Global and US Agricultural Overview: Production, Trade, and Hunger
International Agriculture
US Commodity Production and Trade
The US produces a significant amount of agricultural products, including:
- Corn
- Cow Milk
- Soybeans
- Wheat
- Sugar Cane
- Sugar Beet
- Potatoes
- Chicken Meat
- Tomatoes
- Cattle Meat
The US spends a relatively low percentage of take-home income on food, only 6.2%, compared to less developed countries (LDCs) that spend one-third to one-half of their income on food. The top three customers of US agricultural products are Canada, China, and Mexico.
The US typically maintains a trade surplus in agriculture, exporting more than it imports. However, outside of agriculture, the US has a significant trade deficit, importing more manufactured goods like computers, clothes, and TVs.
Soybeans are the top US agricultural export by price, with China being the largest customer. Alcohol is the top import by price, with Canada being the largest overall agricultural customer.
Global Food Security
Food security refers to the availability of food and exists when all people have consistent physical, economic, and social access to nutritional food. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) conducts a global agricultural census every five years to assess food security and agricultural practices worldwide.
US Agriculture
Farm Census and Demographics
The USDA conducts a farm census every five years to collect data on farm size, ownership, income, and production. In 2012, the US experienced a 33% increase in agricultural product sales, marking the first time since the 1970s that crop sales surpassed livestock sales, potentially due to dietary shifts.
The average age of a US farmer is 58, with 75% of farms earning less than $50,000 annually. Men operate 86% of farms, while women operate 14%. White, non-Hispanic individuals own 92% of farms, with Hispanics representing the largest minority among the remaining 8%.
Farm Structure and Production
The US had 2 million farms in 2012, with land in farms being a more critical factor than the number of farms. Corporate entities own 2% of US farms, while smaller, family-owned farms drive growth in the sector. Despite a decrease in the overall number of farms, the size of existing farms is increasing.
California leads the US in agricultural production, generating over half of the nation’s agricultural output. Iowa ranks second, primarily due to its position as the nation’s top pork producer. North Carolina follows as the second-largest pork producer.
Profitability and Value-Added Agriculture
Grains, oilseeds, milk (capital-intensive), fruits, nuts, poultry, eggs, and greenhouse products (four of which are produced in California) offer good returns in US agriculture. Conversely, sheep, goats, aquaculture (fish farming), and horses yield poor returns. Horses are primarily considered recreational animals, making raising them for sale less lucrative.
Value-added agriculture encompasses any agricultural product that undergoes additional processing between production and sale, such as shelled almonds or bagged fruit.
Government Intervention in Agriculture
Reasons for Intervention
Governments intervene in agriculture for social, economic, and political reasons:
- Social: Ensure food supply, maintain affordable prices, manage surplus, support small farms, address environmental concerns.
- Economic: Stabilize farm commodity prices, promote income equality for farmers, ensure farm input availability, manage domestic and international trade.
- Political: Maintain agriculture as a domestic strategic asset; in LDCs, governments aim to reduce food prices to minimize urban unrest.
Addressing Food and Farm Problems
Government intervention addresses food problems (shortages) and farm problems (surpluses):
- Food Problem Adjustments: Encourage production through research investments to increase yields, expand acreage, invest in irrigation, provide crop subsidies, subsidize farm inputs, ease loan access.
- Farm Problem Adjustments: Restrict imports (e.g., US corn import restrictions), control production through subsidies, purchase surplus for food aid, subsidize domestic consumption (e.g., food stamps), offer credit on more liberal terms.
US Farm Bills and Subsidies
The US government provides financial support for agricultural research and farmer assistance. Japan, facing a food problem, heavily involves its government in agriculture. Conversely, New Zealand, experiencing a farm problem, has minimal government involvement, allowing global supply and demand to dictate prices.
The US, also facing a farm problem, implements farm policies to support prices and curb production, primarily benefiting farmers. The New Deal era (1933) marked the beginning of US farm subsidies with the first “Farm Bill.” This act addressed agricultural surplus by encouraging crop reduction through plow-ups and introducing price support through crop insurance.
Farm bills from the 1930s to 1960s subsidized farm products by incentivizing planting reductions, controlling supply, and creating food programs to manage surplus. Farm bills from the 1970s to 1990s transitioned from government control to direct payments based on historical production, allowing for greater flexibility and export opportunities.
The 1996 farm bill’s approach of providing payments based on historical acreage yield proved unsuccessful. Current US farm subsidies include food stamps (84% of the farm bill budget) and food for peace programs (allowing foreign governments to purchase US food surplus for aid distribution).
Impact of Government Interventions
Government interventions in agriculture have both positive and negative consequences:
- Gains: Concentrated payments to farmers of specific crops, increased environmental sensitivity through conservation programs, global food aid.
- Losses: Promotion of high-volume production of limited crops, limited government support for fruits, vegetables, and specialty crops, disproportionate payments favoring large farms over small farms.
Global Hunger and Malnutrition
Defining Hunger
Hunger encompasses a strong desire or craving for food, an urgent need for nutrients, weakness, debilitation, pain from prolonged food deprivation, exhaustion, and a painful, empty feeling in the stomach. It also refers to the scarcity of food in a country.
Chronic hunger is a persistent, debilitating experience that hinders productivity, impairs cognitive function, causes pain, and can lead to permanent physical and mental damage, increased susceptibility to disease, and death.
Types of Hunger
:
Malnutrition (under nutrition) person does not get enough food Protein-energy malnutrition lack of protein from meat or other sources, lack of essential amino acids, lack of food energy, most lethal
Micronutrient deficiency insufficient vitamins and minerals, vitamin a (scurvy, rickets, blindness), vitamin c (scurvy, teeth loss, inability to fight infection), iron (anemia), iodine (physical crippling, mental retardation)
Malabsorptive body is incapable of absorbing nutrients, often due to parasites in intestinal tract or severe protein deficiency, common where water is contaminated
Chronic under nutrition – most widespread manifestation of hunger today, person consumes fewer calories and less protein than the body needs, lethargic, ill, primary victims – children
Wold hunger – steady increase since 1996, spike in 2009 to 1 billion due to recession and crop failure, as of 2012 925 million, 13.6% of the worlds population were hungry
805 million people suffered from chronic hunger in 2012-2014
791 million live in developing countries 25,000 people die everyday from hunger and related causes
Asia and the pacific are over 1/2 of the worlds population and almost 2/3 of the worlds hungry people
More than 60% of chronically hungry people are women
1 billon people in the world live on less than $1 a day
2.6 billion people live on less than $2 a day (40% of the worlds population)
Almost 1/2 of the world lives on $2.50 a day
65% of the worlds hungry people live in 7 countries:
India China Democratic republic of Congo Bangladesh Indonesia Pakistan Ethiopia
Primary victims of hunger are children (5 million child deaths per year from hunger,
1 child dies from hunger every 6 seconds)
Malnutrition claims more children’s lives than HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria
COMBINED 1/3 of children in the developing world are chronically malnourished 70% live in Asia 26% in Africa 4% in Latin America
Malnutrition worsens the effects of other diseases due to a lowered immune system
Undernutrition in pregnant women in developing countries lead to low birth weight (1 in 6), neonatal death, learning disabilities, mental retardation, poor health, blindness
Undernutrition in pregnant women in developing countries lead to low birth weight (1 in 6), neonatal death, learning disabilities, mental retardation, poor health, blindness
Hunger in the US Nearly 1 in 4 children are at risk of hunger,
1 in 3 if African-American or Latino 4% of US homes experience hunger (11 million people including 430,000 children)
1 in 8 people live below the poverty line
in the US, 1 in 5 are children Preschool aged children who experience severe hunger have higher levels of chronic illness, anxiety and depression, and behavior problems than children with no hunger