U.S. produces plenty of food — other factors make us food insecure

Did you know that almost 40 percent of all food in the United States goes to waste? Food that is safe to eat, nutritious, and available goes in our collective trash cans. We throw away 133 billion pounds of food each year. It’s a staggering statistic, especially when you consider that some of our neighbors are food insecure.

I’ve served on the board of directors for an Indiana-based nonprofit called Cultivate Food Rescue for the past three years. The nonprofit’s mission is to collect perishable food, transform it into single-serve freezer meals, and distribute it to the community. Since opening in 2016, Cultivate has saved over 10 million pounds of food from three (small-ish) counties in northern Indiana.

And it’s far from alone. Rescue organizations have popped up in communities around the country (and world) to combat this crisis. Of course, there’s more than enough work to go around.

So when a friend sent me a recent article published on Modern Farmer I was a bit perplexed. The title, The US Doesn’t Grow Enough Food — But We Could, seemed wildly out of touch. Closer inspection revealed that it was written by Angela Huffman, the president of Farm Action, an activist organization that is staunchly against the production of corn and soybeans.

So which is it — do we produce enough food but waste a lot of it, or do we not produce enough food?

Farm Action’s agenda

Huffman’s piece mimics the organization’s talking points for its “Food, Not Feed” campaign. It goes something like this: People eat fruits and vegetables. Government supports corn and soybean farmers. So farmers grow corn and soybeans. People can’t eat corn and soybeans. Therefore, we don’t grow enough food. Farm Action advocates that federal farm programs should be geared toward specialty crops (a term the organization mocks) and away from cash crops.

Readers familiar with these types of groups will immediately recognize Farm Action’s use of trendy buzz words: big ag, corporate agriculture, industrial, abusive, making us sick, pesticides. Predictable. The campaign is generally geared toward influencing the next farm bill by changing what crops — and farmers — are most supported. It’s an all-out assault on corn and soybean growers.

The benefits of corn and soybeans

On the surface Farm Action’s basic premise is true: None of us sit down to dinner of field corn and cooked soybeans (well, at least not the kind we harvest). So it makes some sense to conclude that most U.S. farmers aren’t growing the crops we need for a healthy and nutritious diet.

But the truth is that most of our corn crop is used to produce a food category that is a nutritional powerhouse: meat. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, corn is the primary grain used in animal feed, making up a whopping 95 percent of total feed grain production and use. The food uses don’t stop there, because field corn is used to make a wide range of products, including cereals, chips, baked goods, corn meal, and beverages, including beer.

Soybeans are used in much the same way, if not as widely. A good chunk is used for animal feed. But we also use it in foods for human consumption, from soy milk to chocolate and ice cream. Industry uses the rest for biodiesel, paints, plastics, cleaners, rubber, lubricants, and adhesives.

Contrary to Farm Action’s assertion, corn and soybeans are food, just mostly not the kind you eat directly from the field. They’re used as ingredients to make other types of food, just like flour or butter. But instead of baking us a cake, corn and soybeans are used to help produce the most important component of our diet: protein.

And take a stab at what food item is among the most needed by food pantries. Yep, protein sources! By eliminating corn and soybean growers, we aren’t feeding more people, we’re starving our livestock and dismantling our best source of healthy protein.

Maybe that’s Farm Action’s goal?

The U.S. produces enough food

So back to the original question: Does the U.S. grow enough food to feed itself? The answer is, yes, of course. We’re a major agricultural producer, ranking among the top globally for many crops, including rice, potatoes, and wheat. We actually export a lot of food. And while we import food, that’s more about meeting our tastes and preferences (think tropical fruit and spices).

Food insecurity is caused by access and availability issues, not a lack of U.S. production. It’s caused by things like poverty, low wages, distribution challenges, and food waste. There’s no question we can meet the dietary needs of Americans. (In case you’re wondering, the world grows enough food to meet every single human beings’ dietary needs.)

It’s true that the amount of fruits and vegetables grown domestically has decreased over the last 25 years (heck, even my family made the switch). But the decision to switch to cash crops usually has little to do with farm bill subsidies, which only exist in the form of crop insurance. And as Congress has struggled to renew the legislation every time it comes due, it shouldn’t be shocking that farmers aren’t relying on it to make business decisions.

U.S. fruit and vegetable growers are mostly challenged by labor shortages, because these crops require lots of manpower. Many of them are still harvested by hand, especially for the fresh market. In recent years federal guest-worker programs haven’t met farm-labor demands, leaving some farmers with produce that just sits in the field. Rising wages, in conjunction with higher input costs, have made the business side more difficult. Regardless of which side of the aisle you sit, the immigration system is broken.

Of course, that’s not the only difficulty. Extreme weather, water scarcity, and regulatory burdens all compound the hardship — growing specialty crops is hard.

The irony is that Farm Action’s anti-corn-and-soybean stance is counterproductive. Sometimes farmers supplement their income from fresh produce with cash crops to make ends meet. Corn and soybeans are easier to grow, require less labor, keep better, and are less prone to disease and pest pressure. That type of diversification is what keeps these farms going.

That all sounds less dramatic though than telling people the U.S. doesn’t grow enough food to feed ourselves and we need significant subsidy reforms to change that. Reality is often more nuanced than campaigns would suggest.

Amanda Zaluckyj blogs under the name The Farmer’s Daughter USA. Her goal is to promote farmers and tackle the misinformation swirling around the U.S. food industry.