Institutional Food and Food
Consumption
Ramifications for Local Food
Systems
By Liza Rognas, Faculty
Spring 2003
·
How much
do we spend on food?
·
Local,
regional, national and global economies change and shift according to worldwide
food consumption. Food cost is the leading factor when measuring, and the
leading contributor to, poverty and hunger world-wide.
·
Since
1929 the amount of money spent of food in the US has steadily risen but the
percentage we spend on food as a percentage of per capita income has
dramatically decreased:
As a
nation’s income increases, a decreasing share of the overall budget is
spent on food. (Ernst Engels, 19th C. German Statistician)
U.S. Food Consumption
as percentage of per capita
income
(source: U.S.Dept. of Labor
Statistics)
1929—24% 1969—13.7%
1989—11.5% 1999—7.4-9%
Worldwide food consumption as
percentage of per capita income,
1999
(Source:
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, U.S. ERS )
Canada 6.73 U.K. 6.9 Italy 10.58
France 9.21 Sweden 7.28 Tanzania 71
Thailand 26 Philippines 55 Israel 22
Mexico 19
High
Income Countries: 16 %
Middle Income
Countries: 35%
Low Income
55%
(Source:
ERS, Agricultural Outlook, July 1997)
impact of food costs:
1996
USDL Consumer Expenditure Survey
Income Percent
for Food
$5,000-9,000 32.2
$15-19,000 23.2
$30-39,000 14.7
·
High
cost of food demands more local or household production. Where food costs are
low, more money is spent on food consumption away from home.
·
In
the U.S. the percentage of the food dollar spent away from home increased from
34% in 1970 to almost 45% in 1997. Institutional food suppliers capture almost
half of the total food expenditures in the United States.
Broadly,
ready-to-eat food or meals procured from: grocery stores (processed),
restaurants, public and private schools, hospitals (and other medical
institutions), military camps and bases, criminal detention facilities, and
other institutional settings.
U.S.
Military Food Provisions were first procured from local sources.
1775
Continental Army rations: 3 pints of beans or peas per week, or equivalent
vegetables; 1 pint of milk per day (or butter or lard), 1lb beef or 3/4lb pork
or 1lb salt fish per day; 1 loaf bread or 1lb flour per day.
Great
War-WWII: additions of boneless beef (Spam 1939)and fresh vegetables supplied
by local truck farmers. During wars, main focus of commercial agriculture went
to military provisioning and also to war relief in Europe. ** 1939
Meals-on-Wheels established to provide food to London’s bombing victims,
shut-ins and wounded.**
By 1940s
local procurement inadequate to address needs of standing army of over 200,000
persons. A centralized Quarter Master Market Center Program was established in
1941 linking military food procurement to large civilian food distribution systems.
(source:
Morris, Gen C. “The Army Food Service System: Then and Now,”
Quartermaster professional Bulletin, Summer 1992.)
Prisons,
mental Institutions and Indian Schools
19th
Century forced interment of Native American children, the mentally ill, and of
state and federal prisoners required provision of daily meals for those
interred as well as staff.
Most
institutions were located in rural areas and contained onsite agricultural
production facilities. Models for these institutions existed in Europe prior to
Colonial Period and trace their origins to feudal manor systems and to the
Christian monastic tradition. In the U.S., this institution-farm system lasted
well into the 20th century. Farming is currently part of many
institutional penal systems. Food needs were and are often supplemented with
purchases of local produce. Often, excess production is sold to subsidize
institutional costs. (sources;
RG75 BIA Records, Sioux Sanitorium Records, NARA-Central Plains Region; RG75
Chippewa Agency Records, Field Matron Reports; Berman, Constance H. The
Cistercian Evolution: The Invention ofa Religious Order in 12th
Century Europe.
Philidelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000; Mardon, Austin,
“The Ecology of Medieval English Monasteries,” Greenwich Journal
of Science & Technology 2(1): 49-57)
The first
restaurant opened in France in 1765. It’s claim to fame was serving
“restorative” bouillons to the rich. Until the late 19th
century, restaurants remained establishments whose clients were wealthy or
nearly so. After the turn of the century several innovations in food
preservation, technology and industry, changed food consumption habits in
America and the industrialized western countries:
Brief
Timeline
1920s—U.S
population is measured higher in urban than in rural areas; automobile
transportation joins water and rail transport making all commodities and humans
more mobile. Demand for US agricultural produce drops in 1922, setting of a
rolling rural depression resulting, among other things, in farm losses and
merging of smaller farms into larger. Retail blossoms, including grocery stores
and demand for larger food distribution systems.
Discussion:
1930s, 1940s, 1950s-present. How did we get to almost half of the food dollar
being spent away from home?
Bringing Locally grown
food into the Institution.
Farm-to-School
Programs in k-12 and higher education:
University
of Wisconsin--Madison
&
TESC
Connection
to local community
Stewardship
and fostering values
High
student demand
Price—higher production costs
Mitigation—Al
a carte, good,
centralized distribution.
Liability
Insurance--$1
million dollar policies prohibitive to growers
Labor
& Storage costs
for fresh, unprocessed food.
Mitigation:
work with producers for
frequent deliveries.
Commitment—Farmers want consistent
quantity demand, restaurants want consistent quality.
Recommendations
for Producers:
·
Evaluate
market and sell where demand already exists
·
Build
and maintain strong relationships with buyer
·
Market
to small schools or those with self-managed contracts
·
Plan
effective promotions
·
Use
marketing and distribution co-ops
Or, work with vendors who already supply institution.
Quality,
price, performance, customer service and delivery.
Requirements:
·
Hold
$1 million liability insurance policy
·
Pay
fee for quality control auditors to inspect facilities and product
·
Satisfy
product specifications on quality and portion
·
Provide
high quality meats
·
Possess
certification(s)--health and safety standards