Food is too cheap, at least for its producers. The economy of American farmers is
constantly in a state of depression. Our few remaining farmers are getting old
and their children, understandably, are leaving the farm. As the farmers go, our
agriculture must become increasingly dependent on fossil fuels, toxic chemicals,
overdoses of antibiotics, and migrant labor. The price that farmers get for their
produce often barely covers the cost of production. It doesn't even pretend to
pay the costs of farm maintenance and land conservation. When the food economy
destroys its sources in nature and in human communities, food is far too
expensive.
Wendell Berry, poet and author of The Unsettling of America: Culture and
Agriculture
The problem is not how much food costs but who gets the money. We would greatly
improve the health of our food supply by paying hard-working small farmers more.
Food-reform efforts need to focus on changing the flow of money so we support
small farmers and good agriculture instead of lining the pockets of greedy and
destructive multinational corporations.
Martin Teitel, executive director, Council for Responsible Genetics
The single most important problem with food in this country is that it is vastly
overproduced. The single most important nutritional problem is obesity. These
issues are clearly related, and cheap food is a factor in both. Food companies
compete fiercely for our food dollars and do everything they can to induce us to
eat their products and to eat more food-regardless of the effects on waistlines
and health.
Marion Nestle, chair, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York
University
Cheap food is important
to consumers, especially to low-income consumers. In the United States, low food
prices are associated with "high-yield, high-input" agriculture. High-yield
agriculture means less land devoted to crops and pasture. This means less habitat
destruction. Market economies have performed relatively well, and most
food-industry sectors provide a broad array of products, including organically
grown products.
Robert E. Evenson, director, Economic Growth Center, Yale University
Pesticides that accumulate in the bloodstreams of farmworkers' children are too
cheap. Water from river-draining irrigation projects is too cheap. Synthetic
fertilizers that choke estuaries with algal blooms are too cheap. Jet fuel burned
to deliver farm-raised Norwegian salmon to power luncheons in Washington, D.C.,
is too cheap.
But food is not too cheap. We tax food providers on every dollar of wages they
pay, but not on every pound of pesticides, gallon of irrigation water, or ton of
packaging plastic they use. If we taxed pollution rather than paychecks, we would
lower the prices of wholesome, low-impact, and typically labor-intensive foods,
such as local organic produce. And we would raise the prices of high-impact,
unhealthful, and labor-sparing foods such as mass-produced Idaho fries and Texas
beef.
Alan Durning, executive director, Northwest Environment Watch and coauthor of Tax
Shift
For the consumer, food costs are too high, especially for packaged or frozen
foods. For the producer, food is too cheap. The expense of farming is putting
many good farmers out of business. There is a better way. For the farmer it is
marketing co-ops, developing niche markets for grain, meat, and vegetables. For
the consumer there are farmers' markets and consumer co-ops. These alternatives
benefit consumers and farmers, and protect the environment.
Robert Warrick, Nebraska farmer and chair, Sierra Club
Agriculture Committee
In 100 cities around the world, food costs for lower-income families are 60 to 90
percent of family income, and that isn't cheap. Food security for all people
requires a strengthening of local food systems to complement the national and
global food systems that have brought food prices down for some people.
