Paying for Nutrition: A Mechanism-Design Approach to the Nutrient Density Standard

Can a voluntary farm-gate payment improve the nutritional quality of food crops at a defensible cost? This paper proposes a Nutrient Density Bonus for verified protein, zinc, and iron in harvested wheat, alongside existing income protection. It compares three payment architectures: direct lot assays, contracts for specified practices, and evidence-backed claims subject to independent audits. A capped, volume-adjusted payment rule makes the unit of reward explicit; a simplified deterrence condition identifies the recovery and enforcement assumptions behind the audit mechanism. The proposed evaluation begins with a measurement season in western Kansas and northern Oklahoma, followed, only if feasible, by a controlled comparison over multiple harvests. Reference assays remain the basis for mineral verification unless predictive methods meet prespecified payment-relevant error tolerances. The policy must demonstrate additional crop-quality improvement, affordable verification, fair access, and acceptable effects on yield, income, food safety, and the environment. Higher grain mineral concentration is distinguished from nutrient output, bioavailability, and health benefit. The contribution is a policy-design framework and prospective evaluation plan; no pilot results or national cost estimate are reported. Status: Policy working paper, version 1.0; not peer reviewed. No new dataset, completed pilot, or national cost estimate is reported. Provenance: A revised archival adaptation of the June 2026 web proposal. Disclosure: The author is affiliated with Maha Strategies and wrote the commercially available book. ChatGPT assisted with adaptation, source checking, drafting, and formatting. The author remains responsible for the content.