Poll: Food & Agriculture

This Navigator Research report covers messaging guidance to effectively communicate on food and health-related issues to Americans in the battleground.

Food-related Issues as a Messaging Opportunity 

Food-related issues, especially costs and food safety, are not niche concerns — they are top-tier priorities for Americans in the battleground. Ensuring our food is safe ranks as an “extremely high priority” for 61% of respondents, nearly matching lowering the cost of health care (which 68% view as an “extremely high priority”) at the top of Americans’ concerns. Making food more affordable registers at 50% who say it is extremely important. These numbers hold remarkably consistent across both House and Senate battlegrounds, among independents, and critically, among persuadable Americans who haven’t yet chosen a side in the 2026 elections.

The data reveals that Americans view food and agriculture issues through economic and public health lenses, not as a narrow agricultural policy concern. The consistency of these priorities across different segments of the population demonstrates that food issues transcend traditional political divides. Americans in the battleground prioritize food safety and affordability at rates that match or exceed many issues typically considered more politically salient, suggesting that concerns about the food families are putting on the table and what they pay for it are deeply personal and universal. The polling also shows that these aren’t abstract policy preferences: Americans connect food issues directly to their economic security and their families’ health outcomes. 

Messages On SNAP, Impacts On Children, And Price Gouging Resonate With Americans In The Battleground

Messages that highlight how President Trump and Republicans in Congress cut SNAP, hurt children’s access to healthy foods, and enabled price gouging by large food corporations are most effective in raising concerns about Trump and Congressional Republicans’ policy agenda on food and agriculture. The most effective messages were:

• Trump and Republicans are hurting American children and setting them up for worse health outcomes than previous generations by making it harder for them to access healthy foods. They cut funding to support farm to school programs and food banks, passed the largest cut to food assistance in history, and ended the decades-old practice of putting fluoride in water to reduce tooth decay. They have even allowed food companies to use cancer-causing chemicals in snack foods targeted to children (64% concerned, 46% with very serious concerns).
• Trump and Republicans made the largest cuts to SNAP in history making it more difficult for over 40 million Americans, including 16 million children and 8 million seniors, to access healthy foods and forcing them to rely on the cheapest possible foods for survival, which is often the most ultra-processed foods (59% concerned, 46% with very serious concerns).
• Trump and Republicans have allowed food companies to take advantage of inflation to raise prices to increase their profits. The CEO of one grocery company said that inflation is “good for business” and that it allowed them to raise prices on milk and eggs higher than necessary (68% concerned, 44% with very serious concerns).

Messaging Recommendations On Food, Health, And Agriculture

Based on Navigator’s latest research, advocates should follow three steps to effectively message on food, health, and agriculture policy issues:

Dos And Don’ts On Communicating On Food, Health, And Agriculture