Food and Agriculture Final

Yes, the FNS (Food and Nutrition Service) works to end hunger and obesity with services like WIC, SNAP, NSLP, WIC: restricts certain foods that can be supplemented by the government In order to encourage the purchase of healthy foods the government and retailers can work to lower the price of healthier foods to make them accessible to low income individuals and families.

Are there nutritional requirements tied to food benefits provided through federal/state programs? If so, which programs require them? Are there other ways to encourage individuals to use their benefits for more nutritious food?

Similarities between a commodities included: - in general most of the work required to produce the commodities a require a labor intensive activities, and in a extreme conditions, such as extreme heat or a on confined vessels -The practices often resulted in production of green house gasses like methane or carbon dioxide, from the use of non-sustainable energy resources that produce waste -Or included farming practices that used pesticide or herbicides, that contributed to an environmental impact. -in terms of profits on average farmers receive 12% of the overall profits for their commodity but this may increase if the commodity is subsidized by government like corn.

As groups, you researched different commodities examining the social, economic and environmental issues associated with the crop/product. Discuss similarities in social issues across several of the commodities with respect to workers. Is production of any of these commodities linked with increased deforestation, monocultures, or pesticide use? Which of these commodities are currently imported into the US? In terms of final product cost, how much of the money goes to the farmer or field laborer (not exact $, but approximate percentage or reasonable pay)? What is meant by fair trade, in terms of a product? Which of these commodities have fair trade options? For a few commodities, corporations have agreed to more sustainable practices.

If climate change effects agricultural productivity, it is possible that famine could rise in countries that do not have the political infrastructure to combat famine when agricultural productivity decrease, this may cause people to flee to nearby countries that do not have the resources to support additional people, and may result in overall increasing world hunger

Climate change is predicted to impact food availability in parts of the world. How might immigration be impacted in the future? How is malnutrition predicted to be affected? What other changes are forecasted?

National School Lunch/Breakfast Program: -provides free nutritional breakfast and lunch meals to children in public schools for families below the 130% poverty level Children and Adult Care Program: - targets children and adults in daycare programs that allow them to receive 3 meals a day SNAP: -Current food stamp system, in which the government supplements the food expenses depending on size of family Similarities: - Each provide a systematic mechanism to provide or subsidize food for hungry families Differences: -Not all programs provide nutritional benefits for the populations in which they target

Describe the federal /state programs that provide food benefits to different categories of individuals (ages, genders etc). In what ways do they differ?

Food swamps: - People are forced to consume food only within low income areas, which mostly consist of corner stores without fresh produce and nutrient poor foods. - This causes obesity, diabetes, nutrient deficiencies - Lots of added fats and sugars that create a nutritional imbalance for children

Describe the issues surrounding access to food in lower income urban areas. What are the consequences of limited access to nutritional food for lower income populations?

- Farm labor is often very taxing on the body, which may result in long term conditions - Many a farms allow for child labor, that experience long hours and hard manual work, in addition many of these children are consistently moved work multiple harvests. -H2A Agricultural Visas allow for immigrant workers to obtain jobs on farms, however this may result in competitive worker pools between H2A workers and local workers. -Many additional requirements force farmers to provide transportation, housing, and guaranteed pay for these workers with result in additional costs for production. - Many industries have a determined ways to a illegally recruit foreign workers for a cheap labor, especially because of their vulnerability, which ultimately results in labor shortages in local communities.

Discuss farm labor in the US in terms of the labor pool, immigration/visa issues, wages and safety on the job. Why are there so many undocumented workers in this country? How are farmers affected by increasing immigration/visa requirements? What are the social justice issues related to labor in agriculture and food production?

-Cocoa: west Africa, central and South America, and parts of Asia -Sugar: Brazil, india, chile For these commodities the supply chain is dependent on these countries for mass production of these products -COOL: country of origin labeling requires that sellers notify their customers of the source of certain foods, labeling the country of origin allows the consumer to know how their food is produced and under what kind of food regulations, this is important because food regulations may vary in different countries, the labeling may also allow the FDA to exclude some imported foods depending on their origin

Discuss globalization in supply chains for food supplies. How can this influence food safety and how is it reflected in food labeling?

- Population - Poverty - Pollution - Productivity (in agriculture) - Politics - Somalia 2011-2012 - suffered from production failure, and lack of infrastructure and donors, and drought, which resulted in famine. This increased the number of refugees, but they wanted to go into other poor countries that didn't have the resources to help them - Currently in some parts of Kenya and Ethiopia famine is occurring due to an extreme drought which results in a lack of income for producers and deficit in production of locally grown food

Discuss the factors (think "p") that are responsible for most famines. Describe how several of these factors have played a role in a major famine in part of the world. Be able to discuss several historic famines in sufficient detail to support your answer. What parts of the world are currently experiencing famines and why?

1930s: Great Depression - People borrowed more money than they could repay - This hurt banks and businesses - Workers laid off - Factories had produced more products than they could sell - Farmers had a surplus of food crops (prices fell) - After WWI high tariffs made it difficult to trade with foreign countries ■ GOVT bought agricultural surplus ■ Distributed it to help farmers, relieve hunger 1940s: Intorduction of food stamps and national school lunch program - allowed hungry people to have access to the agriculture surplus 1960s: ○ Expand food stamp program ○ Free, reduce priced school meals ○ WIC: federal assistance program for food and nutrition, for Women, Infants, and children

Discuss the history of food programs in the US from the 1920's

1) This would help their own countries economy 2) encourage consumers to buy less expensive home grown goods 3) Increase home business profits

Discuss the reasons that countries might impose tariffs on imported goods?

- MAP (Massachusetts avenue project) target at risk youth and give them a purpose to keep them out of prison - Green shoots (for new Americans program) opportunity for farmers from other countries classes to grow/ farm crops and give them a chance to become financially independent (grow goods, speak English, sell at farmers market or make salsa to sell product)

Due to the shrinking pool of traditional farmers, a number of farmer training programs have developed. Provide some examples and describe the target populations being trained.

Mostly cotton, corn, wheat, soybeans, rice Yes there are biases because products like corn and soybeans are primarily produced in the US and can be produced a easily and manufactured into other items

Food subsidies are not applied equally across different food types. What types of foods receive the highest level of subsidies? Do you think that there are any biases in terms of subsidies and if so, why might these develop?

- Govt provides subsidies on foods that are not nutritious for humans - These largely include corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, dairy and livestock. -These commodities are mostly converted into high-fat meat and dairy products, refined grains, sugary drinks and processed foods—none of which make up a healthy diet

How do federal subsidies of food correlate with the nutritional status of the foods?

- After passage of NAFTA, we dumped our corn into mexico - corn going to mexico was 19% below cost of production. The price of corn in mexico plummeted 66% - Because of the increase of yellow corn from the US, the price of white corn, used to make tortillas in Mexico, increased to be 6x greater - Also had 2.5 million mexican farmers lose their farm bc they couldn't compete w/ US corn exports - We didn't want to buy sugar from other countries - used corn to make HFCS so we boosted our own economy and provided a cheap source of sweetner

How has US production of corn for ethanol influenced food prices in Mexico? Discuss the pros/cons of increasing ethanol production from corn considering environmental, social and economic factors. How have our policies on sugar influenced corn production?

-Food price volatility is a key concern in global issues because spikes in food price cause rapid poverty and high income inequality due to the lack of access to affordable foods. The price of food often spikes when the price of non-renewable resource, like oil, spike which causes more expenditures for the producers and an overall rise in price

How has food price volatility affected global issues in recent years? Provide examples

- The US has experienced a steady increase imports and exports in the last decade, however when compared to the rest of the world the US significantly falls short in total imports and exports - The introduction of NAFTA has allowed the US to significantly expand its exports in corn - The FDA manages control of food importation, in which it requires that producers to meet a set of food guidelines that satisfy food safety protocol in order to enter the US -Yes because not all countries have equal food regulations as the US, there the US must be very cautious and particular on what foods can be imported for safety precautions.

How have US food imports and exports changed in the last decade? How is food safety controlled for importation? Consider the following-"WTO (World Trade Organization) and NAFTA required the United States to replace its long-standing requirement that only meat and poultry meeting U.S. safety standards could be imported. Under this standard, only meat from plants specifically approved by USDA inspectors could be imported. But WTO and NAFTA - and the Free Trade Agreements that followed - required the United States to accept meat and poultry from all facilities in a trade partner country if that country's system was found to be "equivalent," even if core aspects of U.S. food safety requirements, such as continuous inspection or the use of government (not company-paid) inspectors, were not met.. USDA has found 47 countries' safety systems to be equivalent. Equivalence determinations have allowed U.S. meat imports to persist even after infrequent USDA spot checks of a sample of a country's processing plants have found major health threats. " Do these policies generate any concerns regarding food safety?

Factors: 1) Environmental impacts: the production and processing of some brands may determine its sustainability, for example foods with the USDA organic label indicate low environmental impact and high sustainability 2) Made from natural or renewable resources: some brands indicate efficacious sustainability based on sustainable production and use of green energy, like a aquacultures for many seafoods 3) Brands that do not contain highly toxic compounds, and their production does not result in highly toxic by-products, which suggests that post production of the product does not result in malignant by-products. Difficult: some practices may abide by one sustainable category but violate another, Tuna Fishing: pole/line is sustainable, yet vessels produce by product that increase carbon emission

If someone were to ask you to recommend a particular brand or source for a food item and they wanted the most "sustainable" choice, what factors would you need to consider in making your recommendation? Why might it be difficult to compare brands or sources for their overall sustainability ranking? Use examples to support your answer.

- Supermarket, has everything - usually far away from people and lack of access can create food swamps, has a abundance of nutritious and poor foods - Corner store - hard to market to others (no advertising experience), hard to move things with short shelf life (things go bad before are bought), hard to buy things for the store, bc are so small, need to inform shoppers of nutritional information - Convenience store - food swamp, no food with any nutritional value - Farmer's market - access to local, fresh and nutritious food, sometimes take EBT and will double your food dollars

Individuals can acquire food from restaurants and various forms of retail-supermarkets, corner stores, convenience markets, "dollar" stores, farmers' markets and more. Ignoring price variation across these options, how do they differ in what types of food they provide?

- To inflate the apparent protein content of food products; high in nitrogen - Different countries have different food safety regulations and some countries are not as efficient as others, therefore some toxins may go undetected during a processing

Melamine, which is toxic if consumed, was used by some Chinese food processors resulting in sickness and death of people and pets. Why was it used? Why was it not detected prior to food distribution?

Wild Planet Tuna: uses sustainable practice like pole and line fishing that reduce by-catch - The increasing demand from consumers for sustainably caught tuna moves this company to be more sustainable -Tuna depends on abundance, as wild caught tuna is often over-fished lack of abundance may drive up the price. -tariffs on tuna often drive up the price because locally caught tuna may scarce in US waters

Provide an example of a company which has agreed to adopt or has already implemented better practices with a description of the changes. What factors can lead to a company deciding to make these changes? What are some factors that might affect costs of several of these products (besides tariffs or lacks of subsidies)? How do subsidies and/or tariffs affect the pricing of any of these commodities?

-Continents: Africa, Asia , South America -Countries: Liberia, Chad, Zambia, Madagascar, Uganda, North Korea, Haiti - Short term - cash vouchers - Long term: food storage facilities, teach local agriculture/sustainability (self sufficiency), educate about health and nutrition

Referring to the world hunger map which can be viewed at http://cdn.wfp.org/hungermap/, what are some of the countries and continents that have very high levels of undernourished? In what ways can help be provided both in the short-term and long-term for countries facing high levels of malnourishment?

1) the use of autonomic farm bots to maximize farming - automated tractors: much lighter than manual tractors, and supply soil specific areas of the field that need it, rather than supplying soil to an entire field at once, this maximizes soil use and decreases pollution of water and air 2) urban farming: Farming in small vast lots, roof tops, or vertical farming. Have small ecological footprint and supply fresh food urban areas that may be food deserts. Roof top or vertical farms allow for growth to take place without compromising available ground space, as urban areas expand urban is a sustainable option for many communities

Review the examples of technologies and farming methods presented in the "solutions" module. Be able to discuss several of these and highlight how they address our ability to feed the world.

-76% - These categories include USDA Food and Nutrition expenditure programs: WIC, SNAP.. that provides financial grocery supplements -other categories include crop insurance, commodities, and conservation

The US Farm Bill provides funding for many different programs. Approximately what % of the farm bill represents nutritional programs? What categories of programs are included in this large funding and what are the larger categories?

- WTO - thailand, pakistan and malaysia said Us can't ban goods (shrimp) from one country over goods from another country that are essentially the same (shrimp are shrimp) - US responded, said yes we violated GATT, but is ok to violate if it protects human, animal, plant life or health and related to the conservation of natural measures -The WTO responded ruled in favor of Thailand, Pakistan, and Malaysia, by the means in the WTO promotes trade not conservation/environmental issues

The shrimp industry/sea turtle controversy is an example of how trade laws restrict a country's influence over other another country's practices. The US was trying to ensure that all wild shrimp sold in the US were caught with nets that had turtle excluder devices. How did the WTO and GATT impact our ability to restrict shrimp sales?

1) US exports more corn into Mexico resulting in dumping and overproduction a) Increase of government subsidies on corn b) increase of exports on sugar, tobacco, corn c) We import seafood, fresh produce coming from Mexico

To what extent has US imports and exports changed since NAFTA went into effect?

- USDA: manages changes in food processing and food distribution - FDA: protect public health by ensuring safety, efficiency, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products and medical devices - CDC: investigate food outbreaks and implements systems to better detect, stop and prevent them - FSIS: ensures that meat, poultry, and processed egg supply is wholesome, safe, and properly labeled

What agencies are responsible for our food safety and what responsibilities does each agency have?

Can make gardens, but soil can have harmful chemicals (lead based paint, arsenic) so have to test soil or use a raised bed. Can also do rooftop gardens Benefits of urban farming - Access to healthy, fresh produce, creates community resilience - Boosts local economy - Smaller environmental footprint

What are the opportunities and obstacles for urban farming in cities like Buffalo that have experienced a decline in population and have vacant lots?

Food processing: Lack of use of protective gear may lead to exposure of external diseases via transport of the workers Distribution: Food can be vulnerable during transport, because many require specific controlled conditions which subjects them to risk during transport. Preparation and handling: - Bacteria can spread via contaminated cutting board, and Viruses can spread via infected person preparing food (ie stomach flu)

What food safety issues aside from pathogens exist with our field crops (think pre-consumer)?

- disease resulting in severe mental deterioration Occur when cows consume feed contaminated with parts from another infected cow, upon cow consumption the disease can transmit to humans - Severe restrictions were placed on the importation of live ruminants, such as cattle, sheep, and goats, and certain ruminant products from countries where BSE is known to exist; FDA requires process and control systems to ensure that feed for ruminants does not contain the prohibited mammalian tissue (ie. feed ban)

What is Mad Cow Disease (BSE) and how is it potentially transmitted? What safeguards are in place in the US to prevent transmission?

- Food hub: a business or organization that actively manages the production, distribution, and marketing of course-identified food products primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail and institutional demand - Farmers: offer a combination of production, distribution, and marketing services -Consumers: creates jobs and increasing access to fresh healthy foods

What is a food hub? How can it assist farmers? How can it assist consumers?

- Product name - Quantity of content - Nutritional information - Ingredients - Manufacturer or distributor They are not required by federal law, however some states require dates on meat or milk

What labeling requirements exist for food? Are expiration dates required and if so, for what food types?

- They must have safe durable materials to minimize contamination and spread infectious disease - Manage Pest control to maintain the quality of food - Proper waste handling, to monitor health risks off products, and reduce environmentally detrimental waste

What responsibilities do food processors have for maintaining food safety?

provide federal crop insurance to farmers to protect against losses in yield, crop revenue, or whole farm revenue 1) ensures that farmer sets the price for the commodity 2) Does not set a limit to how much crop can be grown, which does not penalize the surplus 3) Farmer are no longer paid for not growing

What types of crop insurance are available under the Farm Bill and how do the types differ? Can farmers switch types within growing seasons?

- Bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi (bacteria most common) - In 2019 there was an E coli outbreak of romaine lettuce that was traced back to one common producer with many ranches and fields which supplied lettuce and contribute to all 3 outbreaks - Decentralized production reduces food safety risks, as long-distance food can potentially be contaminated at many points on its journey to our plates

What types of pathogens can make foods unsafe to consume? How can pathogens be introduced within the food system? Provide examples of food safety scares in recent years. In what ways are food safety issues reduced with locally produced foods?

-Short-term: Can create communal trade markets to provide a source of steady income for families undergoing reoccurring poverty, trade markets allow for job availability when access to jobs fall short -Long Term Solution: developing sources of renewable energy that may aid in overall production, and reduce food shortages when agricultural productivity or price volatility become an issue

What types of short-term and long-term assistance are available for countries experiencing food shortages or malnutrition? View several "stories" of how USAID funding has helped in developing countries-see https://stories.usaid.gov/#priorities.

- Grassroots gardens - group in buffalo, groups apply to have city lots and can rent them for $1 a year and then are protected by the insurance they (grassroots gardens) provide - Farmer Pirates - Buffalo group, is a subscription service that collects a bin from you and will compost it -many of these CSAs provide fresh affordable and sustainable food in urban areas or food dessert where fresh nutritious produce is unavailable, in addition CSA use sustainable practices a that benefit the environment as a whole and reduce waste

for food and agriculture. Describe several of these organizations and how their efforts are a more sustainable approach. How do CSAs work and help small farmers and the community?