"imports" news and stories

In spite of all the articles, all the op-ed pieces, and all the tables of comparison, I've found it remarkably easy to forget that the cost of groceries has steadily risen over the last couple of years. Part of this is the fact that I moved to New York about a year ago. Prior to the move, most of my family's food came from regional groceries and the friendly, neighborhood Wal-Mart. Moving into the Bronx, I was so stunned by food prices price of food that a few pennies here and there were pretty much irrelevant. Recently, however, I was buying a box of cereal when it struck me that the price had risen by a dollar over the last year. Given that the new price was just over $5, this translated to a 25% cost increase in one year. I was stunned.

When asked about skyrocketing food prices, most pundits pin the blame on our new favorite villain: rising gas prices. While gas is partially responsible, it's worth noting that increased shipping costs haven't caused the prices of every other consumer item to soar. In truth, the biggest force driving up the cost of food has been exports; basically, European markets are filling up with cheap American foodstuffs. Over the course of 2008, Europe will have imported $110 billion worth of our produce, a 22% increase over 2007.

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Safer and better" than what? you may be asking yourself.

After a year of food (and toy) safety problems on their record including tainted seafood, the Chinese government is instituting programs and regulations to restore confidence in the safety of their seafood exports. Among the measures are a crackdown on the use of illegal antibiotics that have been shown to cause cancer and a focus on pollution and water-quality problems.

Let's hope they get it together, since much of the world has to turn to China's land-based fish farms as ocean waters become increasingly depleted by overfishing.

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If UK's Soil Association has its way, there might be a ban on organic foods imported into the UK. At the very least, the Soil Association would want those foods that are allowed in the UK to be stripped of their "organic" label.

The concern arises because the organic foods are brought into Britain via carbon-emitting flights. The demand for organic foods is rising much faster than UK farmers' ability to supply it. However, increasing the number of flights into the UK with organic foods from elsewhere means that there will be an increase in greenhouse warming.

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Since excluding imported organic products from using the word "organic" is probably not something that is going to happen in the UK any time soon, farmers are still looking for ways to strengthen their appeal with consumers and the position of their products on supermarket shelves. They are now proposing that the country of origin be clearly labeled on all products. Currently, all foods processed in the UK can claim to be "made in the UK," but this labeling scheme would have the country that the ingredients were sourced from identified.

The real motivation behind it is that foods sourced from elsewhere have less traceability than UK-based products, as manufacturing and processing standards may be lower elsewhere. A move like this would potentially increase the trust that consumers have in UK-made products, where the processing standards are known, and as a result, support UK-based farmers.

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The UK's Soil Association has just put forward a proposal to exclude any foods imported by air from using the "organic" label on their products. In theory, the proposal is based around the "food miles" theory, which states that the nearer to the point of sale that food is grown, the better for the environment it is. The theory assumes that emissions from airplanes and long-haul trucks will be greater than any of the pollutants that result from shorter journeys. There are many situations in which the theory does hold up, but by and large, it has been debunked, so even though it is given as the primary reason for this suggested policy change, the real motivation is simply money.

The demand for organics is very high. Stores can charge more for organics, as can growers. By effectively prohibiting imports in a country where the farmland is so limited (compared to some other countries, such as New Zealand, Chile and the US), the Soil Association is simply driving high prices even higher. Such a move may support local farms, but unless their production is able to match demand, consumers are really going to feel the effects of a change like this one.

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