I recently received an e-mail from someone asking me about a statement I have made several weeks ago indicating that the US already has more food security than any other nation. I was asked the question, “Is there any support for the statement that the USA is the most food secure nation or is that just a marketing tag line?”

–First let me say that is no marketing tagline, since I don’t have anything to market.  

While I have no direct source to support my statement, I do believe it is a defendable statement.

In defense, first I would suggest that we look at the definitions of the term food security.  The two most used definitions of food security come from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA):
        • Food security exists 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. (FAO) 
        • Food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies). (USDA)

 

Next I would point you to this report by the reputable research firm Maplecroft (http://www.maplecroft.com/Food_Security_Pressrelease.pdf) that shows that the US is in the bottom percentile risk category globally. (This is a quick way of narrowing the field) this report shows that the US, Canada, most European countries, Australia, Chile, and Japan are the most food secure nations.

I would also suggest that we next look at the total ag export numbers provided by each nation. These numbers indicate a surplus in food supply. In this category, the US would rank highest for production. It is reasonable to believe that a surplus, or an extremely high level of production, disproportionate to the population number (consumption), indicates a high level of security. 

One should also consider the diversity of crops that can be produced within any of given ‘food secure’ countries geographic boundaries.  (this will indicate the potential for diversified production should the need for crop selection changes take place)
Given the US's large landmass size, multiple favorable climate zones, geographic latitudinal location which provides long solar days during primary growing seasons, access to fresh water, plentiful rainfall, and ability to grow numerous nutritional products, compared to countries with smaller landmasses, it is also reasonable to assume that the US has more ability to create nutritious food than most other food secure countries when considering traditional farming practices.

I posed this same question to Mark Nord at the Economic Research Service at the USDA.  He said “Based on another methodology (nationally representative surveys that ask people about difficulties in getting adequate food), most countries have higher levels of food insecurity than the U.S. These have only been conducted in a handful of countries (such as U.S., Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Israel, Yemen, and several others that have not been published). Based on these few surveys, only Canada has a better food security situation than the US. For info on the Canada-US comparison, see www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err67 "

According to Mark, only Canada could be considered a competitor from the food security standpoint. I would add that while Canada performs well in these surveys, they do not have the same advantages that I previously sited when compared to the United States.

Additional Reading: ERS Global Food Security Assessment
Also check out (http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/gfa19/ ) The US is not in this report, but if you look at the conditions reported, I think you will be convinced that all of them have greater food security problems than the US. 

"Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only to set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done. But however easy it may be found to make money, I have no doubt many of my hearers will agree it is the most difficult thing in the world to keep it. The road to wealth is, as Dr. Franklin truly says, "as plain as the road to the mill." It consists simply in expending less than we earn;"

~PT Barnum, 1880
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=19718&pageno=2

On Tuesday April 14, 2009, Germany joined the growing European rebellion over GMO crops by banning MON 810.

Agriculture minister Ilse Aigner, a member of the conservative Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU), said she had concluded that "there is a justifiable reason to believe that... MON 810 presents a danger to the environment".

"I have come to the conclusion that genetically-modified corn from the MON 810 strain constitutes a danger to the environment," Aigner told reporters in Berlin.

Germany's decision goes against the European Commission's decision to support the lifting of bans on planting MON 810 which have been imposed by governments in France, Austria, Hungary, Greece and Luxembourg.

Full Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7998181.stm

I was in Hawaii again last week and thought I would share some new pictures.  It was/is the rainy season and the farmers and ranchers I spoke with said they’ve had more rain this year than in the past 10. It was also extremely windy and cool because I was at a high elevation (3500+ ft) part of the time, thus the jackets in the pictures.  Hawaii is an amazing agriculture state with lots of diversity. Did you know that the Big Island of Hawaii has eleven (11) different climate zones?  The ranch I was on had 3 including desert, grasslands (similar to prairie), and rainforest.   State wide they average 400” of rainfall in the higher elevations and as little as 10” near the shores. The average state temperature swings between 77F summer and 71F in the winter and daily temps hover around 80ishF. Farmland covers about 40% of Hawaii and they are best known for growing pineapple and sugarcane. (although sugarcane production has been on a continuous decline for many years)  You might be surprised to find that they even grow corn over there.  Most of the corn production is genetics research and seed corn.  (the major seed companies all have operations in HI because of its year round temps) The state has about 4400 farms and several very large ranch operations that primarily raise grass-fed beef that is exported and sent back to the mainland. 

Click on the image below to launch the slide show.