FOOD SECURITYA Turning Point: U.S. Recognizes Agriculture as a Domain of Defense
The US has legitimized the role of food supply in national defense. It has recognized that in a world of rupture, a nation that cannot feed itself cannot defend itself. A new policy effectively ends the era of agriculture functioning solely as a commercial sector.
‘Agriculture is foundational to our nation,’ says the US National Farm Security Action Plan issued in July.
Now the plan is being operationalized, with US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signing a memorandum of understanding that effectively ends the era of agriculture functioning solely as a commercial sector. The date of the memorandum, 11 February 2026, will go down as a turning point for those of us pushing for the elevation of food and agriculture to the level of importance of national security and defense.
The memorandum explicitly links the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with the Department of Defense. It formalizes a partnership between USDA scientists and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop technological solutions to agricultural vulnerabilities. In doing so, Australia’s most important strategic ally has put its food system in the domain of defense and national security.
For years, I and others have argued that food security is national security. The US policy agreement ends the debate. The United States has not just acknowledged the link; it has institutionalized it. The National Farm Security Action Plan is the blueprint we have been waiting for and it confirms the importance and urgency of Australia’s own National Food Security Strategy.
The plan’s seven pillars represent unapologetic securitization of the agricultural supply chain. Of critical importance to Australia is the second pillar, regarding supply chain resilience. The document effectively mandates the identification of non-adversarial partners to work with when domestic production is unavailable. This is the friend-shoring of food on a doctrinal scale. The US is building a fortress, and it is drawing a circle around the partners allowed inside.
For Australia, this presents a complex strategic challenge. While the US is its principal security ally, its agricultural sector is deeply integrated with markets that Washington is increasingly fencing off. The challenge for Australian policymakers is to navigate this bifurcation. We must ensure our supply chains are sufficiently hardened to guarantee our own sovereign and regional capability, while maintaining the interoperability required to partner with our major ally. We cannot simply be a compliance-taker; we must build a system resilient enough to survive on its own terms, regardless of the demands of our trading partners.
