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

WASHINGTON FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT

                       Scarcity Is a Policy Choice

Filed with the Washington Secretary of State Prepared for review by the Attorney General of the State of Washington

Initiative Type: Initiative to the People (I-____)

Signature Requirement: 324,516 valid signatures (Eight percent of the votes cast for the office of Governor at the last regular gubernatorial election, November 2024)

BALLOT TITLE

SHALL THE STATE OF WASHINGTON ESTABLISH THE WASHINGTON FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH:

    (1) CREATING A WASHINGTON FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM OPERATED BY THE
    DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO SELL GROCERY PRODUCTS AT AT-COST
    PRICING TO ALL WASHINGTON RESIDENTS THROUGH STATE-OPERATED FOOD
    ASSURANCE CENTERS, WITH NOT FEWER THAN FIVE PILOT CENTERS WITHIN
    TWO YEARS, INCLUDING CENTERS IN KING COUNTY, PIERCE COUNTY,
    SPOKANE, AND THE YAKIMA VALLEY, AND TWENTY-FIVE CENTERS STATEWIDE
    WITHIN FIVE YEARS, MODELED ON THE 159-YEAR MILITARY COMMISSARY
    PRECEDENT AND THE AT-COST WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTION MODEL PIONEERED
    BY COSTCO, HEADQUARTERED IN ISSAQUAH, WASHINGTON;

    (2) CREATING A WASHINGTON ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM THROUGH THE
    DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TO PRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE CLOTHING,
    HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES, HYGIENE PRODUCTS, AND OTHER ESSENTIAL GOODS
    AT BELOW-RETAIL PRICING, WITH EMPHASIS ON SUPPORTING WASHINGTON
    MANUFACTURING COMMUNITIES AFFECTED BY DEINDUSTRIALIZATION;

    (3) APPROPRIATING NINETY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS ($95,000,000) FROM
    THE STATE GENERAL FUND FOR THE 2027-2029 BIENNIUM, REPRESENTING
    APPROXIMATELY 0.12 PERCENT OF THE STATE'S APPROXIMATELY $77.8
    BILLION BIENNIAL OPERATING BUDGET?

SUBMISSION CLAUSE

    [ ] YES / FOR THE MEASURE

    [ ] NO / AGAINST THE MEASURE

BALLOT TEXT

This measure adds a new chapter to Title 15 RCW and a new chapter to Title 43 RCW to create the Washington Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, a food and commodity assurance program.

WASHINGTON FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM

This program adds a new chapter to Title 15 RCW, creating:

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

    - Not fewer than five pilot centers within two years: two in King
      County and the Seattle-Tacoma metro, one in Pierce County near
      Joint Base Lewis-McChord, one in Spokane serving Eastern
      Washington, and one in the Yakima Valley serving agricultural and
      farmworker communities;

    - Expansion to twenty-five statewide centers within five years,
      with at least one center per congressional district, including
      centers in the Tri-Cities, Bellingham, Clark County, the Olympic
      Peninsula, and Snohomish County;

    - Washington-first procurement: 50 percent Washington-sourced
      within three years, increasing to 70 percent within five years,
      supporting the state's $14 billion agricultural sector;

    - Tribal consultation: food assurance centers serving tribal
      communities shall be developed in consultation with the
      twenty-nine (29) federally recognized tribes, respecting tribal
      food sovereignty and the Centennial Accord.

WASHINGTON ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM

This program adds a new chapter to Title 43 RCW, creating a Washington Essential Goods Program distributing clothing, household supplies, hygiene products, tools, educational materials, and other essential goods at below-retail pricing through manufacturing partnerships and direct procurement, with emphasis on supporting communities affected by deindustrialization, such as Snohomish County following Boeing's departure. Essential goods are distributed on a schedule tiered by the permanence of the goods, drawing on the at-cost distribution principle described by Jacque Fresco. Currency continues for luxury, custom, and specialty goods not covered by the program.

EVIDENTIARY BASIS: The USDA ERS Food Dollar Series establishes the farm share of the food dollar at 24.3 cents, with 75.7 cents in markup. The United States military commissary system has operated at-cost food distribution for 159 years under 10 U.S.C. Section 2484. Costco Wholesale, headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, has proven for over 40 years that high-volume, low-markup distribution is commercially viable at national scale. Washington's agricultural output of $14.0 billion in annual cash receipts vastly exceeds its population's food requirements. Approximately 840,000 Washington residents, roughly ten percent of the population, experience food insecurity. The state distributes approximately $1.92 billion annually in Basic Food (SNAP) benefits through commercial retailers.

WHY THIS ACT REACHES BEYOND BARE SURVIVAL: The act carries closing findings establishing that food insecurity and social hierarchy are not merely economic conditions but medical conditions with documented physiological pathways. The Whitehall Studies (Marmot) found the lowest employment grade carried three times the mortality of the highest grade among British civil servants with universal healthcare. Primate research (Sapolsky, Shively) found subordinate social position produces chronic elevated cortisol, atherosclerosis, and coronary artery disease. Nobel Prize-winning telomere research (Blackburn, 2009) found chronic stress accelerates cellular aging. These findings establish food and commodity assurance as a public health intervention with measurable healthcare cost reduction potential. The act does not create an operative public health program; it establishes a food program and states the public health record as its closing evidentiary findings.

APPROPRIATION:

    Department of Agriculture (food assurance):         $68,000,000
    Department of Commerce (essential goods):           $27,000,000
    TOTAL:                                              $95,000,000

    This total represents approximately 0.12 percent of Washington's
    $77.8 billion biennial operating budget for 2025-2027.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This act takes effect July 1, 2028. Pilot food assurance centers shall be operational within two years of the effective date; the program shall expand to twenty-five centers statewide within five years. The essential goods program shall be operational within two years of the effective date.

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 Washington's twenty-nine (29) federally recognized tribes. The rights affirmed in the Boldt Decision (1974) are not affected.

PROPONENT STATEMENT

This initiative establishes an at-cost food and commodity floor for every Washington resident.

THE PROBLEM: Washington produces $14 billion in agricultural output annually, a record high, yet approximately 840,000 Washington residents cannot consistently feed themselves. 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 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Naval Station Kitsap, and Fairchild Air Force Base, while the Washington taxpayers who fund it are denied access.

THE COSTCO PRECEDENT: Costco, headquartered in Issaquah, has proven for over 40 years that high-volume, low-markup distribution works at national scale. The food assurance program applies Costco's structural principle, volume-based at-cost distribution, as public infrastructure.

THE AMAZON PARADOX: Amazon, headquartered in Seattle, operates over one million warehouse robots, and studies document higher serious injury rates at robotic facilities. Boeing closed its Everett 787 factory in 2025, shifting production to South Carolina. Washington hosts the corporations automating away its citizens' livelihoods while bearing the first-order costs of the displacement. The food and commodity assurance program in this act provides the material floor for citizens navigating that structural displacement. Autonomous freight, robotaxis, and the retail contraction are eliminating these jobs regardless of whether this act passes; the act does not cause the displacement, it catches the displaced worker.

WHY THIS IS A PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURE: Sixty years of research, Marmot, Sapolsky, Shively, and Blackburn, establishes that poverty and social hierarchy are not merely economic conditions but medical conditions that damage the body at the cellular level. The gap is the gradient. Removing the markup on food, the most basic and universal material exposure, removes one rung of that gradient for every resident at once. This act states that record as its closing findings; it does not create a separate health program.

THE SOLUTION: Food at cost. Not charity, not subsidy, but the same at-cost distribution model the military has used since 1867, extended to all Washington residents who fund it through their taxes. The essential goods program extends the same at-cost principle to clothing, household supplies, and basic durable goods, with procurement directed to Washington manufacturers in communities hit by deindustrialization.

THIS IS NOT A GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF FARMS OR INDUSTRY: The state does not own farms, processing plants, or trucking fleets. It operates distribution centers that contract with private Washington producers and existing private supply chain infrastructure to buy food at production cost and sell it at production cost plus a five percent surcharge. The upstream supply chain remains entirely private. Currency continues for luxury, custom, and specialty goods. The Defense Commissary Agency has operated this exact model since 1867 without acquiring a single farm. The bill provides a floor. It does not replace the market. It removes the markup on the floor.

BOTH SIDES OF THE CASCADES: Eastern Washington produces the food. Western Washington generates the revenue. This act connects them. Pilot centers in Yakima, Spokane, and the Tri-Cities ensure rural and agricultural communities are served alongside the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area.

THE COST: $95 million for the 2027-2029 biennium, approximately 0.12 percent of the state's $77.8 billion operating budget. Washington currently spends approximately $1.92 billion annually on Basic Food (SNAP) benefits routed through commercial retailers. At-cost pricing delivers approximately four times the food value per benefit dollar. The food assurance program is designed to achieve self-sufficiency within seven years through volume surcharges. Federal H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21, 2025) imposes an estimated $166 million to $366 million per year in new SNAP costs on Washington whether or not this act passes; the at-cost channel offsets that shift on the same beneficiary population.

Originally proposed: 2016 (Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation, Colorado Division of Private Occupational Schools registration) Adapted to Washington: March 5, 2026 (Historical Apoplexy series, Cooper)

FISCAL IMPACT SUMMARY

(Prepared pursuant to RCW 29A.72.025)

INITIAL APPROPRIATION: $95,000,000 from the state general fund for the 2027-2029 biennium

PERCENTAGE OF BIENNIAL OPERATING BUDGET: approximately 0.12 percent of approximately $77.8 billion

BREAKDOWN:

    Food Assurance Program:                  $68,000,000 (0.087%)
    Essential Goods Program:                 $27,000,000 (0.035%)

PROJECTED ONGOING COSTS:

    Food assurance operations: estimated $40 million to $50 million per
    biennium during the expansion phase (years 3 to 7), declining
    toward self-sufficiency through volume surcharges.

FOOD PROGRAM TARGET (full at-cost provision):

    At-cost provision of a staple food baseline for Washington's
    population of 8,115,100 residents is estimated at approximately
    $2.51 billion per year ($309 per person per year), approximately
    6.4 percent of annual Near General Fund spending. This is not new
    money; it is the redirection of food spending residents and the
    state already make through a structurally more efficient channel.

PROJECTED SAVINGS:

    SNAP efficiency: at-cost pricing delivers approximately four times
    the food value per benefit dollar, increasing the delivered value
    of existing Basic Food expenditure.

    Healthcare cost reduction: improved nutrition and reduced exposure
    to the documented mortality gradient are projected to offset a
    substantial portion of program costs within ten years, recovering
    state Apple Health (Medicaid) spending on diet-related chronic
    disease.

CONTEXT:

    Washington biennial operating budget: approximately $77.8 billion
    Near General Fund (2025-2027).
    Washington population: 8,115,100 (Office of Financial Management,
    April 1, 2025).
    Washington Basic Food (SNAP) spending: approximately $1.92 billion
    annually.
    Federal H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21, 2025) SNAP cost-shift exposure:
    approximately $166 million to $366 million per year.

REVENUE SOURCE: Washington has no state income tax. This appropriation is funded through existing revenue streams including the state general fund (business and occupation tax, retail sales tax, and other sources). The Legislature may designate a portion of the capital gains tax (7 percent, RCW 82.87, upheld 2023) as a dedicated funding source.

SIGNATURE LINES

I, the undersigned registered voter of the State of Washington, do hereby petition the Secretary of State to submit to the registered voters of the State of Washington an initiative measure, known as the Washington Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, as set forth herein:

Print Name: ___________________________________________

Signature: ____________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________

Date: ___________________

County of Residence: __________________________________

(Repeat as needed. 324,516 valid signatures required.)

END OF BALLOT LANGUAGE

WASHINGTON FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT Citizen Initiative Petition Pursuant to Article II, Section 1, Washington State Constitution

Prepared by: Imran Stanton Cooper Originally proposed: 2016 (Imran Stanton Cooper) Adapted to Washington: March 5, 2026

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