Food Security, Part 1

The following is a feature article that appeared in the Sunday, April 12 Times Leader. As with most global issues, it is complicated and huge. I wrote the piece as an introduction to promote thought and attention toward something that affects everyone at some level.  

Almost 90 million acres of corn is grown in the United States, 40 percent of the world’s total. The majority of the crop is used for livestock feed (43 percent) and ethanol (30 percent,) and only 3 percent is grown for human consumption.

If there were an earthquake or other disaster that rendered the area inaccessible, how would Ohio Valley residents get food? What if fires, drought or an earthquake destroyed crops in California, Mexico or Chile where much of the Ohio Valley’s—and United States’—food is grown? Even though there is food available now, how many people know families or elderly neighbors who are not able to provide enough food for their households, or cannot provide nutritious food on a regular basis?

Food security is a growing concern throughout the world. Its definition, per the 1996 World Food Summit and echoed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA,) is “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”  USDA research indicates that, in 2012, 49 million people did not have households with food security, including 8.3 million children.

Experts have decided on four pillars with which to measure food security: availability, access, utilization and stability. Availability pertains to food supply and its production, distribution and exchange or trading systems. It begins with the soil—or pasture or feedlot—and ends at the cash register. It encompasses what farmers plant or raise, how food is fertilized and watered, how it is harvested and transported to be distributed or sold, and how it is packaged and marketed to consumers.

Research has found that poverty more than scarcity affects access to food. Is food affordable? How much food can a family afford? Is the food they can afford nutritious? Direct access to food means that a household can grow its own (vegetables, fruits, or livestock) in order to sustain a healthy diet. Economic access means that food is grown somewhere else and purchased by the consumer. 

Ken Peralta, director of Grow Ohio Valley, explains the importance of developing more agriculture programs and training the next generation in how to grow food. The Sisters of St. Joseph recently hosted the conference on food security, “Growing Food, Health and Hope,” at which Peralta spoke.

Utilization of food is basically the dietary habits of the households and whether the food eaten is safe to eat (regarding freshness and proper handling) and whether it meets recommended requirements for nutrients and dietary restrictions. Families below the poverty level may only purchase “cheap” processed food because of its low cost, but much of it is high in sugar and low in nutrients, creating long-term health issues.

Stability means that the household is able to have access to available, nourishing food over an extended time. It may be affected by weather, growing seasons or natural disasters in the overall picture or by individual issues like unemployment or illness in the household.    

How is the food security issue relevant to the Ohio Valley? First, this region ranks consistently above the national average in diagnoses and deaths from diabetes and cardiopulmonary disease. Low incomes and high poverty rates have helped create the habit of purchasing inexpensive, highly processed food in boxes and packages. Processing and chemicals diminish the nutritional value of the food, and cheap additives like high fructose corn syrup only enhance the flavor and add calories. The body, however, isn’t receiving the nutrients it requires and stays “hungry” while chemicals that it can’t use in the food pass through the digestive system or spark undesirable reactions (like inflammation response.)

Sugar in particular causes the body to crave more food; people respond by eating more processed food, increasing calories and perpetuating the unhealthy cycle. This has become so prevalent that, at the recent “Growing Food, Health and Hope” conference sponsored by the St. Joseph Retreat Center in Wheeling, Kate Long of Try This West Virginia stated that a study of 11 year-olds in West Virginia determined one out of four (25 percent) has high blood pressure. 

Buying locally grown berries not only supports a local family, but is healthier food. Produce harvested that day or the day before still has most of its valuable nutrients. Produce picked in South America a week before arriving in stores has most likely lost much of its nutritional value, and the money spent goes to large corporations.

As far as food supply and availability, as mentioned, much of the Ohio Valley’s food comes from at least 1,000 miles away. This gives local consumers less control over their food supply, and the longer the time between harvest and table, the fewer nutrients the food retains. By the time tomatoes or blueberries arrive in stores from the west coast or South America, as much as 50 percent or more of the nutritional value is gone. Relying on long-distance production also uses more fossil fuels for transportation. Oil price fluctuations often affect food prices for this reason. By purchasing from local growers who have harvested within the past 48 hours, consumers can nearly double the food’s value to the body. Buying local also keeps money in the area, while purchasing from large retailers takes money from this community.

Ken Peralta, director of Grow Ohio Valley (www.growov.org) who also spoke at the conference, noted that Walmart controls one out of six food dollars in the United States. While the Ohio Valley is somewhat rural-- especially Belmont, Harrison, Monroe and Guernsey Counties—there are fewer than 11 acres being farmed for vegetables in Ohio County, and fruit orchards have moved out of the area. Peralta and Brandon Holmes, policy analyst for West Virginia Food & Farm Coalition, conducted a study that found that increasing consumption of locally produced food by 10 percent would create nearly 400 jobs in production, processing, distribution and other industries in the Ohio Valley.

“It’s great that we can get relatively fresh produce in the middle of February here in the Ohio Valley, and in very real and important ways that adds to our food security,” Holmes says. “But 1,500 miles becomes a lot farther away in the event of a spike in fuel prices, drought, hurricane, etc. One reason to be concerned right now is the severe drought affecting many key growing regions in California, the southwest, and Mexico. Producers there are adapting, and prices have remained stable, but it shows how vulnerable we are by having all of our eggs in just a few baskets. As production shifts in the West, local farmers can cash in on new opportunities, and make our area more resilient in the process. Having more food production capacity here in the area would boost our ability to withstand problems in the international food supply, while still enjoying food from all over the world.” 

(Part 2 will be published in the Sunday, April 19 edition of the Times Leader and posted here next week.)

The number of small dairy and beef farms is decreasing in the Ohio Valley as farmers age and their children opt for non-farming careers. Fewer farms mean  less food and food security in the event of an emergency.