Farming has been on my mind ever since my visit to the Cotton Cattle Company. From my work in the environmental world, I know that agriculture has a huge impact on the environment. From my sustainability work in particular, I have learned about specific crops like palm and cotton and other ag industries like beef tallow and wood products. But more recently I was thinking about farmers themselves and doing a little reading. Did you know that farmers receive only an estimated 3-4% of the money you spend on food? In 1900, they received nearly 70%. What changed? Well, somebody has to pay for the quality control, preservation, packaging, labeling, distribution, handling, storage, advertising, compliance with laws and regulations and supermarkets.
As a consequence of the pressure on farmers, there are fewer farmers. Only 18% of US farms produce 87% of the food. They’ve become more productive though, and costs have stayed relatively low. At least in the US. The percent of income spent on food is quite a bit higher in Europe and in poor, developing countries. With this much production, you may wonder why hunger is still such a problem in the US. Much of the answer to that is distribution – getting the abundance of food transported in good condition to the people needing it.
I looked up cashew farming since I’m snacking on them while I write. A rather large percentage of cashews comes from wild trees, and not plantations. This is good news; very little habitat is destroyed to plant cashew trees. The leaf of the cashew tree is toxic to other plants and animals and the seeds have a harmful irritant that prevents animals from eating them. This means cashew trees can grow to be quite old; one in Brazil is estimated to be more than 1,000 years old.
I don’t think I’ll be buying any local cashews in NJ, but I do get the opportunity to buy more of my produce and meats nearby and I’m happy to support the local farmers.
As a consequence of the pressure on farmers, there are fewer farmers. Only 18% of US farms produce 87% of the food. They’ve become more productive though, and costs have stayed relatively low. At least in the US. The percent of income spent on food is quite a bit higher in Europe and in poor, developing countries. With this much production, you may wonder why hunger is still such a problem in the US. Much of the answer to that is distribution – getting the abundance of food transported in good condition to the people needing it.
I looked up cashew farming since I’m snacking on them while I write. A rather large percentage of cashews comes from wild trees, and not plantations. This is good news; very little habitat is destroyed to plant cashew trees. The leaf of the cashew tree is toxic to other plants and animals and the seeds have a harmful irritant that prevents animals from eating them. This means cashew trees can grow to be quite old; one in Brazil is estimated to be more than 1,000 years old.
I don’t think I’ll be buying any local cashews in NJ, but I do get the opportunity to buy more of my produce and meats nearby and I’m happy to support the local farmers.