America’s food travels an average of 1,500 miles from farm to fork, passing through a fragile network of industrial farms, processing facilities, and distribution centers that can collapse when a single link breaks. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed this vulnerability when meat processing plants shut down, produce rotted in fields, and grocery shelves emptied while farmers destroyed perfectly good food they couldn’t distribute.
This isn’t just about supply chain logistics. The US food system consumes 15% of the nation’s total …