アメリカの果物生産の現状と課題

What fruit do we need to grow
that you would like? What fruit could we grow that
we don't already grow? I think you have everything. She likes mangoes. But we
can't grow those. Avocados, can't grow them
either. As Americans, we're used to
having year-round access to just about anything. From tomatoes and
strawberries, to avocados. But not everything can grow
here, and that comes at a cost. We're next to one of the
biggest cities in the world, and that's where the crops
should be grown. You know, they shouldn't be
coming from the other side of the states, or from over the
ocean in a container that's sitting around and stuff. It should be, you know,
direct to the market. The number of farms and what
they produce for human consumption have been on a
steady decline over the past few decades in the U.S. Instead, what's being grown is
corn and soybeans—used for livestock feed and ethanol,
or as cheap sugars, starches, and oils in highly processed
foods. In the U.S., we have nearly a
billion acres of farmland. We have a population of just
330 million people. Yet we're not feeding
ourselves. We are wrongly focused on
growing and exporting these low value crops that are not
feeding us. And then we're counting on
other countries to supply us with the high value, healthy
food crops that we rely on. These staple "commodities,"
what soybeans and corn are called, have a special status
which grants them more federal aid. They fetch top dollars
being exported overseas, and they're cheaper and less
risky to produce. At the end of the day, farmers have to
make the decision of what to do with the land that they
have, and they have to make a decision in terms of what
they think is best for their family operation. So why isn't the U.S. prioritizing more of what its
population needs to eat, and what can it do to change
that? It's a chipper apple. It's proprietary to a Locust
grove. Most handsome apple we have
being it's named after me. Chip Kent is a
sixth-generation Locust Grove fruit farmer in Milton, New
York, in the Hudson Valley. This is his son Sawyer, a
seventh-generation farmer. Like most U.S. farms, Locust
Grove is family operated. In '24 they planted the
vineyard down here. And this one. And then the
quince orchard. The more than 200-year-old
farm grows an average of 800,000 pounds of mainly
apples per year. Though Locust Grove did not
share their annual income, New York State Farms bring in an
average of $80,000 a year, after all expenses are
accounted for, something called net farm income. The farm also operates a
brewery and a u-pick orchard in the fall. Locust has
slowly expanded from 60 acres to 100 by acquiring other
smaller farms in the area. Farms of Locust Grove size
only represent 28% of total U.S. farms. The largest 2% control 42% of
all acres. New York State saw its
sharpest drop in number of farms and acreage in decades,
between 2017 and 2022. Net farm income is forecast
to plunge nearly 40% in 2024 from 2022 record high. That's mainly due to rising
production costs and a drop in crop prices. Specialty crop farmers like
fruits, vegetables and legumes record higher incomes on
average. But they're high risk, high
reward because they're volatile and don't get even
close to as much government assistance as commodities to
remain in business. Locust has had to get very
efficient with its crop, diversify and expand. We plan a lot of different
things so we can get away with, you know, something
failing. We've created more with the
brewery here and adding the pick your own. And if you
stop and you lose interest or you get a little lazy, then
that that'll end. And then that's when the farm
either gets sold to somebody else as a farm or goes off to
have houses on. We could put up some really
nice houses overlooking the river here. So it was like
2012. We added woodies to our
neighbors, Ed wood, their farm. It was 21 acres on the
north side and it wasn't but a couple of years after that,
we added Tabasco's. Locust Grove's main source of
revenue is selling at New York City Farmers markets four
times a week. Some fruit is also sold to
winemakers. Everything else is used by
the brewery. The biggest stone fruit crop
we've ever had. Yeah, we had none. The year before. And then we had no plums. Year before. We had a lot of
peaches and a lot of cherries. Operational expenses are
continuously rising. Some affect specialty crops
more than others. Fruit and vegetables are
delicate, highly perishable, and labor intensive. Farm labor costs are expected
to increase 6.9% in 2024. 60% of what we bring in right
now is just labor. The margins on what we had
have gotten smaller. Back in the 80s, you made a
little bit less, but you put it in a bank at 10%. So, you know, and you didn't
need a lot. Competition is another thing
that is making it increasingly harder for American farmers
to survive. When the North American Free
Trade Agreement passed in 1994. It lowered prices by
expanding produce variety and availability in American
grocery stores, but it hurt smaller American farms, and
in recent years, lower crop returns and higher production
costs have made us produce more expensive, as farmers
have had to pass off the increasing costs to
consumers. As for Locust Grove, the
Kents say they won't switch to more profitable crops like
soybeans, for one. They're just not suited for
the region's climate. The Kents are also unlikely
to sell, no matter how much land prices may increase. We just need money, maybe cut
back on some of our taxes, reduce our fuel costs, our
chemical costs. I mean, that's what's eating
us alive. We don't want to be
multi-millionaires, but, you know, we also don't want to
have to work our fingers to the bone and not make any
money or go backwards. One of the most complex yet
influential pieces of U.S. legislation is the farm Bill. It's been passed about every
five years since 1933 and impacts everything from what
we eat to how farmers make a living. A big part of it
funds programs like SNAP, which help low income
Americans buy food. The last one passed in 2018
for $428 billion. More than $30 billion went to
large farms growing commodities in the form of
payments called subsidies. They help farmers deal with
lower harvests, price swings and natural disasters. Over the years, federal crop
insurance programs have increasingly favored row
crops, which include corn, wheat, soybeans, and sugar
cane. That's always something that
comes up is, you know, the largest farms getting the
most amount of subsidy payments. And can that be
more equally distributed? I think, you know, the tricky
part there is there's a lot of what I consider to be small
family farms, which I'm a part of. We're not a huge farm. We're an average sized farm
in the middle of North Dakota. It's a third generation
family farm started by my grandfather. I farm now with
my dad and my brother, and there are financial
limitations. The USDA funds other programs
that support specialty crop farmers, in part like
partnering with local and regional producers to buy
produce for food banks and school meals. We go into the marketplace and
we purchase food for a wide variety of purposes, and most
often those foods are fruit and vegetable production. If you look at the totality
of what's being done here, I think you'll see that there's
a significant investment that we've made in specialty crop
production. For more than two decades, the
largest and wealthiest farms receive the most aid, raking
in nearly 80% of total subsidies. Gackle's farm is
about 5500 acres. There are some of those
limitations in place and some adjustment there to more
accurately reflect the size of farms and who should be
receiving that type of financial assistance. But,
you know, if you go too far in doing that, it would affect
the farm of my size as well. The US has been a leader in
corn and soybean production since the 90s. All of this really is to
benefit a handful of corporations that profit off
of those policies, those exports. The 1996 farm Bill removed
certain growing requirements, which encouraged farmers to
plant crops based on market demand rather than government
regulations. Today, the United States
dominates in commodity production, specifically
meat. They're out top agriculture
exports valued at more than $64 billion in 2023. Corn and soybeans alone
accounted for more than half of all total farm crop income
that year. So why corn and soybeans? They play an important role
in a few industries. For one, global meat
consumption continues to grow and that livestock needs to
eat. Corn and soybeans are used in
processed foods, which make up over half of Americans'
diets. And lastly, they're
ingredients in biofuel production, which makes them
invaluable. These same agriculture
policies that are driving our trade deficit are driving
poor health. Subsidies are a major driver
of Americans' diets. The foods that the government
subsidizes. Those are the foods that are
going to be more readily available and more affordable
to our citizens. Here in rural America. You know, the economies for
our small towns, our small communities, our small
businesses. A lot of that depends on, you
know, farmers continuing to be able to be profitable and
invest back in their farms and invest back in their
communities. Health experts have linked our
high commodity consumption with the country's growing
obesity rate. Fruit and vegetable
production is on a decline, and despite an increase in
availability due to a large rise in imports, less than
20% of US adults eat enough fruits and vegetables. But Secretary of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack sees things differently. We've seen a significant
increase in consumption and actually in production of
specialty crops across the United States. We import
because we like to have choice 12 months out of the year. But in terms of actually
feeding ourselves, our ranchers, our farmers, our
producers are extraordinarily productive and they provide
everything that we need in this country. And that's an
advantage we have over many, many other nations. The 2018 farm bill expired in
September 2024. Congress has been unable to
pass a new bill, putting funding for some programs in
jeopardy and hurting farmers faced with increased
competition and rising fuel and fertilizer costs. Agriculture is in serious
condition. Input costs have risen
dramatically, while the price they receive for what they
grow has diminished. The issue here is the farm
bill. A big sticking point are
reference prices. Those are the minimum prices
set by Congress for commodities like corn,
soybeans and wheat. Payments are triggered when
prices fall below the set number. It's easier for Congress to
give more money to defense than it is to Department of
Agriculture. Disagreements over the
subsidies and who gets them continue to anger activists
and farmers alike, especially those who grow specialty
crops. The requirements can be tough to meet and hard to
prove. The Kents, for example, have
only ever received $500. We had to put our neck on the
line, and then we had to prove we have a loss. And the premiums are
outrageous. They do help offset some
costs, but they don't come close to paying, you know, a
serious bill. We could use a little help. Who's going to grow our food? You really want to buy it all
from overseas? On the other hand, pulling
subsidy funding for commodities could be
devastating for those producers. The American
Soybean Association recommends seeking funding elsewhere if
lawmakers don't pass a new farm bill before January
2025. A whole new set of lawmakers
will have to debate it. I don't think people are
excited about the possibility of starting all over again. The new administration is
going to have to get its sea legs, if you will, and that's
going to take time. So you're looking at an
extension of the existing bill. And they could make big
changes. Commodity prices could also
remain low for the next few years. Not having one in place right
now hasn't ended those programs, but it does create
uncertainty moving forward into 2025 and beyond. Farmers already are making
plans for 2025, have already made purchasing decisions on
inputs. The margins are really tight. My father always said, you
know, here you have a whole lot of promises out there. Every single bloom is a
promise. We promise that we're going
to have fruit. But you never know because
promises are broken. Advocates are pushing for a
more equal distribution of federal resources and
additional support to other crops. Many point to Mexico,
which is the largest fruit and vegetable exporter to the US. The country subsidizes much
of its agriculture costs and barriers to entry. Its agriculture imports to
the US nearly quadrupled between the years 2000 and
2023. It goes to show you that if
the government supports it, farmers are going to grow it
because our farmers, they know how to grow and raise enough
food to feed us. But these backwards policies
are standing in the way, and farmers are moving into that
direction, because that's where the support is. Mexico's major advantages are
cheap labor and land availability. The US has
neither, but the government could mandate that some
commodity acreage should be allocated for fruit and
vegetable production. First of all, there's
definitely room for both. Large scale production of
fruits and vegetables in the corn Belt is probably not an
option for most most farmers. It just doesn't fit the
climate. It's not something that we
can do. We can do it at a small
scale. The short growing seasons,
the weather, the challenges of winter. Globally, most countries that
subsidize crops do so in the form of input support, like
providing fertilizer followed by lump sum payments. The US could follow that
example, but US farms have vastly different needs. I think the difficulty there
is we just nobody farms exactly the same, and we're
not all growing the same crops and we're dealing with
different weather patterns and climate. The USDA announced an
additional $72.9 million in grant funding for specialty
crops in 2023 to help make these crops competitive in
new markets, and said more assistance could show up in
the next farm bill. If you look at the totality of
what's being done here, I think you'll see that there's
a significant investment that we've made in specialty crop
production. Other solutions include
boosting demand for fresh fruits and vegetables in the
US and finding new markets for commodities overseas. Trade is super important and
decreased demand leads to, you know, farmers maybe needing
more of those financial resources in a farm bill or
somewhere else. So we want to be profitable
with the market. Farmers are efficient and
there's hope on the horizon. Vegetable production was up
8% in 2023 compared to 2022, while fruit production was up
1.3%. With less risks and more
incentives, producers might grow more specialty crops. Once you've acquired and
you've created a nice business, it should go
multi-generations. It shouldn't have to stop
because costs got so high we had to sell it. You know, if
you're a crappy farmer, that's that's a whole nother story. Now we're up for the
challenge to see if we can make it last.