November/December 2007

Is that right? Clearing up ag misconceptions

Repeat something enough times, and people start to think it’s true, especially if it’s repeated by a voice of authority such as a teacher, a respected news source or a seemingly knowledgeable friend.

However, as more Americans become further removed from an agricultural background, more of what they believe and hear—and repeat to others—about food and farming is untrue.

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture calls these untruths “agricultural misconceptions” and is working to correct them.

Betty Wolanyk, the American Farm Bureau Federation’s director of education and research, is leading the effort. She says misconceptions—such as the belief that farming organically is the only sustainable way to farm—must be addressed, or else they build up and lead to a highly distorted understanding.

“Recent educational research shows that people build new information on top of old misconceptions,” Wolanyk said. “If we don’t dispel those misconceptions, people develop an inaccurate view of agriculture, and they will not understand how modern agriculture works to produce safe, abundant food.”

Wolanyk will discuss some popular misconceptions on Nov. 26 at the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention in Chantilly.

Supporting informed consumers

What’s the big deal if someone doesn’t understand what genetic modification really is, or thinks that eating meat harms the environment?

“Organizations and industries take advantage of the knowledge gap to change consumer choices and public policy that affects farmers and ranchers,” Wolanyk explained, “and that can erode support for the modern agricultural practices that farmers need to be productive and profitable. Those organizations win when people are not well-informed, and agriculture wins by getting accurate information out to the public.”

Megan Siebel, whose family runs a vineyard and cattle operation near Roanoke, said educating consumers about agriculture starts with the farmer.

“People won’t know any difference if we don’t educate them,” she said. “It’s almost irresponsible for farmers to not share with people what they do.”

A poll released last November backs up the idea that consumers are more supportive of modern agricultural practices when they have more fact-based information about them. The poll, done for the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, shows for example that people are 10 percent more comfortable about the safety of genetically modified foods after learning that more than half of processed products at the grocery store are produced using some form of biotechnology or genetic modification.

Just as Christopher Columbus dispelled the myth that the world was flat, the Farm Bureau foundation is sailing across the Internet, into classrooms and through community club meetings to spread fact-based and science-based knowledge about agriculture.

The foundation last year produced a booklet that lists 35 misunderstood issues and explains whether things many people assume about them are true or false. Although the booklet and accompanying CD-ROM are perfect for giving teachers lesson plan ideas, anyone can use them to develop a speech or just gain the knowledge and confidence needed to discuss the issues with friends and neighbors, Wolanyk said.

“If you’ve always known that many of the derogatory claims you’ve heard about agriculture are false, and wanted to challenge those claims but just didn’t have the time to research the issues, this booklet can help. We’ve done the research for you. And the information in the booklet is backed up by the references that are listed in case you want more information on any of the issues.”

The booklet is the first in a series of planned projects addressing misconceptions about agriculture, nutrition and the environment. Future projects will examine some of the more contentious issues in greater detail.

True? or False?

Wheat is directly consumed by humans more than any other grain.

TRUE--Wheat is the grain most widely consumed by humans, even in China, where some might assume rice is the No. 1 grain consumed.

Wheat is the world’s major cereal crop, accounting for 31 percent of the global cereal consumed directly by humans. Rice consumption is just 21 percent of direct human consumption, and dropping.

Globally, hunger is caused by a shortage of food.

FALSE--Hunger is due to economic, political and social reasons.

The world produces enough food for everyone. Even Africa produces enough food to feed that continent. Poverty results in lack of access to that food. Hunger also may be induced for political or social reasons, especially in war-torn areas of the world. Unfortunately, producing more food will not solve those problems.

Fresh, raw vegetables are always more nutritious than cooked, canned or frozen vegetables.

FALSE--While some fresh fruits and vegetables pack more of some nutrients than those that are cooked or frozen, others have less. We have been led to believe that we receive the greatest benefit from fresh vegetables and that canned or frozen vegetables are inadequate.

However, in some cases, the cooking process breaks down cellulose and allows more nutrients to be available. In others, produce that is canned or frozen at the peak of freshness may pack as many or more nutrients as vegetables that have taken days to travel from the farm to the table.The best policy is to eat a mixture of foods.

The U.S. Agriculture Department has one employee for every U.S. farmer.

FALSE--Maybe you’ve heard the joke: “Have you heard about the USDA employee who lost his job? His farmer died.”

It might get a laugh, but it’s a misconception. The fact is there are 2.13 million farms and about 109,832 USDA employees. That equals one USDA employee for every 20 farms, and those employees also administer food and nutrition programs; food safety programs that benefit everyone who eats; the National Forest System; and dozens of other programs.

Less than one-half of 1 percent of our federal budget is spent on farm programs.

TRUE--Today’s federal budget equals nearly $3 trillion ($2,784 billion). The USDA budget is about $89 billion, or 3.2 percent of the entire federal budget.

Of the USDA budget, only $12.4 billion goes to farm programs. The rest pays for things like nutrition, rural development and conservation and natural resource programs.

The funding for farm programs is only 14 percent of the USDA budget and less than one-half of 1 percent (0.45 percent, to be exact) of the federal budget. U.S. taxpayers spend just pennies per meal for programs that help to ensure that farmers can stay in business from one year to the next and produce Americans’ food in America.

We are losing family farms because large, corporate farms are taking over American agriculture.

FALSE--Less than 1 percent of farms are non-family-owned, corporate farms. Family farms still produce the majority of our food and fiber.

Yes, farms are becoming larger in order to spread costs and risks over more production, and family farms incorporate for the same reasons other businesses do—for tax purposes or to protect the family home, for example. But they are still family-owned farms.

You won’t believe what some people think
about agriculture

MYTH: The only sustainable form of food production is organic.

FACT: If the world converted to all-organic food production, yields would decline

30 percent to 40 percent, and crops would become more vulnerable to diseases such as the potato blight that caused the Irish potato famine.

In addition, to produce the nitrogen needed to fertilize crops organically, we would need to convert one-third of all crop acreage into production of “green manure” plants (clover, alfalfa or trefoil), which release nitrogen as they biodegrade; or increase the number of cattle on the planet 700 percent to produce enough manure for fertilizer. The United States alone would have to raise 1 billion additional cattle to replace the nitrogen from commercial sources.

There are fewer than 100 million head of cattle in the nation today.

MYTH: Natural isn’t harmful.

FACT: Anyone who has been bitten by a rattlesnake can tell you that it was harmful. There are many things in nature that can harm us, including many naturally occurring toxins and carcinogens. Arsenic is natural. Lead is natural

MYTH: The world can support more vegetarians than meat eaters.

FACT: If all humans became vegetarians, there would be less food, not more.

For every acre of land that can produce crops, there are almost 4 acres that are more suitable for grazing animals than for crop production. If you take grazing animals out of the equation, you are left with less food production.

Some have asserted that the same land that is used for beef production can be used to produce grain instead. However, cattle graze and eat forages that humans cannot digest or would not eat, such as grass, hay and byproducts of grain milling and food production. Cattle can eat and convert these feed sources into high-quality protein.

MYTH: Eating beef is the reason that methane in the atmosphere has tripled in the past 100 years.

FACT: Cattle and other ruminant (cud- chewing) animals do belch methane, but they are not the leading methane producers. All of these factors release much more methane into the environment: energy production, landfills, wetlands and swamps, and anaerobic septic tanks.

Energy production is the leading contributor of methane in the United States. Domestic livestock account for less than 2 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas production.

MYTH: A person’s genes can be changed by eating a genetically modified food.

FACT: If you eat corn, do you become corn? No, your body digests the proteins and absorbs the amino acids to use them to build proteins.

Your body cannot tell where a protein originates. It treats all proteins alike. Problems occur only when someone is allergic to the protein, such as peanuts or shellfish.

MYTH: Only genetically modified tomatoes have genes; ordinary tomatoes do not.

FACT: All living things contain genes, whether they are genetically modified or not.a

MYTH: DDT caused the near extinction of bald eagles due to eggshell thinning.

FACT: The science is still out on this one, though it is stated as fact in almost every high school science, social studies or environmental studies text.

Questionable methods were used in research demonstrating that DDT caused eggshell thinning. Many of the studies added additional variables other than DDT, such as removing phosphorous from or restricting calcium in the eagles’ diets. Other studies have shown no eggshell thinning when DDT was fed to the birds.

Also, consider that bald eagles were reported threatened with extinction as far back as 1921. The first use of DDT was in 1943.

So why have eagles made a comeback since DDT was banned in the U.S.? The Clean Water Act went into effect around the same time that DDT was banned. That law led to the cleanup of water contaminants that have all been proven to cause eggshell thinning—things like oil, lead and mercury. Also, the Bald Eagle Protection Act, passed by Congress in 1940, made it illegal to kill, harass or sell bald eagles.