Fruits, veggies passed on - The East Oregonian

Fruits, veggies passed on - The East Oregonian
Despite a health-conscious craze, vegetable consumption is down

By DEAN BRICKEY
The East Oregonian

SALEM - Americans are eating less beef and pork, but more poultry.

They like their cheese, but drink less milk. Yogurt consumption is up, ice cream consumption is down.

And, perhaps surprisingly, fruit and vegetable consumption per capita has dipped despite what generally seems to be healthier eating habits.

These conclusions are based on the latest look at American consumption of food commodities by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service from 1998-2007.

"We are seeing some shifts in consumers' diets," said Brent Searle, analyst with the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "Some of those shifts are related to health concerns, some are simply price related as commodities are influenced by a variety of factors resulting in retailers charging more or less."

The U.S. dairy industry has been on an economic roller coaster in recent years with some wild swings in production, price, and consumption. In general, milk as a beverage has trended downward in consumption while at least some of the lower fat dairy products have shot upward.

The data show that fluid milk consumption has dropped 10.2 percent to 178.2 pounds per capita. No other commodity in the report has seen a bigger decrease over the past decade.

But a closer look at the type of milk being consumed indicates Americans are trying to reduce the fat in their diet. Whole milk is down 20.9 percent to 55 pounds per person. Lower fat milk actually has less than increased four-tenths of 1 percent during the same period to 96 pounds per capita.

A health-conscious America is more often walking past the ice cream aisle in the grocery store on its way to the yogurt section. Ice cream consumption is down 14 percent to 14 pounds per person while yogurt consumption has nearly doubled to 11.5 pounds.

Cheese consumption also is rising, up 17.6 percent to 32.7 pounds per person. Cheese has gained tremendous popularity growth in such entrees as pizza and other quick-serve products.

Egg consumption has also increased 4.2 percent from to 32.1 pounds in 2007.

One of the head-scratchers in the data involves consumption of fruits and vegetables.

"When you aggregate all fruit and vegetable consumption compared to a decade ago, it is down," said Searle. "Conventional wisdom dictates the opposite direction, given our trend towards health consciousness."

The category of all fruits and vegetables shows consumption down 4 percent to 680 pounds per person. A breakdown of those numbers indicates less consumption of fruit is responsible for the overall category drop.

Consumption of all forms of fruit is down 9.4 percent to 263 pounds per capita. Even fresh fruit is down 2.2 percent to 126.2 pounds per person.

"Part of the explanation may be that the price of some fresh fruit increased in 2007 because the devalued U.S. dollar made imports more expensive," said Searle. "We import a lot of fruit, primarily bananas, which is the number one fruit consumed in the U.S. banana prices were up substantially at that time."

Whether it is fresh, canned, or dried, fruit consumption is down over the 10-year period.

"That's all fruit," said Ron Brown of Earl Brown & Sons in Milton-Freewater, "but apples are up, and that's all I'm concerned about."

Brown said some of the decline in fruit consumption could relate to consumers' concerns about eating imported fruit.

Fresh vegetable consumption, on the other hand, is up 4.8 percent to 202.2 pounds per person even though canned and frozen vegetable consumption has decreased. The buy-local campaign and farmers' markets have influenced fresh vegetable consumption, but so has the industry's convenient packaging.

"Baby carrots, for example, have been a big hit with consumers and so has pre-packaged salads," said Searle. "Other industry segments can learn from the success of the fresh vegetable industry, which has listened to consumers about the products they want. That has brought more dollars to that industry segment."

Hermiston Foods processes tons of carrots each year, turning many of them into "baby" carrots, which arrive as big carrots, but are sliced into shorter segments before the strait edges are rounded.

General Manager Roy Stephen said despite increases in consumption, Hermiston Foods' production has remains stable.

"Ours has been fairly consistent over the years," he said. "It's the biggest crop that we produce here."

The food trends are based on U.S. per capita consumption - how many pounds of a certain commodity the average American eats in a year. Those trends may differ slightly state-by-state, but they do reflect food choices Americans, in general, are making.

The data show red meat consumption is down 3.9 percent to 110.6 pounds per person. Beef consumption has dropped 3.5 percent to 62.2 pounds. Consumption of pork, veal, and lamb also has decreased.

Red meat's loss apparently is poultry's gain. During the same period, chicken consumption has increased 18.8 percent to 59.9 pounds per person. Turkey consumption remained fairly stable, but the overall category of poultry has done well.

"Poultry consumption is up and I think that is related to packaging, convenience, relative ease of preparation, and certainly price competitiveness when compared to red meat," said Searle.

Fish and shellfish have seen some gains in U.S. consumption, up 12.4 percent to 16.3 pounds per capita.

The data do not include 2008 and 2009 - two economically volatile years that have produced some large fluctuations in commodity prices and production. However, the 10-year snapshot reveals some interesting trends, which experts say can be instructive to all agricultural producers and processors, including those in Oregon.

"These types of long-term trends are important to look at because they give agriculture some indication of where consumers are spending their dollars," Searle said.