What would a US food pyramid landscape look like?
The US Department of Agriculture has released a new study examining the potential implications for US agriculture production if all Americans adopted eating habits consistent with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Comparing food availability data to Food Guide Pyramid Servings data, the report authors estimate domestic fruit, vegetable, and whole grain crop production would need to increase by 7.4 million acres (nearly 2 percent of cropland) to provide enough food for the increased consumption recommended by the guidelines.
Assuming the needed supply was obtained only from domestic sources, the US would need to more than double fruit acreage to 7.6 million acres and increase vegetable acreage from 6.5 million to 15.3 million acres. Whole grain consumption would need to rise, but total grain production acres would need to fall by nearly 6 million acres.
To meet the new recommendations for milk products consumption, the study predicts production would need to increase by nearly 30 percent approximately 108 billion pounds per yearto a total of 274 billion pounds annually. The report’s numbers put an interesting perspective on the continued opposition of the specialty crop alliance to full planting flexibility on program crop acreage.
The complete report is available at www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err31/err31.pdf.
