Why do we bring in outside food?

James Dunn

Agricultural Economist

Penn State University

Recent Food Scares

• Chinese pet food with melamine

• California spinach

• Mexican green onions

• Mad cow disease

• Bird flu

• Genetically modified foods

Reasons to Buy LocalCincinnati Enquirer – August 7, 2007

• Support local businesses

• Food safety

• Fossil fuel use

• Taste

• Nutrition

Does Eating Local Food Save Energy?

• No long-distance transport• Where do you buy it?• How much driving around does this entail?• How much do you buy per trip?• Long-distance transport of food doesn’t use

much energy per pound• Full semi-truckloads often travelling partly by rail • The Economist cited research that half of energy

use in food transport is by consumers in England• If you preserve food to keep it through the winter

it uses a lot of energy ( even commercially)

Some questions

• Could we feed ourselves with locally grown food?

• Is locally grown food safer?

• Do we need to import food?

• Is food from elsewhere riskier than domestically raised food?

• Is our food safe?

• Is it riskier than 10 years ago?

Could we feed ourselves with locally grown food?

• No!• And if we tried it would be prohibitively

expensive• And we would have very little variety• Lack of specialization would sacrifice all

economies of size• We are surrounded by cities and very little

farmland• Lots of labor needed – immigration issue

Is locally grown food safer?

• Probably not!

• Bigger, specialized farms can concentrate on details

• Small, multi-product farms have too many balls in the air

• Most food safety problems are because of mistakes

Do we need to import food from abroad?

• Not necessarily• We would lose variety in our diet• Food costs would go up• No bananas, coffee, tea, chocolate• No grapes in the winter• We export enormous amounts of food• They won’t buy our stuff unless we

reciprocate

General Characteristics of U.S. Agriculture

• U.S. has about 4.5% of world’s people

• 12% of cotton

• 36% of corn

• 31% soybeans

• 6% of land

• 22% of apples

Economies of Size in Farming

• Larger farms can specialize more

• Use equipment better

• Spread management over more units

• Get better rates on shipping and purchasing

• For crops, maximum size hit limits because of distance

• For animals, limit is very large

Agriculture is regionally specialized

• Corn belt

• Wheat belt

• California fruit and vegetables

• Pennsylvania dairy

• Infrastructure needs enough producers

• Processing plants, machinery dealers, handlers all need volume to compete

Is food from elsewhere riskier than domestically raised food?

• It is hard to say

• Maybe. We have less control and they have less accountability

• Lots of our problems come from the US

• Meat problems

• Spinach

Is our food safe?Is it riskier than 10 years ago?

• It is much safer than before

• 24 hour news makes us more aware of problems elsewhere

• Biggest food risk by far is in preparation

• Lots of food poisoning at home and in restaurants

Long-term vs short-term risk

• Short term – food poisoning

• Long term – pesticide residues, carcinogens, GMOs?

• Biggest long-term food risk by far is what we eat and how much – obesity, heart disease, diabetes – not the food risk as such, but food choice and behavior

My own view

• I buy at the farmer’s market to a degree

• Local sweet corn is vastly better

• Like to buy local if it makes sense

• I do not buy organic food

• I love the variety of food available – bing cherries on New Year’s Day, strawberries year round

• Wallner’s Garden

For consumers the good old days weren’t all that good

• Canned beans and corn

• Apples, oranges and bananas in winter

• Lots of potatoes, onions, and carrots

• No fresh fish

• Food was more expensive

• Much less fresh produce

• Much less variety

What would happen if we had to buy local

• Expensive food

• Limited selection

• Poor quality

• Farmers in poverty – multi-product farms ended for good reasons

• How about New York City?