Affordable Groceries Start With Strong Farms
Families are feeling the strain of high food prices every time they walk into the grocery store.
As The Hill recently reported, new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found a “remarkable increase in food insecurity.” A total of 10% of households said they have struggled to obtain enough food for their home, with some reporting missed meals. That percentage is up from 4% in June 2020.
These findings should be a wake-up call. When families are struggling to afford food, policymakers should be focused on strengthening the systems that keep groceries available and affordable—starting with the farmers who grow them.
Farmers are the foundation of America’s food supply, but they are also facing serious economic pressure. Input costs remain high, profit margins are tight, and growers are heading into another season with uncertainty about markets, weather, regulations, and the tools they rely on to protect their crops.
Those pressures matter for consumers because food affordability starts long before the checkout line. When farmers face higher costs or lower yields, those challenges move through the supply chain and eventually show up in grocery prices.
That is why crop protection tools are so important. Farmers use these tools to control weeds, insects, disease, and other threats that can damage crops and reduce yields. Globally, up to 40% of crops are lost to pests and diseases each year. Without pesticides, crop losses could be as high as 85%.
The consequences would be felt directly by families. Without modern crop protection tools, yields for fruits and vegetables alone could fall by 50 to 90%. Losing access to widely used tools like glyphosate could more than double food inflation, adding up to $10 billion per year to Americans’ grocery bills.
The New York Fed’s findings make clear that food insecurity is tied to broader economic anxiety. Households facing food hardship were more pessimistic about their financial future and more concerned about falling behind on debt. In other words, when groceries become harder to afford, families feel it everywhere.
That is why policies affecting agriculture cannot be viewed in isolation. Farmers need clear, consistent, science-based rules so they can keep doing their jobs and continue producing the food families depend on.
The EPA’s pesticide review process exists to evaluate crop protection tools for human health and environmental safety and determine how they can be used safely according to the label. Preserving that science-based system is essential to giving farmers certainty and protecting the affordability of our food supply.
Affordable groceries do not happen by accident. They depend on strong farms, reliable tools, and policies that help farmers keep food on America’s tables.