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Food Check-Out Day Celebrates Affordable Food
Op-Ed by David Winkles, President (Editor’s note – you may print this at your convenience on or before Feb. 6) On February 6 many Americans will celebrate the abundance, affordability and safety of their domestically produced food supply during annual “Food Check-Out Day” activities. The national celebration, which originated here by the SC Farm Bureau Women’s Committee, is a way to call attention to the tremendous food value Americans enjoy. As a means of giving back to the community, SC Farm Bureau members will be donating money and food products to each of the three Ronald McDonald Houses in South Carolina on Feb. 6. These facilities provide a “home-away-from-home” to families of seriously ill children receiving treatment at nearby hospitals. Between January 1 and February 6, 2003, the average American will have earned enough disposable income to pay for his or her food supply for the entire year. The latest USDA statistics show that we spend, on average, just 10 percent of our disposable personal income for food. In comparison to “Food Check-Out Day,” “Tax Freedom Day,” the day the average American had earned enough money to pay federal, state and local taxes, was April 27 last year, according to the Tax Foundation. It’s amazing that people can pay for their yearly food supply nearly three months earlier than it would take them to satisfy their tax burden. But not only are Americans able to enjoy reasonably priced food, they can be assured that their food is safe and plentiful. While this luxury speaks well of our nation’s increasing standard of living, it also comes at high price to farmers. Food remains reasonably priced to the consumer but farmers continue to get less and less in return from food sales. Farmers only receive 19 cents out of every dollar spent on food (purchased at home and away from home). The rest goes to costs beyond the farm gate: wages and materials for production, processing, marketing, transportation and distribution. That’s down considerably from the 31 cents farmers received from every food dollar spent in 1980. In this day of historically low commodity prices, weather related disasters, worldwide competition, and ever increasing food production costs; farmers fight an uphill battle to stay in business. It’s a good thing then that at least a small portion of the food dollar funds the 2002 US farm program. It costs each American just 4.4 cents per meal (a little more than one-half of one percent of the total US budget) to support agriculture. One benefit from these payments includes a high quality, stable and economical food supply that takes less of the consumers’ dollar than any place else in the world. Another benefit is the funding of better environmental practices producing better soil, water and air qualities. Also, money received by farmers is reinvested in their communities, which would be unstable without local agricultural industries. As you go through the checkout line to purchase food on February 6 (and during the rest of the year) think about the farmer who produced that food and say a word of thanks for the work of that farmer and his family to generate the bounty you enjoy. Make sure to say thanks not only for the food he produces, but also for the safe refuge he provides for wildlife, for the contribution he makes to help Americans become less dependent on foreign sources of fuel, for protecting the environment, and for using technology to produce larger amounts of food on fewer acres.
# # # David M. Winkles, Jr. is a Sumter County farmer and president of the 130,500 member non-profit South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation. (For information about Food Check-Out Day activities in your county, please contact SCFB Women’s Program Coordinator Faith Lawrimore, 803-936-4287, or SCFB Communications Director Reginald Hall, 803-936-4409) |
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