Food import in the US
Because of the changing food trends and preferences, people tend to demand higher varieties of food. The domestic land may be not able to deliver all of the required kinds of food with the desired variety, quality and quantity. The only action that countries are taking to solve this problem is by importing food from other countries in which the missed kinds of food are more available there. In this blog I will be talking about the food import issue that the US is currently facing to feed its inhabitants and offer them all kind of food they need, or let me better say,, kinds of food the want.
The global food supply continues to grow in volume and complexity. Imports are expected to continue to grow because of cost concerns (need for lower costs and higher productivity), availability (includes seasonality) and consumer demand for diverse food products. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), imports account for nearly two-thirds of the fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood eaten domestically.
Moreover, consumers in the U.S. are accustomed to a wide selection of food products from around the world. The growth of imported products is coming from locations such as Mexico, China, Asia, India and Africa. According to an analysis of food products conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) “The three food industry groups with the most violations were vegetables (20.6 % of total violations), fishery and seafood (20.1%) and fruits (11.7%). Violations observed over the entire time period include sanitary issues in seafood and fruit products, pesticides in vegetables and unregistered processes for canned food products in all three industries.”
All of these are signs to the importance of improved domestic production with regards to food and vegetables. If the US does not work on improving its agriculture and food supply, major economic and healthy problem will occur. I understand that the investments required to improve agriculture are high, but the costs of solving the future consequences if nothing changed will be worse and more expensive.
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