Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced details of a “framework to transform the food system to benefit consumers, producers and rural communities by providing more options, increasing access, and creating new, more, and better markets for small and mid-size producers.”

Vilsack said the framework “builds on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine. This announcement also provides additional details on the June 2021 announcement to strengthen critical supply chains and address longstanding structural challenges that were revealed and intensified by the pandemic.”

The actions are focused on food production, food processing, distribution and aggregation, markets and consumers and make a total of more than $2.8 billion available for various initiatives from $25 million to support SNAP technology improvements to modernize the delivery of incentive programs, to as much as $600 million in financial assistance to support food supply chain infrastructure.

Get all the details from USDA and listen to Vilsack’s announcement here: