How secure is our food?

I spend a lot of time trying to understand our national food system. I'm by no means an economist. Trying to understand tariffs and trade policies makes my head spin. I came to farming because I wanted better control over the food we fed our family and also saw that desire from our community. A lot of people want to have more local options. Yet I also feel the need to understand the bigger picture...or at least try to.

Historically farmers had to face many challenges that would affect the price of their product: weather, predators, available labor options, supply vs demand. It was known that in a particularly dry year or a year when pests, like rodents, put extra stress on a crop, prices would be up. In years with high yield prices would fall. Food was a much more local endeavor. Anything that was not grown or raised in your area or your very own backyard carried a high price tag and was out of reach for most. 

We are now a society that has become accustomed to having access to everything no matter the season. Tomatoes in January...No problem, asparagus in August...you got it. Eggs year around no matter the daylight...here you go. Product prices are still affected by the things listed above, but also highly manipulated. The bigger rat issues seem to be centralized in D.C. where the food and chemical lobbyists exert great influence on what's grown, subsidized, imported, exported.   

The current USDA and FDA climate is perplexing at best. The price of food is no longer based on what the farmers down the road were able to produce in this year's conditions. 

Over the next few Tuesdays, I'm going to share some of my thoughts on the current food climate.

Eggs:

This winter we saw another "egg crisis" hit grocery stores. Supply was lower, demand was high and prices were even higher! Often I feel like demand can be so driven by the suggestion that supply is short. So when we see a threat to that supply, we panic and buy.  

We've seen that trend with eggs on about a 2-year cycle. At least as long as I've been in the position to really be paying attention to it as a producer.

Brooke Rollins, the current head of the USDA, recently put together a 5-point plan to help reduce egg prices and better manage avian flu concerns.  

Strengthening Biosecurity Measures: The USDA will help egg factories implement bio-security measures. The USDA (taxpayers) will cover 75% of these costs for the largest egg producers.

Expediting Relief for Farmers to Accelerate Repopulation:  The payout for producers that 'depopulate' flocks that have any birds with Avian influenza has increased by 2.5x.  

Reducing Regulatory Burdens to Expand Supply & Lower Prices:  Here the goal is to reduce the need to 'depopulate' to keep flocks laying.  My hope is that we really start to look at how these massive egg operations are running. Get more birds outside...with sunlight and fresh air. I doubt that's what will happen given the first point is better "biosecurity"

Investing $100 Million in Avian Flu Research & Vaccine Development: I strongly believe that we need to focus more on building healthy animals in environments that allow them to naturally fight off viruses. These flu strains mutate faster than the vaccines can be adjusted to them. In animals like chickens that only live weeks to maybe a couple of years in commercial operations, the ability to track any virus and have a vaccine be effective is going to be challenging if not impossible.

Exploring Temporary Import-Export Adjustments to Stabilize Supply: Egg exports have been reduced by 8% to keep domestic supply up.  Also, we have commitments from Turkey and South Korea to import eggs to us. Now I know when I go the the store and buy a mango it's probably not from the US. But it never occurred to me that the eggs in the grocery store may be from South Korea. I fail to understand how this point helps support US producers.  

So while we may be seeing a lower price on eggs at the store we have to ask where we are paying for that change. The costs of many of these changes are being paid for with your tax dollars and by bringing in food from other countries that we are able to produce here. I'll add that from small-scale farms and the families that shop with us, the burden is heavier...we are paying taxes to the farm bill for which we don't collect and also paying the true cost of that food.

What I do know is when you buy directly from the farmer or rancher, you truly know where your meat or eggs are coming from and where your money is actually going...right to the farm that raised your food. 

Let me know what thoughts you have about our national food system. I'll be back next Tuesday with some information on the current trends in the beef market.

Aila