Food Security Objectives:

Current Conditions & Challenges

• Imported foods make up 13% of the American diet, yet those same foods are not subject to the rigorous testing and inspection of food that is produced domestically.
• Only 1.3% of all imported food (a $70 billion market) is inspected for safety and quality.
• Reports of outbreaks of food borne illnesses are related to 76 million Americans who suffer from food poisoning each year.
•  According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 325,000 people are hospitalized for food related illnesses each year.
• Currently USDA only has the ability to inspect less than .01% of imported food that enters into the United States.
• Currently it is an ongoing challenge for centralization producers and food processors to control food contamination and livestock infections.
• Mass food production, geographically concentrated with single crop density, is more susceptible to disruptive weather cycles and disease.
• Current USDA data shows that 58% of vegetables and 51% of fruits are loss to processing, packaging, shrinkage, and spoilage and plate waste before getting to the consumer kitchen table.  Dry foods such as grains and rice losses are less than in perishable foods, but still over 30%.

How this program can improve food security and current risk reduction efforts.

• Local Farm Businesses diversify and decentralize food production reducing risks associated with food security and product yield issues.
• Decentralized production is less at risk to both intentional and non-intentional contamination and weather related cycles.
• Buying locally and knowing where food comes from, communities can help create safer and more reliable local food systems, which help address ‘quantity over quality’ concerns.
• By encouraging regenerative farming practices, more crops will be drought resistant with higher yields.
• Producing and selling food by a LFB locally will reduce the loss of food waste due to reducing the time between harvesting of fruits and vegetables and getting produce to the kitchen table.