The federal agencies that buy food for distribution try to obtain products locally but don’t have a comprehensive way of tracking the source of products, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
USDA and the Defense Department collectively purchased $30 billion in food from fiscal year 2018 to 2022. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service purchases products for schools, food banks and households. DOD supplies food to military installations.
The report was intended to provide Congress information on how much of the food is bought through small businesses and from local sources.
Some 45% of the purchases, or $13.6 billion, were made under contracts with small businesses.
AMS and DOD’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) are supposed to limit purchases to domestic sources, and both try to buy local products. “For example, AMS offers financial assistance to states and tribal governments to increase the availability of locally grown food,” the report says.
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But neither agency “collects comprehensive data on such purchases,” the report says.
AMS has provided $600 million since fiscal 2022 to states and other entities to support local and regional producers, while DLA has included language in solicitations to prefer locally grown products.
Meanwhile, DLA “requires vendors selling food through the USDA DOD Fresh program to provide information such as a list of food items that they currently source locally and plans to expand the sourcing of local items,” the report says. DLA bought $287 million of locally grown food in FY18-22 for clients that take part in the USDA DOD Fresh program.
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