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from the pages of
July 2004
The Cost of Food
by Michael Ballon
As the price of a gallon of gasoline has risen to
over $2 per gallon for the first time across the
country, the nation has been preoccupied lately with
the cost of filling up with a tank of gas. A frequent
topic of conversation among friends and family is how
much it costs to buy gas, or how scandalous and
shocking the most recent price posted at an area gas
station is. The presumption is that it is among our
natural rights to be able to drive large gas guzzling
vehicles and to be able to buy inexpensive gas. As a
nation we are in the process of adjusting to the notion
that both of those propositions are unsustainable and
rapidly becoming a relic of history.
No single event or price shock in the market place for food is likely
to cause food prices to rise in the same manner, but we
have become accustomed to thinking that it is our
national birthright to be able to buy inexpensive food,
without giving a lot of thought to how or where that
food is produced. As a nation we remain the largest
food producer and exporter in the world, and so the
food equivalent of the 1973 oil embargo is
unimaginable. About 1/3 of the cost of food is the
cost of transportation, which is just one of the
compelling arguments for eating locally raised food.
As fuel prices rise, so will the cost of food. And
since the large industrial farms which produce most of
the commercial food crops in this country are reliant on
huge quantities of petroleum based fertilizers, as well
a large tractors and equipment, increases in the price
of gas will be reflected even more in the cost of food.
Most people are not aware that around the planet
a gallon of water generally costs more than a gallon
of gas, and many of the same people who are outraged
at paying $2 per gallon of gas frequently pay far
more than that for a gallon of fizzy water with
artificial lemon flavor. Vast areas of the normally
arid southwest, including most of southern California,
which grows much of the nation's fruits and vegetables,
rely on subsidized water diverted from the Colorado
River, which is at record lows this year. We are on the
verge of highly contentious battles between civilian
users of water ,and large agribusiness which rely on
cheap subsidized water, which uses a disproportionate
amount of scare water to grow food. The outcome is
almost certainly going to be more expensive food.
The cost of human labor is obviously a major factor in
the cost of food. It is not just food imported from
Central and South America which is grown under
conditions only slightly better than slavery, and which
few Homestyle readers would be willing to tolerate. As
Eric Schlosser documents in his recent book
"Reefer Madness", the migrant labor which picks most
of the field crops in this country, much of it illegal
and temporary, still works in appallingly bad
conditions. Perhaps even more shocking, according to
Ronald Jager in his new book, "The Fate of Family
Farming", 90% of all American farmers earn less than
$20,000 a year, and only 1% off all farmers account for
more than half of all farm income. Farm income is
concentrated in a handful of large agribusiness farms,
while most small farmers struggle. If small,
independent farmers can't make a living and go out of
business, the only food available in this country will
be produced with chemical inputs by large agribusiness
farms. This has already happened to dairy farms in New
England in the last generation.
In the midst of this,
some people have begun to recognize that it is simply
going to cost more to eat quality food which is
responsibly grown. The Fair Trade Coffee movement was
founded to ensure that growers receive a fair price for
their coffee. It remains to be seen if this will
spread to other commodities. Organic food costs more,
yet it is one of the fastest growing sections of
the consumer market.
Its already true that the
poor in this country eat not just less, but worse, and
as the cost of conscientiously produced food rises,
this trend will continue. One particularly
heartening response here in the Berkshires is Share The
Bounty, a project which donates food from local farms
to food pantries. The food distributed in food pantries
is mostly in jars, cans, and boxes, and fresh produce
is a welcome change. Farmer's markets are another way
to bring high quality produce directly to consumers.
Their success both in the Berkshires and New York City
has enabled many people to have access to responsibly
grown food.
As the cost of food rises, so too will
the number of hungry and undernourished. The affluent
will always be able to afford Fair Trade Coffee, organic
vegetables, and artisanal cheese. The ongoing challenge
in this country will be to make high quality food
available to and affordable for everyone. We have our
work cut out for us.
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