This is Farmers Market Week across the U.S. According to the Farmers Market Coalition, the number of farmers markets in the U.S. has more then quadrupled since 1994, growing from less than 2,000 markets to more than 8,600 registered in the USDA Farmers Market Directory. The Coalition contends that farmers markets provide one of the only low-barrier entry points for new farmers, ranchers, and food entrepreneurs, allowing them to start small and test new products. For young and beginning farmers, direct marketing through CSAs and farmers markets make up the majority of their income. In 2020, on-farm stores and farmers markets accounted for $1.7 billion in farm sales, according to the USDA, and statistics indicate that growers selling locally create thirteen full time farm operator jobs per $1 million in revenue earned, while farmers who don’t sell locally, but rather sell what they produce through commodity markets, create only three full time operator jobs per million dollars in revenue.
Responding to the shortage of veterinarians in the U.S., Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican from Mississippi and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, D of Minn. announced the creation of the Senate Veterinary Medicine Caucus. Hyde-Smith and Klobuchar hope that the caucus will “raise awareness of the multitude of ways veterinarians contribute to society, and the important related policy challenges that are included in a growing shortage of public service and rural large animal veterinarians. Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley joined the caucus, stating that the nation relies on veterinarians to keep animals healthy and promote a healthy and abundant food supply through federal inspection of meat, poultry, and catfish products, conducting comparative medical research that benefits both humans and animals, and animal and zoonotic disease prevention, detection and response.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, suggests that the world could lose half of all farms within 80 years. The number of farms in more than 180 countries in the world is predicted to drop from 616 million in 2020 to 272 million by 2100 which will pose significant risks to the world’s food systems.“At the same time, the average farm size is predicted to double.” The study indicates that in some areas, including Europe and North America, will see a relatively steady decline in farm numbers, while other areas, including Latin America and North Africa, will go from a period of farm creation to one of consolidation by mid-century.” Researchers contend that a key reason for this change is that as a country’s economy grows, more people will migrate to urban areas, leaving fewer people in rural areas to tend the land.
Food fraud, called economically motivated adulteration by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration occurs when manufacturers substitute a cheaper ingredient for one that is more valuable, like cutting olive oil with vegetable oil, or bulking saffron with ground plant stems. Since global food fraud is estimated to be at least $40 billion a year, Purdue University researchers are working on tests to determine whether high priced artisanal food like Swiss Gruyère cheese, organic vanilla extract, Italian prosciutto and more, are the real deal or fake products. They’re working on food “fingerprint” techniques that can distinguish between foods made from the same ingredients, but in different locations.
