Hunger in America

From the House Agriculture Committee today:


Today, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry held a hearing to review the short- and long-term costs of hunger in the United States. Congressman Joe Baca of California is Chairman of the Subcommittee.

"Hunger in America is all too real a problem that affects not only the health of the more than 35 million Americans classified as food insecure, but also the health of our local economies and communities," Baca said. "With the total cost of hunger to be estimated at $90 billion annually, we must be pro-active in searching for a solution. Especially with today's rising food and energy costs, America's children and families cannot wait any longer for vital nutrition assistance."

"As a surgeon, I understand how important a healthy lifestyle can be in avoiding illness and living a more active, and productive life," said Subcommittee Ranking Member Charles Boustany, Jr. of Louisiana. "Furthermore, I know first-hand how important a person's eating habits can be in determining how well they will recover from a surgery or other medical procedures and treatments. Today's hearing highlighted the significant steps we made to end hunger while outlining the work remaining."

According to USDA's Economic Research Service, almost 11% of households in the United States are food insecure - meaning they often have problems accessing food, or maintaining a varied diet. Of those households, 4.6 million families reported multiple instances of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake during the year because they did not have enough resources to purchase food.

The Subcommittee heard testimony from medical doctors, researchers and advocates on the ways in which the effects of hunger spill over into other areas of society and government policy.

The opening statements of all witnesses are available on the Committee website at http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/index.html.
A full transcript of the hearing will be posted on the Committee website at a later date.

Witness List:

Panel I

Dr. Mark Nord, Sociologist, Economic Research Service, USDA, Washington, D.C.
Accompanied by Mr. Steven Carlson, Director, Office of Research and Analysis, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

Dr. J. Larry Brown, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, MA Accompanied by Dr. Donald S. Shepard, Economist, Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Heller School, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

Dr. Diana Cutts, Principal Investigator, Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program (C-SNAP), Faculty Physician, Hennepin County Medical Center, Assistant Professor Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

Mr. George Manalo-LeClair, Senior Director of Legislation, California Food Policy Advocates, Oakland, CA

Mr. James D. Weill, President, Food Research and Action Center, Washington, D.C.

TK: Industry and local economies have a stake in making sure those eligible for food stamps receive them. From James Weill of the Food Research and Action Center:

Only 65 percent of eligible people actually receive food stamp benefits. In many states, cities, towns and rural areas the number is far worse, because there is too much red tape, or too little outreach, or state and local rules narrow and discourage participation. Last autumn the Food Research and Action Center released a report on Food Stamp Access in Urban America. That analysis found that in 2007, in the 24 cities we looked at, the estimated rates of participation ranged from a low of 35 percent in San Diego, California to 98 percent in Detroit (Wayne County), Michigan. Three of the cities and counties with the lowest rates were in California – San Diego, Los Angeles, and Oakland (AlamedaCounty). When states or cities, or any areas, forego food stamp benefits, it harms low-income people. But it also harms local economies. USDA has found that every dollar of food stamp benefits, paid for by the federal government, that enters a community produces nearly twice that much in economic activity. In other words, there is nearly a 2:1 multiplier effect. The food stamp benefits not only, therefore, reduce hunger and poverty, but they create jobs and other economic benefits that further combat hunger and poverty and boost the community economy.

Produce in Europe may get ugly

Government regulation is often a curious thing. (OK, maybe that's a nice way of putting it.)

Case in point: Proposed changes to European Union vegetable grading are raising the ire of French, Italian and Spanish produce interests. From the Web site EuropeanVoice.com:

"From artichokes to watermelons, the EU has a whole raft of legislation governing how fruits and vegetables should appear from the outside. Never mind if they are more tasty, vegetables that are too long or too knobbly, slightly misshapen or blemished are, under current rules, consigned to the EU’s food dustbin. But the European Commission, conscious of the food shortages around the world and of rising prices in Europe, has now decided to edit the rulebook on fruit and vegetable and cut back on waste."

"The Commission is proposing to relax rules on 26 different types of fruit and vegetable, including Brussels sprouts, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, mushrooms, plums, spinach and walnuts, allowing under-sized or misshapen products onto supermarket shelves. They would, though, need to be labelled as “products intended for processing”.

"The proposals, if backed by EU member states, would mean that Europeans could soon be shopping for forked carrots, strings of onion with fewer than the until now mandatory 16 onions, bent cucumbers and green asparagus that are actually 50% white. Consumers should use these sub-standard products for cooking, salads or jams, the Commission advised."

France, Italy and Spain maintain the current regulations protect consumers from poor quality produce, the article states, adding that regulators are confident changes will be finalized by year's end.

Of course, because it's government work, there's a loophole:

"In a bid to sweeten the pill of reform, the Commission has said standards will remain for some fruit and vegetables: kiwis will still have to measure a specific diameter, and a bunch of table grapes will still not weigh more than one kilogram."

Cutting regulatory red tape is a serious issue to European produce firms and ultimately the public, but the issue conjures images of poker-faced men in in lab coats placing calipers around kiwifruit. Here's hoping business and consumers both benefit from the changes.

Killer links - they are all here

I have to say putting links on this site is more of an art than a science. I sometimes change for the sake of change, as you know. The latest tinkering is evident at the bottom of the blog, where I added a weather map with updated temps listed numerically right on the map. Too many weather maps? You have a point....

I welcome any input from you all on what links you use and which you have no use for. Lately, I feel like the Wal Mart blog and the Fresh and Easy blog have been kind of stale, so they may be on the chopping block.

Here are my top 5 information rich links from the blog, excluding RSS feeds of other blogs.
1. Triple A Fuel Cost Calculator Nifty trip planning tool
2. FAO Trade Flow Map - Import and export flows
3. Association/foundation finder - Provides IRS 990 forms for U.S. nonprofits
4. U.S. Regulations portal - Type in a search word and see where this site takes you
5. EDGAR SEC Company Search - Searchable database of Securities and Exchange Commission filings

In the unlikely event that I'm missing any "killer' links, please leave a comment and I'll check out your suggestion.

Why retailers are hurting too

Above: National Restaurant Association's Restaurant Performance IndexValues Greater than 100 = Expansion; Values Less than 100 = Contraction

Many of the headlines we have been seeing lately point to the laggardly performance of the foodservice sector. We can list them in some detail. Here is a feature by the Wall Street Journal on "brown bagging it" From the story:

Ms. Snider is part of a growing tide of midday restaurant regulars who are changing their habits to save cash. Instead of indulging in a roasted portobello sandwich and gourmet chips at a nearby bistro, many workers are now brown-bagging it.

TK: I brown bag it from time to time, but the trouble is having the ingredients on hand to make a respectable sack lunch, not to mention the time it takes to put it together. One can't bring a peanut butter and honey sandwich alone and be too happy about it.

Back to economic troubles; here is a link to the National Restaurant Performance Index for May. Here is a link to an ACNielsen report about global consumer confidence.

You may assume that the struggles of foodservice operators would seemingly translate to good times for supermarkets. You would be mistaken - at least based on a couple of conversations I had today for news coverage for The Packer. The devastation wrought on the tomato category in June, combined with a short cherry deal, are working a double whammy on tonnage and dollar sales. Higher transportation costs have probably had the most impact on retail pricing this summer. Retailers are offering deals that don't flip the switches of consumers, even though margins might be tighter.

Shoppers could be making less trips to the market and therefore picking up fewer impulse purchases of fruit.

Price-sensitive consumers are pushing back already, and now retailers must worry about costs associated with soon-coming country of origin labeling regulations and traceability initiatives.

It will be revealing to see how the market share for retailers will change this year. Everyone now assumes that Wal-Mart's business is benefiting from the economic malaise, but I wonder if hard discounters like Aldi may see big sales gains and if those gains translate in the produce department as well.

National Truck Rate Report - July 22

Truck rates fall for several shipping districts this week. As per usual, the summary of the National Truck Rate Report:


A shortage of trucks was reported for the following commodities and regions: sweet potatoes from Eastern North Carolina. A slight shortage of trucks was reported for the following commodities and regions: potatoes from Columbia Basin Washington. LAST REPORT was issued for potatoes from San Luis Valley Colorado, and melons from South Carolina. FIRST REPORT was issued for tomatoes from Central District California, pears from Sacramento & San Joaquin Valley California, potatoes from Delaware, melons from Delaware, Maryland and eastern shore Virginia, beans and cabbage from Western and Central Mexico All other districts reported an adequate supply of trucks.

Lou Dobbs backlash

Found this on youtube this morning...

Moment in the sun

Aldi is on a roll. In the UK, the Financial Times reports that the discount chain's market chain is on the rise, much to the chagrin of Tesco and Sainsbury. From FT:

Data compiled by TNS Wordpanel showed spending in the grocery sector as a whole rose in the 12 weeks to July 15, and the discounters' share had reached a new record. Consumers spent a fifth more at Aldi and a seventh more at its peer, Lidl.
Tony Baines, managing director of buying at Aldi, recognised the German-owned chain had benefited from the rising economic malaise, but argued it would retain the new customers.

TK: Though I haven't seen the numbers, I would assume Aldi is making a similar surge in the U.S. It is not so much that Aldi will retain its customers, it is that the tough economic times will "retain" all of us.

Europe can't get bananas right

It's a topic that's been in the news for years. In fact, in 1992, I wrote this piece for The Packer:

For Hans, Pedro and the Chiquita lady, the best thing that could happen to the post-1992 European banana trade probably won't.
European consumers, Latin American banana growers and multinational marketing companies all have reason to be disappointed with recent policy developments in the European Community -- a region that accounts for one-third of the world's banana imports.
Instead of fulfilling banana marketers' dreams of unrestricted banana imports into a unified post-1992 Europe, the European Community Commission in April revealed plans to expand the EC's policy of giving preferential treatment to former colonies and dependents in Africa and the Caribbean while restricting and taxing banana imports from so-called ``dollar banana'' countries in Latin America.
The repercussions mean Hans could pay more German marks per banana, Pedro could lose his farm in Costa Rica and the Chiquita lady could have more bananas on her hat than she cares to balance. Dole, Del Monte, Turbana and other banana companies will have their hands full as well.


Fast forward 16 years and here is the latest news from Europe on bananas from a Reuters report:

A long-running row over bananas that threatens to derail talks on a new global trade pact simmered on Tuesday with no immediate solution in sight.
The dispute, turning on the terms for European Union imports, pits producers from Latin American countries and the United States against other poor African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the EU.
"I hope we can have contact with some of the banana countries in the next 24 hours and see what prospects there are for working together," a European diplomat told Reuters.
But no formal negotiations were scheduled.
For some producers the row threatens a key economic sector.
They are prepared to block World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks this week seeking a breakthrough in the Doha negotiations for a global trade deal in order to press their demands, just as the banana dispute nearly scuppered Doha's launch in 2001.
"We're ready to walk away if there is nothing on bananas," said a diplomat from Ecuador, the world's top banana exporter.
The EU has lost nearly a dozen trade disputes over bananas. It has now changed its import rules and levies a tariff of 176 euros ($280) a tonne except for fruit from ACP countries, mainly former European colonies, which enjoy duty-free access.
COMPROMISE PROPOSED
Latin American growers say this is still discriminatory.
ACP countries point to the growing Latin American share of the European market and say they need more time to adjust.
WTO chief Pascal Lamy proposed a compromise for the EU and the Latin Americans under which the EU tariff would fall to 116 euros over seven years, with an initial cut of 26 euros.
A "peace clause" would also deem outstanding disputes settled and protect the EU from future challenges to the regime.
The EU, despite misgivings from ACP growers and the French Caribbean and Spanish Canary Islands, accepted the offer.
But the Latin Americans on Friday sought further talks, prompting EU officials to say they could go no further.
"The process is ongoing and (Lamy) is available to help facilitate an agreement in any way that he can," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told a news conference.
Failure to settle bananas separately would mean bringing the dispute into the already complex and shaky WTO talks.
Latin American exporters say including bananas in the WTO's negotiations on tropical products would result in much bigger tariff cuts than those accepted by the EU.
But the ACP countries could seek to counter any such move by putting bananas on a list of products they export and which would retain high import tariffs so as not to erode the European trade perks they have historically enjoyed.
The Latin Americans and ACP countries have been negotiating over 42 overlapping items on their lists, and the Latin Americans proposed letting the ACPs keep 30 products while they hold 12 on their list, said Ronald Saborio Soto, WTO ambassador for Costa Rica, which chairs the tropical products group.
But agreement will be impossible if both put bananas on their lists because of failure to resolve the dispute.
Colombia, keen to reach a free-trade agreement with the EU, has accepted Lamy's proposal. But other Latin Americans such as Ecuador and Costa Rica are proposing a tariff of 109 euros over 5 years with a downpayment of 35 euros.
"This is not a rejection of Lamy's proposal," Saborio told Reuters. "We can accept Lamy's architecture. We are only proposing some modest changes to the numbers."
Otherwise the Latin Americans could insist that bananas be treated like any other farm product in the Doha round, which would cut their tariff to 76 euros, or put it on the tropical products list -- "There's nothing more tropical than bananas" -- which would see the tariff plunge to 26 euros, he said.
Saborio said the Latin Americans could even agree to the peace clause for the EU -- a key concern of Brussels -- although that was still to be negotiated.
"The EC has indicated that they don't want to move. They say we can take what Pascal Lamy put on the table," Saborio said. "They may take that view but then we will have big trouble in other tropical products."

TK: Latin American producers have never received their due from Europe and it sounds like they are not going to take it any more, to the peril of global trade talks.