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

MICHIGAN FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT

                       SCARCITY IS A POLICY CHOICE

Filed with the Michigan Secretary of State Board of State Canvassers

Version 2. Originally drafted 2015-2016 (Colorado conception, Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation). Michigan adaptation March 2026. Option B restructure 2026-05-24.

Signature Requirement: 356,958 valid signatures (Eight per cent (8%) of the total votes cast for all candidates for governor at the November 8, 2022 general election, which totaled approximately 4,461,972 votes. Signatures must be collected within one hundred eighty (180) days of the filing date.)

PROCESS: This is an INDIRECT INITIATIVE under Article II, Section 9 of the Michigan Constitution. Upon collection and certification of 356,958 valid signatures, the proposed statute is submitted to the Michigan Legislature, which has forty (40) session days to enact or reject the proposal. If the Legislature enacts the initiated law, it becomes law and CANNOT be vetoed by the Governor. If the Legislature rejects or fails to act on the proposal within forty (40) session days, the proposed statute is placed on the ballot at the next general election, no additional signatures are required. An initiated law approved by the voters cannot be amended or repealed by the Legislature without a three-fourths (3/4) vote of each chamber.

PRECEDENT: Michigan voters have demonstrated aggressive and successful use of the citizen initiative process:

    - Proposal 1 (2018): Recreational marijuana, passed 56 percent.
    - Proposal 2 (2018): Independent redistricting (Voters Not
      Politicians), passed 61 percent.
    - Proposal 3 (2018): Expanded voting rights, passed 67 percent.
    - Proposal 3 (2022): Reproductive rights, passed 56.7 percent.

Michigan's initiative infrastructure is battle-hardened. The citizens bypass the Legislature when the Legislature will not act.

100-WORD SUMMARY (Required for Michigan ballot petitions):

This initiated law creates a Michigan Food Assurance Program selling grocery products at production cost through state-operated centers, modeled on the military commissary operating at Selfridge Air National Guard Base since 1867. Ten pilot centers within two years (three in Detroit food deserts, one in Flint, one in the Upper Peninsula, one adjacent to Selfridge), thirty centers statewide within five years. A Michigan Essential Goods Program at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation distributes clothing, household supplies, and basic necessities at below-retail pricing. Annual appropriation: one hundred twenty million dollars ($120,000,000), approximately 0.85 percent of the State General Fund.

BALLOT TITLE

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

    (1) CREATING A MICHIGAN FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM OPERATED BY THE
    DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT TO SELL GROCERY
    PRODUCTS AT AT-COST PRICING (PRODUCTION COST PLUS A FACILITY
    SURCHARGE NOT TO EXCEED FIVE PER CENT) TO ALL MICHIGAN RESIDENTS
    THROUGH STATE-OPERATED FOOD ASSURANCE CENTERS, WITH NOT FEWER THAN
    TEN PILOT CENTERS WITHIN TWO YEARS, INCLUDING THREE IN DETROIT'S
    FOOD DESERTS, ONE IN FLINT, ONE IN THE UPPER PENINSULA, AND ONE
    ADJACENT TO THE SELFRIDGE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE COMMISSARY THAT
    HAS SERVED MILITARY FAMILIES AT BELOW-RETAIL PRICES WHILE MICHIGAN
    CIVILIANS WERE DENIED ACCESS, AND THIRTY CENTERS STATEWIDE WITHIN
    FIVE YEARS, MODELED ON THE 159-YEAR MILITARY COMMISSARY PRECEDENT
    (10 U.S.C. SECTION 2484);

    (2) CREATING A MICHIGAN ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM THROUGH THE
    MICHIGAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION TO PRODUCE AND
    DISTRIBUTE CLOTHING, HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES, HYGIENE PRODUCTS, TOOLS,
    EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS, AND OTHER ESSENTIAL GOODS AT BELOW-RETAIL
    PRICING (PRODUCTION COST PLUS A SURCHARGE NOT TO EXCEED TEN PER
    CENT), USING MICHIGAN'S MANUFACTURING INFRASTRUCTURE, THE SAME
    ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY THAT BUILT THE VEHICLES THAT WON THE SECOND
    WORLD WAR;

    (3) REQUIRING MICHIGAN-FIRST PROCUREMENT OF NOT LESS THAN FIFTY
    PER CENT OF FOOD PRODUCTS WITHIN THREE YEARS AND SEVENTY PER CENT
    WITHIN FIVE YEARS, ESTABLISHING DIRECT SUPPLY CHAINS WITH MICHIGAN
    CHERRY ORCHARDS IN TRAVERSE CITY, ASPARAGUS FARMS IN OCEANA
    COUNTY, DRY-BEAN OPERATIONS IN THE THUMB, BLUEBERRY GROWERS ALONG
    THE LAKE MICHIGAN SHORE, SUGAR BEET PROCESSORS IN THE SAGINAW
    VALLEY, DAIRY OPERATIONS ACROSS THE LOWER PENINSULA, AND UPPER
    PENINSULA COMMERCIAL FISHING BOATS;

    (4) AUTHORIZING THE ACCEPTANCE OF SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION
    ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP) BENEFITS, WOMEN, INFANTS, AND CHILDREN
    (WIC) VOUCHERS, ELECTRONIC BENEFIT TRANSFER (EBT), CASH, AND
    DOUBLE UP FOOD BUCKS AT ALL FOOD ASSURANCE CENTERS, WITH AT-COST
    ROUTING DELIVERING APPROXIMATELY THREE-POINT-NINE TIMES MORE FOOD
    PER SNAP DOLLAR THAN COMMERCIAL RETAIL ROUTING, INDEPENDENTLY
    OFFSETTING THE FEDERAL H.R. 1 (2025) PUBLIC LAW 119-21 SNAP
    ADMINISTRATIVE COST-SHIFT FROM FIFTY PER CENT TO SEVENTY-FIVE PER
    CENT STATE SHARE EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1, 2026;

    (5) APPROPRIATING ONE HUNDRED TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS
    ($120,000,000) FROM THE STATE GENERAL FUND FOR FISCAL YEAR 2027-28
    FOR THE MICHIGAN FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM ($85,000,000) AND THE
    MICHIGAN ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM ($35,000,000), REPRESENTING
    APPROXIMATELY 0.85 PER CENT OF MICHIGAN'S GENERAL FUND OR 0.148
    PER CENT OF THE TOTAL STATE BUDGET.

SHALL THIS ACT BE ENACTED?

FISCAL IMPACT SUMMARY, (Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency standard)

DIRECT APPROPRIATION (FY2027-28):

    Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
      (Michigan food assurance program):           $85,000,000
    Michigan Economic Development Corporation
      (Michigan essential goods program):          $35,000,000
    TOTAL DIRECT APPROPRIATION:                   $120,000,000

CONTEXT:

    Michigan FY2026 General Fund:                    ~$14.1 billion
    Michigan FY2026 all-funds total budget:          ~$81 billion
    Total direct appropriation as percent of GF:     ~0.85%
    Total direct appropriation as percent of total:  ~0.148%

OFFSETTING REVENUE STREAMS:

    (A) FEDERAL SNAP COST-SHIFT ABSORPTION. Federal H.R. 1 (2025),
    Public Law 119-21, shifted SNAP administrative costs from fifty
    per cent to seventy-five per cent state share, effective October
    1, 2026. Michigan currently routes SNAP benefits through
    commercial retailers where 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays
    for markup rather than food (USDA Food Dollar Series). At at-cost
    routing through this act, approximately 95 cents of every dollar
    reaches the recipient as food, a 3.9x increase in delivered food
    value per SNAP dollar that independently offsets the federal cost-
    shift.

    (B) FACILITY SURCHARGES. Operational self-sufficiency target
    within seven (7) years through the five per cent facility
    surcharge on food and the ten per cent surcharge on essential
    goods.

    (C) HEALTHCARE COST REDUCTION (downstream, not captured in this
    year). The Marmot/Sapolsky/Shively/Blackburn gradient evidence
    establishes that food insecurity and material deprivation produce
    measurable cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental-health
    morbidity. Healthcare cost reductions attributable to improved
    nutrition and reduced material deprivation are tracked but not
    counted as a direct offset in this appropriation.

MULTI-DECADE HORIZON:

    The Division I food program target, applied per the state-only
    operating-fund denominator analog (General Fund $14.1B + School
    Aid Fund ~$21.2B = ~$35.3B), is $309 per person per year times
    10,127,884 Michigan residents (Census Vintage 2025) =
    approximately $3,129,514,156 per year, or approximately 8.9 per
    cent of the state-only operating composite. The Table 1 expansion
    goal at $609 per person per year is retained as the multi-decade
    horizon (~17.5 per cent of state-only operating). This is the
    full at-cost food floor; the initial $120 million pilot
    appropriation seeds the first ten centers plus the Michigan
    Essential Goods Program.

DIVISION I FOOD PROGRAM TARGET: $309 x 10,127,884 = $3,129,514,156/yr (approximately 8.9 per cent of the state-only operating composite of $35.3 billion; approximately 3.86 per cent of the FY2026 all-funds budget of $81 billion).

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 159 years inside the same federal apparatus the state already funds. Michigan is not asked to attempt something untested. Michigan is asked to deliver to its own residents what its veterans at Selfridge Air National Guard Base have received since 1867.

PROPONENT STATEMENT, (300 words maximum)

A YES VOTE on this proposal enacts the Michigan Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, which establishes the first state-operated at-cost food and essential-goods distribution system in the United States outside the military commissary network. The arithmetic is straightforward. Michigan spends approximately $2.7 billion per year delivering SNAP through commercial retailers where 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup rather than food. At-cost routing through state-operated centers reaches the recipient at production cost plus a five per cent facility surcharge, delivering approximately 3.9 times more food per dollar spent.

The operational precedent is the Defense Commissary Agency, which has operated at-cost grocery distribution continuously since 1867 (10 U.S.C. Section 2484). Michigan taxpayers already fund this system at approximately $1.3 billion annually. The Selfridge Air National Guard Base commissary in Harrison Township operates under this model today. Michigan military families shop at 17 to 44 per cent below civilian retail. Michigan civilians, including the residents of Detroit and Flint, pay full retail markup at commercial grocery stores while funding the at-cost system available only to military families.

The Flint water crisis is the moral authority. The state poisoned a city to save $5 million. The thirty-year life expectancy gap between Detroit's wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods is the verdict on hierarchy as a public-health condition. Michigan's $125.8 billion food and agriculture industry produces a surplus many times its own residents' needs. The barrier is distribution, not production. This act establishes that distribution.

Michigan has the Arsenal of Democracy precedent: factories converted in months when the political will existed. This act asks Michigan to do it again, not for war, but for the residents who already pay for the model that excludes them.

OPPOSITION RESPONSE

OBJECTION 1: "This is government ownership of grocery stores."

RESPONSE: No. The state operates the retail point at cost. The upstream supply chain remains entirely private. Michigan farms stay private. Michigan trucks stay private. Michigan processing plants stay private. Michigan cherry orchards in Traverse City, asparagus farms in Oceana County, dry-bean operations in the Thumb, blueberry growers along the Lake Michigan shore, sugar beet processors in the Saginaw Valley, dairy operations across the Lower Peninsula, and Upper Peninsula commercial fishing boats continue to operate as private enterprises. The Defense Commissary Agency has operated this exact model since 1867 without acquiring a single farm; DeCA contracts with the same private suppliers Kroger, Meijer, and Spartan-Nash already use. Costco operates the private-sector parallel.

OBJECTION 2: "This will eliminate grocery jobs."

RESPONSE: The retail collapse is already eliminating those jobs. In 2024 alone, 45 major retail bankruptcies, 15,000 store closures projected for 2025. The Defense Commissary Agency at Selfridge has truckers, warehouse workers, stockers, cashiers, and butchers, and has had them since 1867. At-cost distribution eliminates the markup, not the labor. Aurora Innovation runs driverless commercial freight on the Dallas-Houston corridor daily. The autonomous-freight transition is removing the next layer of distribution jobs whether or not this act passes. This act provides a food floor beneath that transition.

OBJECTION 3: "Michigan cannot afford this."

RESPONSE: Michigan already pays. Michigan currently spends approximately $2.7 billion per year on federal-state SNAP delivery serving approximately 1.5 million Michiganders, with 75.7 cents of every dollar going to markup. At at-cost routing, the same dollar reaches 3.9 times more food into the same recipients' hands. The $120 million direct appropriation in this act is approximately 0.85 per cent of Michigan's General Fund. The Selfridge commissary appropriation paid annually by federal taxpayers, including Michigan civilians who cannot use it, is approximately $1.3 billion. The fiscal question is not whether to spend. The fiscal question is whether to continue spending four times as much as required to accomplish the same objective.

OBJECTION 4: "This is socialism."

RESPONSE: The Defense Commissary Agency has operated this model since 1867 under 10 U.S.C. Section 2484, established by the same Congress that fought the Civil War. If this is socialism, then the United States military has been a socialist organization for one hundred fifty-nine years. The act extends to Michigan civilians the same model their taxes already fund for military families. The commissary is not socialism. The Roman annona civica that operated for over four hundred years under the most documented tyrant in imperial history is not socialism. The Defense Commissary Agency at Selfridge Air National Guard Base on Michigan soil today is not socialism. It is infrastructure.

OBJECTION 5: "This will create dependency."

RESPONSE: Calhoun put mice in a box with food and called it abundance. Universe 25 collapsed because it provided four things and nothing else: no education, no healthcare, no social roles, no intergenerational knowledge transfer. The Defense Commissary Agency at Selfridge has operated alongside the full developmental infrastructure of the United States military for 159 years without producing dependency. The Roman annona civica operated for over four hundred years inside the most stratified society in the ancient world. The argument is not about whether material provision works. The argument is about whether to keep one in seven Michigan residents food-insecure while paying twice for the privilege.

END OF PETITION

MICHIGAN FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT Citizen Initiative Petition, State of Michigan Article II, Section 9, Michigan Constitution

Prepared by: The Amanuensis, theamanuensis.com Version 2. Originally drafted 2015-2016 (Cooper, State of Colorado, Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation). Michigan adaptation: March 2026. Option B restructure: 2026-05-24.

"During the Second World War, Michigan built the vehicles that saved the world. Then the factories closed. Then Detroit went bankrupt. Then Flint was poisoned. The Arsenal of Democracy is the precedent. The Flint water crisis is the indictment. The thirty-year life expectancy gap in Detroit is the verdict. Michigan does not need to imagine what happens when the system fails, it lived it. The commissary at Selfridge has been open every day since. The proof model is already here."

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