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Chefs call for farm bill priorities to tackle rising food prices and farmer viability

Independent restaurant owners and chefs are encouraging lawmakers to pass a farm bill that addresses environmental and economic risks facing producers.

Anne McBride of the James Beard Foundation tells Brownfield the restaurant industry depends on strong supply chains and the farmers behind them.

“When there are droughts, floods, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes in the Midwest that decimate what farmers are growing, when there’s an early frost—it limits the access to ingredients, and it increases the price of those ingredients,” she explains.

She says restaurants, according to the Foundation’s Independent Restaurant Industry Report, raised prices 10 percent after a 15 percent increase in 2025 to offset higher food and labor costs.

McBride says chefs can serve as intermediaries between growers and policymakers to amplify the value of USDA programs and technical assistance needed to thrive.

“They can explain very concretely why conservation practices funded by the farm bill are good for an entire community, for the ingredients being grown, but also for the environmental resilience of a community,” she says.

McBride says in addition to strong conservation, the Foundation supports USDA nutrition assistance and strengthening local food systems.

“Some of the local purchasing programs that existed before really helped because they gave farms guaranteed revenue, which means that then they can take some chances growing something for a restaurant that they might not otherwise grow,” she says. “Those programs also really help farms stay in business.”

McBride recently joined chefs, farmers, and policymakers in Detroit for a roundtable with U.S. Senate Ag Committee member Elissa Slotkin to highlight priorities as part of the Foundation’s Climate Solutions for Restaurant Survival campaign.