Back to School Starts with Affordable, Nutritious Food

As students across the country head back to school, families are once again packing lunches, planning weeknight meals, and making sure kids have the nutritious food they need to learn and grow. But putting healthy food on the table isn’t getting any easier. According to the latest USDA Food Price Outlook, grocery prices in July were 2.7% higher than a year ago, while fresh fruit prices were up 4.9% and fresh vegetable prices were up 6.3%. For families already watching every dollar, keeping nutritious food affordable matters more than ever.

That affordability starts on the farm. Crop protection tools help farmers control weeds, pests, and diseases, protecting their harvests and produce more food without unnecessarily driving up production costs. When farmers lose access to effective tools, higher costs can work their way through the food supply chain and ultimately reach families at the grocery store.

The impact reaches school cafeterias, too. A Directions Group analysis of crop protection tools and the Farm Bill found that if farmers lost access to glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, higher production costs for farmers could add nearly $10 billion per year to household food costs. For a family of four, that could mean roughly $120 to $160 more on groceries each year, based on USDA food-cost estimates. The Directions Group analysis also estimates that childhood nutrition programs could face $1.8 billion in additional costs over the 2025–2029 Farm Bill, putting added pressure on programs that help provide meals to students across the country.

Farmers depend on crop protection tools because they work, and because they are backed by rigorous, science-based regulation. Glyphosate, for example, has been studied for more than 50 years, with more than 1,500 studies supporting its safety when used as directed. You can learn more about its safety and importance to American agriculture here. Just as students need the right tools in their backpacks to learn and grow, farmers need the right tools in the field to succeed. Protecting access to crop protection tools helps ensure farmers can keep growing the safe, nutritious, and affordable food families depend on all year long.