The Hidden Cost of Food

The use of resources and our environment for food production

Brandi Hacker

The Future of Creation

May 6, 2008

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From Farms… Industrial farms are

major sources pollution– Air

• Methane and other gases emitted

– Water• Nutrients• Ammonia and Nitrates• Antibiotics• Heavy metals and salts• Water usage

… to the shelves

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Fossil Fuels are used Our food has to travel

– By planes, trains, trucks, and ships

Most fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S. are shipped from CA, FL, and WA.

Fruits and vegetables spend 7 to 14 days in transit before they arrive in the store.

Where Our Food Comes From Food Miles= miles

traveled from farm to tables

Broccoli– Grown within 20

miles of most homes in United States

– At supermarket travels 1,800 miles to get there

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Agriculture Footprint Brief. July 2003 “The Issues Introductio.”

The True Cost of Food

Visit www.truecostoffood.org.– View the movie as an

introduction to this complex issue

Use the discussion guide to begin the conversation in your congregation and other local groups

Facts from the Movie

A gallon of oil is used per pound of beef.

Twenty-five hundred gallons of water for each pound of steak.

For every 10 pounds of healthy grain you put into a cow, you only get out one pound of meat.

Worldwide, we chop down an acre of rainforest every minute, and lose millions of grasslands acres a year, to feed and graze cattle.

Factory farm runoff has poisoned the ground water in 17 states and has polluted 35,000 miles of America's rivers.

Facts… Continued 16% of the methane comes from animals.

Mono-cropped fields are doused with one billion pounds of toxic pesticides a year.

Short-sighted practices make the earth lose 24 billion tons of topsoil a year.

You need more and more chemicals all the time, to get the same results

In 2002, the largest 10% of farms collected 65% of the subsidies; the bottom half got 2%--$256 a year.

7 % of our farms sell 72% of our food.

Eating local saves up to 17 times the gas costs of food you buy in the supermarket.

The organic food market is growing at 25 percent a year.

Individuals Can Help

Eat in Season Shop for locally grown

food Encourage others to

eat and shop local Learn about a local

farm Host a harvest party

Put together a local food directory

Experiment with drying, canning, or preserving in season fruit for later

Plant a garden Speak to your local

politician

Worldwatch Paper #163, 59.

Questions for Thought…

What surprised you in the information?

Name one thing you could do to start shopping more locally.– Or to help others shop locally.

Works CitedDeumling, Diana, Mathis Wackernagel, and Chad Monfreda. “Eating Up the Earth: How Sustainable Food

Systems Shrink Our Ecological Footprint.” Agriculture Footprint Brief. July 2003. Available from http://www.rprogress.org/publications/index.htm. Accessed 5 May 2008.

“Guide for Discussion Leaders.” The True Cost of Food. 4 May 2008. http://www.truecostoffood.org/truecostoffood/leaders.asp#intro

Halweil, Brian. “Worldwatch Paper #163: Home Grown: The Case For Local Food In A Global Market.” World Watch Institute. November 2002.

“See the Movie!” The True Cost of Food. 4 May 2008. http://www.truecostoffood.org/truecostoffood/movie.asp

“The Issues: Air Pollution.” Sustainable Table Serving Up Healthy Food Choices. 5 May 2008. http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/airpollution/

“The Issues Introduction.” Sustainable Table Serving Up Healthy Food Choices. 5 May 2008 http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/

“The Issues: Water Pollution.” Sustainable Table Serving Up Healthy Food Choices. 5 May 2008.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/waterpollution/

“Where does our food come from?” FoodRoutes.org. 4 May 2008. http://www.foodroutes.org/whycare.js p