myths realities indag

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Myths and Dangers A Look at the Messages and Realities of a Food System based on Industrial Agriculture Natalie Halbach Emerson National Hunger Fellow Jess Miller Community Farm Alliance Fellow Community Farm Alliance Community Farm Alliance

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The following PowerPoint was presented at the seventh annual Healthy Food, Local Farms Conference on October 1st, 2005, in Louisville, KY. The presentation was the first half of a two-part workshop that examined the realities of a food system based on industrial agriculture and CFA’s vision for an alternative Local Independent Food Economy (L.I.F.E.). The Community Farm Alliance and the Sierra Club co-sponsored the conference.

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What are the Myths? Let’s look at what the media tell us.

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Food is Cheap

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We have abundant choice.

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Convenience is Good

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The US Feeds the World

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Undernourished Population (2000 - 2002) Hunger is not a U.S. Problem

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Our Food is Safe

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Industrial Agriculture is Sustainable

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Bigger is Better

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Questioning the myths ? ? ? ? ?

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Myth : Food is cheap Sure it’s cheap, I can order a meal off the dollar menu!!

So who pays the hidden costs? WE DO: in taxes: 

So who pays the hidden costs? WE DO: in taxes Through the Supplier Credit Guarantee Program, the USDA guarantees 65% of loan payments due to large U.S. commodity traders. Since the 1980s, this indirect subsidy has cost tax payers nearly $4 billion.

Who pays the hidden costs?: 

Who pays the hidden costs? FARMERS The average Kentucky farm income is $12,000/ year The poverty line is $19,350 for a family of four.

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Who pays the hidden costs? WE DO: Land degradation Heavy machinery & livestock grazing compact soil, killing beneficial soil organisms and stripping vegetation that holds topsoil in place Topsoil is being depleted faster than it can regenerate

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The Ogallala Aquifer is a critical resource for agriculture in the Midwest. Its water table is dropping as much as 1 m/year WE DO: Water Usage/ exploitation Who pays the hidden costs?

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The U.S. EPA blames current farm practices for 70% of the pollution in the nation’s rivers and streams Who pays the hidden costs? WE DO: Pollution Only 1/3 of nitrogen applied to plants is absorbed. Nitrogen run off creates “dead zones” in bodies of water by depleting oxygen needed for plant and animal life. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is the size of New Jersey.

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Who pays the hidden costs? WE DO: Fossil Fuel Dependency In 1992, the food production system accounted for 17% of all fossil fuel use in the United States. Food travels an average of 1,300 miles from farm to dinner plate.

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Well it tastes alright! Myth : Food is safe

Where is the danger?: 

Where is the danger? PESTICIDES In the late 1990s, USDA data showed that nearly 3/4 of conventionally grown crop samples contained pesticide residue. Industrial agriculture necessitates heavy pesticide use because monocropping (planting only one plant in a field) makes fields more vulnerable to pests than those planted with several crops. Half of the herbicides used in the U.S. in 1991 were applied to corn, soybeans, or cotton.

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Where is the danger? Preliminary studies link pesticides to elevated risk of cancer and disruption of the body’s reproductive, immune and nervous systems. The UN has estimated that 2 million poisonings and 10,000 deaths occur worldwide each year from pesticides.

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IRRADIATION, ANTIBIOTICS Where is the danger? Irradiation the typical dose for irradiated meat is 15 million times the energy involved in a single chest x-ray, and 150 times the dose capable of killing an adult. 40% of the antibiotics used each year in the United States are for animals Antibiotics

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ANTIBIOTICS Where is the danger? Heavy use of antibiotics in factory farming of animals has caused bacteria to develop antibiotic resistant strains. Campylobacter bacteria – the most common cause of food-borne illness in the US – increased its drug resistance from 0% in 1991 to 20% in 1999.

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A University of Iowa study found that people living near large-scale hog facilities reported elevated incidence of headaches respiratory problems eye irritation nausea weakness chest tightness Where is the danger? WASTE Fumes and manure runoff from factory farming operations can endanger human health

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Where is the danger? 64.5% of American adults are either overweight or obese. OBESITY 2/3 30% of all corn grown in the U.S. is turned into corn sweetener, the key ingredient in ¾ of all processed foods. The rise in obesity correlates with the rise in the use of corn sweeteners since the 1970s.

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Myth : BIGGER IS BETTER

It’s Definitely Bigger : 

It’s Definitely Bigger Today, just 2% of farms produce 50% of all U.S. agricultural products. Even “organic” doesn’t guarantee local, small scale, or less-processed. Horizon commands 70% of the U.S. market for organic milk which they ultra-pasteurize to ship long distances, depleting the nutrient quality. 4 firms handle more than 80% of all beef slaughter. 20 years ago, the concentration was less than 40%.

But is it Really Better?: 

But is it Really Better? A 2 lb bag of breakfast cereal burns ½ gallon of gasoline in its making. The food processing industry in the United States uses 10 calories of fossil fuel energy for every calorie of food it produces.

Is it really better?: 

Is it really better? Between 1987 and 1992, America lost on average 32,000 farms each year, 80% of them family-run. “We have found depressed median family incomes, high levels of poverty, low education levels, social and economic inequality between ethnic groups, etc., ... associated with land and capital concentration in agriculture” (10). University of California anthropologist Dean MacCannell

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Is it really better? Between 2003 and 2004, Kentucky lost 2,000 farms - from 87,000 to 85,000.

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“But the grocery store has food for aisles and aisles!!” Myth : We Have Abundant Choice

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Choice General Foods Int., Gevalia, Maxim, Maxwell House, Sanka, Seattle’s Best, Starbucks, Tazo, Torrefazione Italia, Yuban, Kool-Aid, Country Time, Crystal Light, Tang, Fruit2O, Veryfine, Oscar Mayer, Taco Bell, California Pizza Kitchen, DiGiorno, Jack’s, Tombstone, Back to Nature, Kraft (and all its versions of Delux, Easy Mac, etc) Boca, Woody’s, Breakstone’s, Knudsen, Light N’ Lively, Philadelphia, Temp-tee, Athenos, Churney, Cracker Barrel, Handi Snacks, Harvest Moon, Hoffman’s, Plly-O, Kraft Delux, Old English, Cheez Whiz, Easy Cheese, Baker’s, Bull’s Eye, Carbwell, Postum, Post CarbWell, Post Honey Bunches of Oats, Shake ‘n Bake, Oven Fry, Grey Poupon, Sauceworks, Cream of Wheat, Milk Bone, Dream Whip, D-Zerta, Jell-O, Knox Gelatin, Minute, Balance, Ever Fresh, Cool whip, Certo, Sure-Jell, Claussen, Honey Maid, Nilla, Oreo, all of Post cereals, Good Seasons, Seven Seas, A1, Stove Top, Barnum’s Animals, Biscos, Café Crème, Cameo, Chips Ahoy, Dad’s, Famous Chocolate Wafers, Family Favorites, Old Fashioned, Ginger Snaps, Lorna Doone, Mallomars, Marshmallow Twirls, National Arrowroot, Newtons, Nutter Butter, Pecan Passion, Pecanz, Pinwheels, Snackwell’s, Social Tea, Stella D’oro, Teddy Grahams, Wild Thornberry’s, Air Crisps, Better Cheddars, Cheese Nips, Crown Pilot, Doo Dad, Flavor Crisps, Harvest Crisps, Nabisco Grahams, Nabs, Premium, Ritz, Royal Lunch, Stoned Wheat Thins, Triscuit, Uneeda, Wheatsworth, Zwieback, Cornet Cups, Corn Nuts, PB Crisps, Jet-Puffed, Terry’s, Toblerone. Brand names of Kraft Foods The Illusion of

We have abundant choice?: 

We have abundant choice? In 2001, Wal-Mart operated 888 stores in the U.S. and 832 outlets in 10 foreign countries In 2000, the top four grocery retail firms held 72% of the market share in 100 cities. Foreign owned companies controlled 15% of U.S. grocery store sales in 1998

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“But I’m so busy and I have so many places to go and people to see!” Myth : Convenience is good.

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The cost of convenience But come at the cost of our heritage and biodiversity. Monocultures are easier to harvest, process and package.

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Source: ERS-USDA. 2002. “food marketing and price spreads: USDA marketing bill.” briefing room (web-source), http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodPriceSpreads/bill/ Convenience Costs! This bill shows the breakdown of each dollar spent on food. The farm value is the amount that farmers receive BEFORE they pay labor and production costs.

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The Marketing Bill shows the breakdown of the food dollar that goes to marketing costs. The labor portion does not include farm labor.

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Only a small share of the cost of convenience foods goes to the farmer

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“Fine. Maybe we don’t eat the cheapest food on the planet or grow it efficiently…we need it to feed all those poor countries, right?” Myth : We Need US Food to Feed the World

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Food for the World? Do we feed the world? International Society for Ecology and Culture. “Local Food, Globally.” Slide Presentation.

Food for the world?: 

Food for the world? Between 1994 and 2004, US imports of fruits and vegetables more than doubled (to $12.7million). We now import more fruits and vegetables than we export.

Food for the World?: 

Food for the World? Current global food production is enough to provide every human with 3,500 calories daily… “People will only cease to be poor when they control the means of providing and/or producing food for themselves.” yet 800 million people worldwide are still hungry.

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Food for the World? The hungry produce their own food when they have access to fertile land. However, the best land is often enclosed for large-scale production of export crops like coffee, cotton or cocoa.   Dumping cost West African farmers $300 million in lost potential income in 1991. Also, subsidies allow U.S. commodity producers to sell products on the world market at a lower price than they produce them. This “dumping” pushes down prices so low that poor farmers struggle to buy food for their families.

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A Hungry Nation 38 million Americans are food insecure. That is 9 times the population of Kentucky

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Impacts: Kentucky So what are we going to do about it? Farm numbers declining High rates of obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes Unequal access to healthy foods Strains on our natural resources

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Money is power, but not the only or the best kind of power

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The Community Farm Alliance is a statewide grass-roots organization that organizes people to work for change around issues of concern to family-scale farmers.

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Sources Cited Bread for the World Institute. Strengthening Rural Communities: Hunger Report 2005. Washington, D.C. 2005. Center for Disease Control. “Kentucky: Obesity by Body Mass Index.” Nov. 5, 2003. http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss/Trends/trendchart.asp?qkey=10010&state=KY Consumer Reports. “The Truth About Irradiated Meat.” Online article, August 2003. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/irradiated-meat-803/overview.htm Economic Research Service, USDA. “Food Marketing and Price Spreads: USDA Marketing Bill.” Updated June 21, 2002. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodPriceSpreads/bill/ “Farm Labor: Employment Characteristics of Hired Farm Workers.” Updated November 13, 2003. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Farmlabor/Employment/#earnings Horrigan, Leo. MHS, Robert S. Lawrence, MD, Polly Walker, MD, MPH “How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture.” Environmental Health Perspectives. Volume 110, Number 5, 2002. http://www.jhsph.edu/Environment/CLF_Press/CLF_publications/WhitePaper.html

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International Society for Ecology and Culture. “Local Food, Globally.” Slide Presentation. www.isec.org.uk/ Kaufman, Phil. “Food Retailing.” U.S. Food Marketing System/AER-811. ERS/USDA, 2002. Kimbrell, Andrew. Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture. Washington; Island Press, 2002. Krissoff, Barry and John Wainio. “US Fruit and Vegetable Imports Outpace Exports.” Amber Waves. June 2005. http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/June05/Findings/USFruitandVegetable.htm Lieberman, Patricia and Margo Wootan. “Protecting the Crown Jewels of Medicine.” Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1998. http://www.cspinet.org/reports/abiotic.htm MacDonald, James. “The Industrial Organization of American Agriculture.” PowerPoint Briefing, Washington, D.C., August 26th, 2005. Manning, Richard. “The Oil we Eat.” Harpers, New York, February 2004. Cont.

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McCauley, Marika Alena. “A Monopoly in Agriculture.” Oxfam America Web site. 2005. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/where_we_work/united_states/news_publications/food_farm/art2563.html National Agricultural Statistics Service. “Kentucky Agricultural Statistics 2004-2005 Bulletin.” http://www.nass.usda.gov/ky/B2005/p016.pdf Pollan, Michael. "Naturally: How Organic became a Marketing Niche and a Multibillion-dollar Industry." The New York Times Magazine, May 13, 2001, 30-37, 57-58, 63-64. Rehydration Project. “Hunger: Myths and Realities.” Updated September 2005, http://www.rehydrate.org/facts/hunger.htm Runyan, Jack L. “Hired Farmworkers’ Earnings Increased in 2001 But Still Trail Most Occupations” Rural America Volume 17, Issue 3/Fall 2002. http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/ruralamerica/ra173/ra173j.pdf US Department of Health and Human Services. The 2005 HHS Federal Poverty Guidelines. September 2005. http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/05poverty.shtml World Hunger Year. “Community Food Security 201: Context, Principles, Practices and Linkages.” Food Security Learning Center. Slide Presentation, Washington, D.C., August 2005.