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

OREGON FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT

                      SCARCITY IS A POLICY CHOICE

Filed with the Oregon Secretary of State Prepared for the Attorney General of the State of Oregon

Signature Requirement: 117,173 valid signatures (Six percent of total votes cast for all candidates for the office of Governor at the November 8, 2022 general election, which totaled approximately 1,952,886)

Oregon was the first state in the nation to adopt the citizen initiative process (1902). William S. U'Ren and the Direct Legislation League created the Oregon System, the model that every other initiative state copied. This petition uses the process Oregon invented for the purpose Oregon's democratic tradition demands.

BALLOT TITLE

SHALL THE PEOPLE OF OREGON ESTABLISH THE OREGON FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH:

    (1) CREATING AN OREGON FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM OPERATED BY THE
    DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO SELL GROCERY PRODUCTS AT AT-COST
    PRICING TO ALL OREGON RESIDENTS THROUGH STATE-OPERATED FOOD
    ASSURANCE CENTERS, WITH NOT FEWER THAN FIVE PILOT CENTERS WITHIN
    TWO YEARS AND TWENTY CENTERS STATEWIDE WITHIN FIVE YEARS, MODELED
    ON THE 159-YEAR MILITARY COMMISSARY PRECEDENT, AND ELIMINATING
    THE 75.7 PERCENT PRIVATE MARKUP ON FOOD THAT FUNCTIONS AS A
    CONSUMPTION CHARGE OREGONIANS NEVER VOTED FOR IN A STATE WITH NO
    SALES TAX;

    (2) CREATING AN OREGON ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM THROUGH THE OREGON
    BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT TO PRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE
    CLOTHING, HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES, HYGIENE PRODUCTS, TOOLS, AND OTHER
    ESSENTIAL GOODS AT BELOW-RETAIL PRICING UNDER THE SAME AT-COST
    DISCIPLINE;

    (3) HONORING THE SOVEREIGNTY OF OREGON'S NINE FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED
    TRIBAL NATIONS THROUGH FOOD SOVEREIGNTY PARTNERSHIP PROVISIONS,
    ACKNOWLEDGING OREGON'S TRIBAL TERMINATION AND RESTORATION HISTORY;

    (4) APPROPRIATING ONE HUNDRED FORTY MILLION DOLLARS
    ($140,000,000) FOR THE 2027-29 BIENNIUM FROM THE GENERAL FUND,
    REPRESENTING APPROXIMATELY 0.38 PERCENT OF OREGON'S APPROXIMATELY
    $37.3 BILLION BIENNIAL GENERAL FUND?

SUBMISSION CLAUSE

    [ ] YES / FOR THE MEASURE

    [ ] NO / AGAINST THE MEASURE

RESULT STATEMENTS

RESULT OF "YES" VOTE: A "yes" vote establishes the Oregon Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, creating state-operated food assurance centers that sell groceries at at-cost pricing and so eliminate the 75.7 percent private markup, creating an essential goods program for clothing and household commodities at below-retail pricing, honoring tribal sovereignty through food partnership provisions, and appropriating $140 million for the 2027-29 biennium.

RESULT OF "NO" VOTE: A "no" vote retains the current food distribution system, in which 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup above production cost. It does not create state-operated food assurance centers, does not create an essential goods program, and does not appropriate $140 million. Oregon's food insecurity rate of 13 percent and the food deserts of rural Oregon would continue to be addressed through existing programs.

BALLOT TEXT

This measure adds sections to ORS Chapter 561 (Agriculture Generally) and ORS Chapter 285A (Economic Development Department) to create the Oregon Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, establishing one operative program: at-cost food and commodity assurance.

THE OREGON FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM

This measure creates:

    - An Oregon Food Assurance Program operated by the Department of
      Agriculture, establishing state-operated food distribution
      centers where all Oregon residents may purchase the full range
      of grocery products at at-cost pricing, defined as production
      cost plus a facility surcharge not exceeding 5 percent;

    - Not fewer than five pilot centers within two years: two in the
      Portland metropolitan area (Multnomah, Washington, or Clackamas
      counties), one in Salem-Keizer (Marion County), one in
      Eugene-Springfield (Lane County), and one in a rural timber
      community in southern or eastern Oregon (Klamath Falls,
      Roseburg, Coos Bay, Grants Pass, or Bend);

    - Expansion to twenty statewide centers within five years, with
      at least one center per congressional district and at least
      five centers serving rural communities;

    - Oregon-first procurement: 50 percent Oregon-sourced within
      three years, increasing to 70 percent within five years,
      drawing on Oregon's $6.4 billion agricultural sector including
      hazelnuts, berries, grass seed, nursery products, wheat,
      potatoes, dairy, and cattle;

    - An Oregon Essential Goods Program through the Oregon Business
      Development Department, distributing clothing, household
      supplies, hygiene products, tools, and other essential goods at
      below-retail pricing under the same at-cost discipline;

    - Tribal food sovereignty provisions enabling Oregon's nine
      federally recognized tribal nations to co-operate or
      independently operate food assurance centers with state
      support;

    - The no-sales-tax argument: Oregon voters rejected government
      taxation of consumption. Yet every Oregonian pays a 75.7
      percent private markup on every grocery purchase. That markup
      exceeds any sales tax ever proposed in Oregon. A sales tax
      would at least fund public services; the markup funds corporate
      marketing budgets. The food assurance program eliminates the
      markup.

EVIDENTIARY BASIS: The USDA Economic Research Service 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. Oregon's agricultural output of approximately $6.4 billion in annual cash receipts exceeds its population's food requirements. Approximately 771,719 Oregonians receive SNAP benefits, and the state distributes approximately $1.60 billion annually in SNAP benefits through commercial retailers where 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup. The geographer Albrecht Penck calculated in 1925 that Earth could sustain eight billion people using 1920s agricultural technology.

WHY THIS ACT REACHES BEYOND BARE SURVIVAL: Sixty years of research, the Whitehall Studies (Marmot: lowest-grade civil servants had three times the mortality of the top grade), primate studies (Sapolsky; Shively), and Nobel Prize-winning telomere research (Blackburn), establish that poverty and social hierarchy are not merely economic conditions but medical conditions with documented physiological pathways. The gap is the gradient. Hierarchy itself kills. A food and commodity assurance program that lifts residents off the bottom of that gradient is a public health intervention, not a charity. Oregon's timber communities, Klamath Falls, Roseburg, Coos Bay, and Grants Pass, carry the same hierarchy-mediated health damage that the steel collapse brought Ohio and the auto collapse brought Michigan.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

APPROPRIATION:

    Department of Agriculture (food assurance):       $100,000,000
    Oregon Business Development Department
        (essential goods):                            $40,000,000
    TOTAL (2027-29 biennium):                         $140,000,000

    This biennial total represents approximately 0.38 percent of
    Oregon's $37.3 billion General Fund for the 2025-27 biennium.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This Act takes effect July 1, 2027. Pilot food assurance centers operational within two years; twenty centers statewide within five years.

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

EMERGENCY CLAUSE: This Act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.

PROPONENT STATEMENT

This initiative establishes at-cost food and commodity assurance for every Oregon resident. It is filed using the initiative process that Oregon invented.

THE PROBLEM: Oregon produces $6.4 billion in agricultural output annually, yet 771,719 Oregonians rely on SNAP benefits, and 2.5 million visits were made to food assistance sites in 2024, a 31 percent increase over the prior year. The USDA documents that 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup, not food. The United States military commissary has distributed food at cost for 159 years to military families, but the Oregon taxpayers who fund it are denied access.

OREGON HAS NO SALES TAX. Oregonians have repeatedly rejected government taxation of consumption at the ballot box. Yet every Oregonian pays a 75.7 percent private markup on every grocery purchase, a consumption charge collected by corporations, not the state, that exceeds any sales tax ever proposed in Oregon and funds corporate marketing budgets instead of public services. A government sales tax would at least fund public services. The private markup funds nothing the public votes on.

Rural Oregon's timber communities, Klamath Falls, Roseburg, Coos Bay, and Grants Pass, lost their economic base when the mills closed and have not recovered. The same hierarchy-mediated health damage that followed Ohio's steel collapse and Michigan's auto collapse followed Oregon's timber collapse, with methamphetamine in the place of opioids: the same cause, the same biology, a different molecule. Sixty years of research, Marmot, Sapolsky, Shively, and Blackburn, establish that poverty and hierarchy damage the body at the cellular level. Feeding people at cost is the documented treatment for a documented medical gradient.

THE SOLUTION: This Act extends to all Oregonians the at-cost distribution model the United States military has used since 1867. It is not charity and not subsidy. It is the commissary, operated by the state, for the residents who already fund the federal version through their taxes. In a state with no sales tax, it eliminates the largest hidden consumption charge Oregonians pay. The Essential Goods Program applies the same at-cost discipline to clothing, household supplies, and tools.

THE COST: $140 million for the 2027-29 biennium, approximately 0.38 percent of Oregon's $37.3 billion General Fund. Oregon currently distributes approximately $1.60 billion annually in SNAP benefits through commercial retailers, where 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup. At-cost routing delivers substantially more food value per benefit dollar. The food assurance program is designed to approach operational self-sufficiency through facility surcharge revenue as volume scales.

THE FISCAL CONVERGENCE: The arithmetic says ending the gap costs a 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. Oregon is not asked to attempt something untested. Oregon is asked to deliver to its own residents what its veterans have received since 1867. Denial is no longer neutral.

THE DEMOCRATIC TRADITION: Oregon gave America the initiative process in 1902. William S. U'Ren and the Direct Legislation League created the Oregon System, the model that every other initiative state subsequently copied. One hundred and twenty-four years later, this petition asks Oregonians to use the process they invented for the purpose their democratic tradition demands.

Version 2 (Oregon adaptation, 2026). Originally drafted 2015-2016 as the Colorado food assurance bill through the Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation. Evidentiary foundation: the Historical Apoplexy series (Cooper, 2025-2026).

FISCAL IMPACT SUMMARY

(Prepared pursuant to ORS 250.125 and ORS 250.127)

INITIAL APPROPRIATION: $140,000,000 from the General Fund for the 2027-29 biennium

PERCENTAGE OF GENERAL FUND: approximately 0.38 percent of approximately $37.3 billion

BREAKDOWN:

    Food Assurance Program:                $100,000,000 (0.27%)
    Essential Goods Program:                $40,000,000 (0.11%)

PROJECTED ONGOING COSTS:

    Food assurance operations: estimated $60 to $80 million per
    biennium during the expansion phase (years 3 through 7),
    declining toward operational self-sufficiency through facility
    surcharge revenue as volume scales.

FOOD PROGRAM TARGET: A full per-resident baseline of the food assurance program reaches approximately $309 per person per year (Table 2, applied because Oregon's per-capita General Fund and Lottery spend of approximately $4,565 places it below the Table 1 threshold), or approximately $1.32 billion per year for Oregon's population of 4,281,848, approximately 6.8 percent of annualized General Fund and Lottery spending. The initial $140 million appropriation funds the pilot and early expansion phase; the baseline is approached as facility surcharge revenue and Oregon-first procurement mature.

PROJECTED SAVINGS:

    SNAP efficiency: at-cost pricing delivers substantially more food
    value per benefit dollar, increasing the effective reach of
    existing SNAP expenditure.

    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.

CONTEXT:

    Oregon's biennial General Fund (2025-27): approximately $37.3B
    Oregon's combined General Fund and Lottery (2025-27): approximately $39.1B
    Oregon SNAP spending: approximately $1.60 billion annually
    ($3.2 billion biennially)
    Total appropriation as share of General Fund: approximately 0.38 percent
    Oregon has no sales tax; this program replaces a private markup
    with a public at-cost distribution channel.

SIGNATURE LINES

I, the undersigned registered elector of the State of Oregon, do hereby petition the Secretary of State to submit to the registered electors of the State of Oregon a statutory measure, concerning the establishment of the Oregon Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, as set forth herein:

Print Name: ___________________________________________

Signature: ____________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________

Date: ___________________

County of Residence: __________________________________

(Repeat as needed. 117,173 valid signatures required.)

ESTIMATED COST PER SIGNATURE

Based on recent Oregon initiative campaigns, the cost to gather 117,173 signatures through a combination of volunteer and paid signature gathering is estimated at $1.50 to $3.00 per signature, for a total signature gathering budget of approximately $175,000 to $350,000. Oregon's strong initiative culture and deep volunteer tradition may reduce this cost.

END OF BALLOT LANGUAGE

OREGON FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT Citizen Initiative Petition Pursuant to Article IV, Section 1, Oregon Constitution

Prepared by: The Amanuensis - theamanuensis.com Version 2 (Oregon adaptation, 2026) Originally drafted 2015-2016 as the Colorado food assurance bill (SMRF)

"Oregon gave America the initiative process in 1902. One hundred and twenty-four years later, use it for what it was built for."

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