KitchenCosmologyNourishing Engagement with the Living Universe

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We ship butter cookies to Denmark and import butter cookies from Denmark. As Michael Pollan noted, it would make far more sense to trade recipes!

17% of energy use in the United States is directly related to our food system.

 A Worldwatch Institute report calculated that the average American meal uses 17 times as much petroleum as a locally produced meal.

Producing a pound of beef requires 13 pounds of grain, 1500 to 1800 gallons of water, and almost 9 gallons of non-renewable fossil fuels.

We could meet the world’s sanitation and food requirements for just $13 billion dollars – what the people of the U.S. and the European Union spend on perfume each year -- and what the U.S. is spending in Iraq about every month and a half.

The richest 20% of the world consumes 86% of the world’s output, while the poorest 20% consume just over 1%. The assets of just one company, Philip Morris, are larger than the economies of 148 countries.

Fascinating Facts About Food in the U.S.

Food is a political issue according to Professor Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics, a book about how the food industry influences what we understand about nutrition and the choices we make at the grocery store. Here are a few supporting facts from her book and other sources.

[U.S.] food companies spent more than $33 billion in 2000 to advertise and promote their products to the public . . . Nearly 70% of that was spent on convenience foods, candy and snacks, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, and desserts, whereas just 2.2% is for fruits, vegetables, grains, or beans.

 In 1999, $80 million dollars was spent on the advertising of M&M candies in the United States alone. $164.4 million was spent to advertise Coke and Diet Coke in the U.S.

 In 1998, 11,037 new food items were introduced in the United States. The largest categories were:

                Candy, gum, snacks                      2,065

                Condiments                                    1,994

                Beverages                                       1,547

                Bakery Foods                              1,178

 The diet-related medical costs for just six health conditions – coronary heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity – exceeded $70 billion in 1995. Some authorities believe that just a 1% reduction in intake of saturated fat across the [U.S.] population would prevent more than 30,000 cases of coronary heart disease annually and save more than a billion dollars in health care costs.

 [Nutritionists’] advice about the health benefits of diets based largely on plant foods – fruits, vegetables, beans and grains – has not changed in more than 50 years and is consistently supported by ongoing research. Yet people seem increasingly confused about what they are supposed to eat to stay healthy.

USDA nutritionists report that the average consumption of whole-grain foods is just one serving per day, well below recommended levels (6 – 11). Although the number of vegetable servings appears close to recommendations, half these servings come from just three foods: iceberg lettuce, potatoes (frozen, fresh, and those used for chips and fries), and canned tomatoes.

 In Europe and North America, fat and sugar account for more than half the average caloric intake. (World Heart Federation web site)

Nearly 65% of adults in the U.S. are overweight and obesity among young people is

In the United States, just three companies – Philip Morris (Kraft Foods, Miller Brewing), ConAgra, and RJR Nabisco – accounted for nearly 20% of all food expenditures in 1997.

Eighty percent of the [average] food dollar spent in the U.S. goes for labor, packaging, advertising, and other such value-enhancing activities. . . Added value explains why the cost of the corn in Kellogg’s Corn Flakes is less than 10% of the retail price.

      Currently 320,000 products compete for shelf space in U.S. supermarkets that is large enough to hold an average of just 50,000.