Buffer stocks, floor prices, and public releases

The public reserve

The reserve is the supply guarantee behind the promise: buy staples at a guaranteed floor when supply is high, rotate them through schools, hospitals, food banks, and municipal groceries so nothing rots, and release them when prices spike. Stable prices are a consequence of abundance — the reserve guarantees the abundance.

What the reserve publishes

Every number below is a public record, updated as the reserve operates.

  • Coverage days per program, against board-set targets
  • The basket price index — 100 is baseline, spikes trigger review
  • Every floor-price schedule, with its board decision reference
  • Every release: trigger evidence, human reason, outcome
  • Municipal grocery prices and basket in-stock rates
Human-decidedTriggers recommend. Boards release, with a written reason.
Aggregate-onlySupplier identities never appear in public payloads.

Buffer stocks

Regional reserves of storable staples with board-set coverage targets. Position and coverage days are published as aggregates on the public dashboard.

Floor prices

Guaranteed floor-price schedules for farms and co-ops are public records, set by authority board decision with the decision reference attached.

Releases are public events

When a release rule fires — a basket price index over baseline, or coverage below the floor — the trigger evidence, the human decision with its reason, and the outcome are all published.

Municipal groceries

Public stores are the retail end of the reserve: they post the essential basket at cost, report coarse in-stock status, and replenish straight from the regional reserve ledger. No customer purchase tracking, ever — the store knows its shelves, not your cart.

Rotate, never rot

Stock above the coverage target rotates on a published plan through schools, hospitals, food banks, and municipal groceries — the reserve is a river, not a warehouse of forgotten grain.

Regions back each other

When one region runs short, reserves move between regions on a decided transfer — requested with a reason, approved on the record, posted to both ledgers. The federal layer finances and coordinates; the regions stay in charge of their own reserves.

Live public APIs

  • /api/public/food-security/metrics?tenantId=tenant_nova_food&region=region_default — coverage, price index, floor purchasing aggregates
  • /api/public/food-security/releases?tenantId=tenant_nova_food&region=region_default — every release with trigger and reason
  • /api/public/food-security/stores?tenantId=tenant_nova_food&region=region_default — municipal groceries, posted basket prices, in-stock rate
  • /api/public/food-security/posture?tenantId=tenant_nova_food — national coverage roll-up and transfers in flight

Public payloads are aggregated: supplier identities and per-source price observations are never exposed.

Who decides

Regional authority boards seat workers, farmers, consumers, and local government. Floor prices, coverage targets, and release approvals are board decisions with reasons on the record — the system recommends, people decide.