assurance operations: estimated $50 to $65 million annually
    during the expansion phase (years 3 through 7), declining toward
    self-sufficiency through volume surcharges.

PROJECTED SAVINGS:

    SNAP efficiency: at-cost pricing delivers roughly four times the
    food value per benefit dollar, reducing the effective SNAP
    expenditure from the $4.2 billion annual baseline.

    Healthcare cost reduction: improved nutrition and reduced
    hierarchy stress are projected to offset program costs over time,
    based on Marmot's documentation of hierarchy-related healthcare
    utilization.

    Hurricane preparedness offset: permanent food distribution
    infrastructure reduces post-hurricane emergency procurement
    costs, currently estimated at $200 to $400 million per major
    hurricane event.

REVENUE CONTEXT:

    Florida has no state income tax (Article VII, Section 5, Florida
    Constitution). This act does not create or require an income tax.
    Revenue sources: sales tax (6 percent), corporate income tax (5.5
    percent), documentary stamp tax, communications services tax,
    tourism development taxes, and other existing sources.

    Florida enacted FY2025-26 budget after vetoes: approximately
    $114.77 billion (Florida Policy Institute, July 2025)
    Florida general revenue fund: approximately $50.3 billion
    (FY2025-26; NASBO)
    Florida SNAP spending: approximately $4.2 billion annually
    Total initial appropriation as a share of total budget:
    approximately 0.46 percent

NO NEW TAXES ARE CREATED BY THIS ACT.

SIGNATURE LINES

I, the undersigned registered elector of the State of Florida, do hereby petition the Secretary of State to submit to the registered electors of the State of Florida an amendment to the Florida Constitution, concerning the establishment of the Florida Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, as set forth herein:

Print Name: ___________________________________________

Signature: ____________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________

Date: ___________________

County of Residence: __________________________________

(Repeat as needed; 880,062 valid signatures required) (60 percent supermajority required for adoption)

END OF BALLOT LANGUAGE

FLORIDA FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT Citizen Initiative Petition (Constitutional Amendment) Pursuant to Article XI, Section 3, Florida Constitution

Prepared by: The Amanuensis, theamanuensis.com Originally drafted: 2015-2016 (Cooper, SMRF, Colorado DPOS) Adapted to Florida: 2026

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