Witnessing Helene’s Wrath

To all my Dirt-to-Dinner friends,

Thanks to everyone for the many, many expressions of concern and support following the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene.

My part of North Carolina was hit especially hard, with epic flooding and devastation that simply wiped away many of the small towns here and left cities like Asheville reeling from destruction almost beyond description. The photo on the right shows Helene’s impact on my hometown.

Remember just how widespread and damaging this storm has been for us.

Helene brought a 500-mile path of death and destruction from Florida to the southern Appalachian Mountains. Our state Department of Health and Human Services placed the death toll from Helene at 95 across 21 of our 100 counties – with another 200 still missing.

Almost three million people lost power across the affected states, including me, for eight days.  A gaunt work crew from far-off Ohio sent to restore our power politely declined our offer of some camp-stove instant coffee. Too many people still need our help for us to spend time drinking coffee, one of them said without a hint of pretension.

As if farming wasn’t bad enough this year…

Like most southern states, Georgia has a robust and diversified agricultural production system. But Helene brought four months’ worth of rain in barely two days to some areas of the state. Winds estimated at 79-111 miles per hour helped devaste a huge swatch of the Peach State’s prime production areas.

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper commented on the hurricane’s effect on Georgia’s farms and farm families:

“Every commodity in our agriculture industry has been impacted by this storm. You got poultry houses that are leveled, pecan trees that are down.

“That means we’ve lost that crop, not only for this year but we’ve lost that crop for years to come.”

Preliminary estimates by the state’s Agriculture Department, the Forestry Commission and University of Georgia placed the total economic damage to the state’s agriculture at $6.5 billion.  Harper estimated that about 30 percent of the overall economic output from Georgia’s farming industry was lost and with nothing to sell, the families and workers that make the state’s agriculture what it is are in need of help.

Atlanta television station WBS reported that the American Farm Bureau estimated Georgia had suffered a 75 percent loss in the pecan crop, and 80 percent in the poultry industry. Other reports said as many as 100 poultry houses no longer exist. That’s a huge hit for a sector that accounts for about one-third of the state’s agricultural economy.

Corn is the most widely grown crop in the state, notably in the southern half of the state. Autumn crops of produce also are critical, with one farmer estimating his losses alone at $7 million – with most of those crops not covered by crop insurance. Peach farmers also report extensive damage to their trees.

The storm brought notable immediate and lasting damage to at least two of the state’s most important crops: cotton and pecans. Cotton helps clothe us. Pecans are a mainstay of confections and notably holiday cooking. Cotton accounts for $1 billion of the state’s farm economy, pecans another $400 million. Both crops provide examples of the potential consequences of extreme weather events to producers almost anywhere.

Helene devasted as much as a quarter of the state’s entire pecan acreage. Pecan trees can take as long as 25 years to reach full maturity – meaning it will take years for the lost trees to be replaced.

According to Lenny Wells, the University of Georgia’s extension pecan specialist:

“”What we are hearing from most growers is that large trees (40-50 years and up) have suffered about a 70 percent loss and younger trees have suffered somewhere around a 40 percent loss. When I say loss, I am referring to trees blown completely down.

“These numbers are yet to be confirmed but from what I have seen myself and gauging by what we saw from Hurricane Michael a few years ago, I don’t believe these numbers are an exaggeration. I have heard from people in the damage area who have five or six trees left standing, and several who have no trees left standing.”

Cam Hand, the school’s extension cotton specialist, painted an equally somber picture:

“It seems like across the state, we lost somewhere between 35 percent to 40 percent of our (cotton) crop. … And there are fields worse than that and some that aren’t that bad, but that’s what the number looks like. And we’ve still got a long way to go on getting data and seeing the reductions in fiber quality associated with this storm.”

Let’s not forget another of the state’s key crops, supporting an industry worth an estimated $2 billion: peanuts. Georgia plants about 770,000 acres of the 1.8 million acres of peanuts grown in the United States and accounts for 53 percent of total consumption, according to industry figures. Officials are still calculating the extent of Helene’s damage to Georgia’s peanut crop. They also somberly note that Helene’s path cut through not just the state’s peanut-growing areas but the heart of the prime peanut-growing acres across the southeast.

And here in North Carolina, corn is one of our most important crops. The latest government reports show that we’ve completed 72 percent of our corn harvest, compared with 84 percent complete at this point in the last harvest season. But weather has taken its toll throughout the year, from dry conditions in the summer to torrential rains this autumn.

Only 12 percent of North Carolina’s corn crop is rated as “good,” another 11 percent “fair” – and a whopping 77 percent either “poor” or “very poor.”

I can’t think of a better barometer of the critical role of weather in our food system – here or anywhere else.

I’m pleased to report that we are recovering

In fact, perhaps the biggest ray of sunshine in all of this – if there is one – is the remarkable way people have pulled together to deal with the situation. No one has simply given up, and I’ve encountered precious few individuals prepared simply to wait for help from some government agency or an anonymous distant benefactor.

Neighbors are banding together to clear debris, and the sound of chain saws throughout the day from all directions tells me we’re out there thinking about the future, far more than about the past.

Thanks, everyone, but we are well on our way for getting through this.

As I watched all this unfold around me over almost an entire month, I’ve also noticed that the agricultural community is doing its part in the relief effort. I suppose farmers are more used to dealing with the vicissitudes of weather than we complacent consumers. Excessive rain, extreme heat, drought and the pests that come with them are part and parcel of the farming way of life. Finding ways to cope with them is the flip side of the farming coin.

The good news about agriculture, if there is any, is in the spectacular efforts of farmers to get ahead of the storm.

Thanks to the accurate heads-up provided by weather experts in the days before Helene came ashore, many farmers were able to get into the fields to speed the normal pace of the traditional farm harvest season that is underway at this time of the year. Key southern crops have been hit – some hard – but by and large an alert farming community helped cut the extent of devastation in real and meaningful ways.

But there’s still much to do

Even so, Helene’s effects on agriculture in the Southeastern United States are almost beyond comprehension.

Broken buildings, mud and silt are everywhere, still.

Roads are still closed. Downed trees, snapped power poles and drooping electrical cables line what roads are open. Obviously, some level of disruption to normal flow of crops and animals to market of course can be expected, creating spot shortages and sometimes lack of available supplies.

A visit two days ago to a prominent Asheville supermarket showed the effects in real time.

Weeks after the storm, the items on the previously robust aisles are sparse and picked over, and huge swatches of store shelves remain empty. Eggs and dairy products are in limited supply, and good luck finding any 2% milk.

Frozen food cases are bare, after extended periods without the power that makes them possible. 

“Bear with us,” the harried store manager told me. “We’ll be back. Count on it.”

That’s the voice of resilience and optimism.

The logistics system that delivers supplies and takes crops and animals to market has been severely disrupted in many areas, where roadways and bridges no longer exist. The famous Blue Ridge Parkway and other scenic attractions in this part of our state are completely shut down and will be for some time.

Local roadways are just gone in many places. The vital east-west Interstate 40 corridor remains closed in long stretches from Asheville to the Tennessee border, with eastbound lanes swept away by rains and mudslides. For those who don’t know our local geography, that’s roughly 50 miles.

It’s still possible to see farm equipment bogged down in fields that weren’t simply muddy. They were quagmires if lucky, and submerged if not. Thank the heavens above for the past week of sunny, dry conditions.

Advance weather notices helped many farmers avoid calamity.  But the sheer speed of the rising waters and the extraordinary levels of water on historically safe fields and city streets took all of us by surprise, nonetheless. This was a near Biblical event for people in this area, none more so than our local farming community.

The floods, tragically, have left hundreds of my fellow state residents dead or missing.

Finding a new path amidst the devastation

On top of that, uncounted animals also are dead or missing. Some of the luckier animals were stranded around this area, and supplies of hay and feed completely lost or rendered inaccessible. I’m told by my local farming friends that dairy farmers have faced enormous challenges dealing with their herds, without reliable delivery of feed, supplies and the ability to move product…or the power they need for milking and other management duties. Truckloads of hay from Pennsylvania and other somewhat drier distant areas have helped fill the gap for animal feed.

The peculiar thump of helicopters in the skies above delivering food, water and emergency supplies for desperate people and animals has become a normal sound of the day – and music to our ears.

Pastureland was flooded and remains wet, weeks after the storm. Some poultry houses no longer exist. Many barns, out-buildings and other elements of the farming infrastructure are left damaged, in rubble, or simply vanished down the turbulent river flows. I sense that we’re transitioning from a period of emergency response to a slower, more deliberate process of rebuilding and recovery. It will take months, perhaps years, to repair and recreate all the resources needed to move food from dirt to dinner. But we’re going to do it.

This may be the best example of “regenerative agriculture” that I’ve found so far.

As I’ve watched all this unfold around me, I also tried to take a look at how other areas hit by Helene have fared. The picture is much the same, across large portions of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee, not to mention the Florida Panhandle and parts of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.  (Florida has its own story to tell about hurricanes, which probably deserves special attention.) But as a loyal Carolinian with a well-documented southern bias, I’m sensitive to what all this means for southeastern farming and ranching, and the key crops that form the foundation of our farm economy.

How we can help

And maybe more of concern to the average consumer, the effects of Helene on the poultry industry are significant. For example, the National Chicken Council (yes, there is a national chicken council) notes that Georgia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas were the top five states for liveweight broiler production in 2023, accounting for 55.5 percent of total U.S. federally inspected production. Replacing the productive capacity for broilers, layers, eggs, turkeys and other poultry lost because of Helene won’t happen overnight.

If anyone wants to offer help to the people ravaged by Hurricane Helene, please visit CharityNavigator’s Hurricane Helene Support page for an overview of various charitable organizations helping in the relief effort.

Thanks again for all your support and concern. We all appreciate it more than we hope you will ever know.

– Garland

 

Understanding food labels

Here I am at Costco, getting far too many things for my family of four. As I try to navigate my unwieldy cart, I see a new product – avocado oil spray. Apparently, it has a higher smoke point for cooking AND healthy fats!

But, wait…look at all these labels: organic, non-GMO, all natural, glyphosate residue-free, gluten free…what? Avocados have gluten!?

It happens to all of us: we’re hit with a barrage of food labels every time we go grocery shopping.

Many of us assume the more labels, the higher quality the product…but you’d be mistaken.

Food companies are in a constant battle to prove superiority of their products, even at the expense of the truth. But how are we to know if a label is informative or just a marketing ploy?

Below, we’ve compiled summaries on each popular food label so you can decide which is most meaningful to you…and which ones are gimmicks.

ORGANIC

What it means:

  • USDA organic products have strict production and labeling requirements.

    • These requirements demand that approved food items are produced using no genetic engineering or ionizing radiation and with natural pesticides and fertilizers. Organic products are overseen by authorized personnel of the USDA National Organic Program.

Don’t be fooled:

  • Several USDA-certified organic labels exist, so just because you see “organic” in the label, don’t assume the entire product is organic

    • “100% Organic” indicates it’s a fully organic product
    • The “Organic” label indicates at least 95% if the product is organic
    • “Made with Organic Ingredients” indicates at least 70% of the product is organic

CERTIFIED HUMANE

What it means:

Don’t be fooled:

  • Producers don’t need to do anything after receiving USDA permission, so if this is really important to you, stick with a third-party humane verifier.

GRASS-FED

What it means:

  • Grass-fed” is a term used for cow, sheep and goat products to indicate the animals’ diet is primarily comprised of pasture grass, hay, and forage.

    • To claim “grass-fed”, the USDA’s Food Safety & Inspection Service requires documentation stating that animals have access to a pasture during most of its life. Feedlots are allowed during weaning and in the months before harvesting.

  • However, products with the American Grassfed label indicate that the ruminating animals had continuous access to pasture and a diet of 100% forage. Cage confinement, hormones and all antibiotics are expressly prohibited by the organization.

Don’t be fooled:

NON-GMO

There are only 11 GMO crops currently approved for consumption in the U.S.: alfalfa, Arctic apples, canola, corn, cotton, papaya, Pinkglow pineapples, potatoes (select varieties), soybeans, squash (select varieties), and sugar beets

That’s it. No GMO wheat, strawberries, tomatoes, rice, chickens, etc. 

GMO crops are proven completely safe for consumption and have the same nutritional profile as their non-GMO counterparts.

What it means:

  • When you see food products with a “non-GMO” label at the grocery store, it either means:

    • The food product is made from a crop with a GMO counterpart and the producer chose to use the non-GMO version. For instance, tortilla corn chips made from non-GMO corn.

    • You’re paying extra for a label on a product with no GMO alternative: think avocados, strawberry jam, and hummus

Don’t be fooled:

The Non-GMO Project approves companies to use their “non-GMO verified” logo, even on non-GMO alternative products. 

With no FDA or USDA regulation for the term, “non-GMO”, organizations like this can take advantage of consumers who don’t know which crops have GMO counterparts. Think avocado oil, or even products with no genes in the first place, like salt and bottled water.

  • If avoiding GMOs is important to you, look for the logo on products with a GMO counterpart (see above list)

  • Organic products will always be non-GMO products; however, non-GMO products are not necessarily organic

CAGE FREE & FREE RANGE

What it means:

Don’t be fooled:

NO ADDED HORMONES

What it means:

  • Beef and sheep producers sometimes administer hormones to help their livestock enter the meat market more quickly. And the same goes for dairy cow producers, though fewer farms practice this now.

  • Labels showing “no hormones added” or “no hormones administered” are allowed if these producers can prove that no hormones were used during the animal’s life.

Don’t be fooled:

NO ANTIBIOTICS ADDED

What it means:

  • The USDA approves the labels, “No antibiotics administered,” “no antibiotics added” and “raised without antibiotics”, if producers can prove that antibiotics were not administered at any point.

Don’t be fooled:

GLUTEN FREE

What it means:

  • Gluten is a general name for the proteins found in cereal grains, like wheat, barley and rye and informs those with a gluten allergy or celiac disease that the product is safe for their consumption.

Don’t be fooled:

  • This label is being used on products that don’t normally include cereal grains (think sugar, rice and corn products), thus becoming another marketing gimmick.

  • Also, know that gluten-free products are not healthier, as gluten-free substitutes may contain other additives. In fact, many gluten-free products are higher in saturated fat and sugar.

 

NATURAL

What it means:

  • The terms, “100% Natural”, “Made with natural ingredients”, and “All natural”, are not closely monitored by any government agency. Because of this, food companies apply these claims and fancy logos to make us believe their product is superior.

Don’t be fooled:

  • The labels don’t really mean anything at all. These products can still contain hormones, antibiotics, pesticides…really anything

  • And there’s not much relief in sight: since 2016, the FDA has been discussing how to regulate this term, but with no standard set

So eat your veggies and fruits with abandon!

No matter the labels or lack thereof, fresh produce will only promote a healthier you.

And here’s a quick reference chart for your next grocery run:

Click here to download chart

Do price controls work?

The Harris/Waltz campaign promises to bring down American’s grocery costs. One of their strategies is to pass the ‘first-ever federal ban on price gouging.’

Price gouging is, in times of short supply or inflation, companies, or individuals, raise the price of their goods above and beyond what is fair and economical. For instance, during Covid, some people bought personal hand sanitizer dispensers for $1.00 and resold them for over $7.00. Or, during an inflationary period when prices are rising, companies charge more than their basic profit margin.

Many states already have ‘price gouging’ laws that prohibit ‘excessive’ or ‘unconscionable’ prices in the wake of a declared emergency, such as a hurricane or other natural disaster. These laws purport to protect consumers against companies’ exploiting a surge in demand for necessities, including food and energy, caused by an emergency.

Whatever the merits of those laws, they appear to be quite different than the generalized price controls proposed by the Harris/Waltz campaign.

Price Controls in a Global Food System

Price controls are not a simple solution. If uncontrollable costs increase the price of food, then food producers and consumer product companies will suffer because their goods sold have to remain competitively priced.

Because countries are interdependent on each other for food prices, what happens around the globe reverberates to the grocery aisle…

  • a drought in Argentina can affect corn prices in the U.S. because there is less global corn available,
  • the price of your chocolate dessert has increased because the Ivory Coast and Ghana governments raised the farmgate price for cocoa buyers, or
  • the potential longshoreman strike could affect the price of your bananas or tomatoes coming in from Mexico or Holland.

The list of potential situations affecting the price of food in our grocery aisles is endless.

Price Controls in Your Neighborhood

Let’s take a simple example of a lemonade stand to demonstrate pricing controls.  Your children want a new iPhone, and you tell them that they need to earn it themselves. One hot sunny summer day, your son and daughter decide to create a lemonade stand to keep your neighbors cool and hydrated. “Our lemonade will be unique”, they said. “It is sugar free and has electrolytes.”

You help fund a big table, two chairs, lemons, electrolyte powder, stevia for sweetness, plastic cups, and a blender for mixing.  You calculate that if they sold 100 cups of lemonade, they could charge their customers $1.25 per drink.  That way, they would cover their costs of $0.75 a cup and make a 50-cent profit on each cup. If they sold all 100, that would be $50 for the day. In a little over two weeks throughout the summer, they would have the new iPhone in time for school.

You walk around the neighborhood and see that other neighbors also have lemonade stands, each with unique features, such as cinnamon, hot chilies, or even icy slushy blueberries and strawberries in their drinks. But you notice that the lines are longer around some and see that many prices are only $1.00 a cup.

You wonder: are your children charging too much?  So you go back and encourage them to drop their price to $1.00, knowing that at least they should make $25.00 for the day. This will take most of the summer, but an iPhone is still in their future. Life is good.

And here come the price controls: the town government decided that the lemonade around the neighborhood is too expensive.  Thinking it is helping those who cannot afford to pay $1.00 a cup, the town puts a ceiling of $0.70 a cup.  This creates a loss for everyone whose cost is about the same at $0.75 a cup. The lemonade vendors, your children included, fold up their chairs and that is the end of neighborhood lemonade.

The government goes back to reconsider their price ceiling and decides to help the lemonade vendors.  They increase the ceiling to $0.90. They also put in a price floor of $0.80. With a small profit margin realized, a few optimistic lemonade vendors are back in business. Your children are hanging in there.

Suddenly there is frost in Florida and the price for lemons have doubled. The price floor doesn’t help as the lemonade vendors have a higher cost of goods than they can sell on the market. Their cost to produce lemonade is now $1.25.  This is way over the price floor of $0.80 and over the price ceiling of $0.90.

Lemonade is now a nostalgic memory. There will have to be plan B for an iPhone.

Price Controls Gone Awry

On a much more serious scale, here is what happened when governments tried price controls in Venezuela, Russia, and even in the United States.

Hint: It didn’t work then, either.

Price controls are often associated with Communist countries, as it involves more government intervention than Western Democracy often practices. Despite the best intentions to maintain cheap prices, history has shown that price controls tend to backfire with severe shortages of consumer necessities across a nation.

Venezuela

Venezuela struggled during the 2008 commodity and financial crisis and due to price controls and overall poor governance, they have still not recovered.  In 2008, due to weather, crop shortages, and oil prices, global prices for rice and wheat escalated by over 200% and 100%, respectively.

President Chavez announced, “there is a food crisis in the world, but Venezuela is not going to fall into that crisis”.   He passed the Law for Fair Costs and Prices which put price ceilings, floors, and audits on companies.

Like the lemonade stands, many of these companies went out of business due to negative margins.  As a result, production dropped, food availability on the grocery shelves suffered, and there was a significant food crisis.

The number of undernourished people escalated to 6.5 million in 2020 from .7 million in 2013. Venezuela has still not recovered As of June 2024; it is estimated that there are 550,000 Venezuelan’s who have migrated to the U.S.

It is no wonder. Their Global Food Security Index score is 106th out of 113th in the world, and is ranked 18th out of 19 South American countries.  Only Haiti is below them.

Soviet Union

In the 1980s, President Mikael Gorbachev, had good intentions to keep food and consumer goods prices low to ensure they were affordable for the public. Gorbachev implemented price controls as a staple economic policy aimed at stabilizing prices and preventing inflation. However, these controls often led to significant issues, notably shortages of goods and a decline in product quality.

One of the main reasons these controls failed was that the fixed prices didn’t reflect the actual costs of production. Companies and producers of food lost their incentive to supply the grocery store when they had a loss.  This led to empty store shelves. The black market flourished because people had to eat and went to the black market which set its prices based on basic economic supply and demand. It ended up undermining the state price controls.

Gorbachev caved and he removed controls and settled for a basic market economy. Then, when price controls were lifted, there was hyperinflation, and prices rose by over 2,000%! There is nothing quite as predictable as basic supply and demand for market efficiencies.

United States

If you were born in the 1960s, you will remember the 1970s gas shortage while trying to fill your car with gas. Once again price controls imposed by President Nixon didn’t work. There was a 1973 OPEC oil embargo and in response the U.S. government-imposed price controls to keep gas affordable for the customer.

However, these price caps led to unintended consequences. Gas prices were $0.36 a gallon. When going to parties, I remember contributing $1.00 for three gallons of gas. Of course, this was way below the cost of production, so the oil companies stopped producing oil because they lost money for each gallon of gas. This also prevented them from investing in new drilling or additional resources.

This also led to VERY long lines at gas stations and at-home stocking of gasoline.

Would History Repeat Itself?

“We economists don’t know much, but we do know how to create a shortage.

If you want to create a shortage of tomatoes, for example, just pass a law that retailers can’t sell tomatoes for more than two cents per pound. Instantly you’ll have a tomato shortage. It’s the same with oil or gas.”

― Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning economist and statistician

While governments can be tempted to control the price, the complex relationship between government policies, producer incentives, and consumer needs shows that market dynamics reign and cannot be ignored.

The Ultimate Cocktail Cookie

“The cookies are essentially a shortbread batter elevated with sweet and savory ingredients that produce the most tantalizing bouchée which, after just one bite will transport you to a state of food nirvana.”

But never satisfied to leave well enough alone, Lisa was curious what would happen if she adapted the recipe to include apricots to the savory recipe and add a whole egg instead of egg yolks to plump up the cookie and bind it better when baked through.

Turns out she was right on all counts. This sweet and savory version will add a patina of sophistication to your next cocktail party.

Want to dig deeper into this recipe to learn how foods like these are a part of our bigger food system? We’ve got something for everyone!

The Ultimate Cocktail Cookie

Yields 3 dozen cookies

Click here for printable version

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup whole almonds
  • 1/2 cup whole dried apricots, softened in boiling water for ten minutes and then chopped
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (additional flour for rolling and cutting)
  • 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (1 ounce)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, diced
  • 1 egg

Instructions:

  • Preheat the oven to 350°.
  • Add the whole almonds to a food processor and pulse to the consistency of grainy flour. Add the rosemary and sugar and pulse until completely combined. Now add the chopped apricots and pulse until they are well integrated. Add the flour and pulse into a fine grainy mixture.
  • Now add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the egg and pulse until large clumps of dough form.
  • Flour your work surface. Transfer the dough and press into a disc. Lightly flour the disc and with a rolling pin very gently roll into a larger circle until the dough is 1/2″ thick.
  • Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Using a 1 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, stamp out cookies as close together as possible. Arrange the cookies about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.
  • Bake the cookies for about 20 minutes, until lightly golden; you may need to spin the sheet half way through if your oven cooks unevenly. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pro tip: Want to make this ahead?

The rolled-out cookie dough can be wrapped in plastic and kept frozen for 2 weeks. Then bake cookies as instructed above.

Hungry for more knowledge?

Click on the posts below to sate your curiosity about where our food comes from. And click here for more of our tried-and-true recipes. Bon appetit!

5 Nutrients Unique to Meat

Meats, especially lesser processed lean meats (think chicken breast, pork loin, and beef sirloin), are a natural source of many vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. They also have specific protein compounds fundamental to overall health, making it all the more important to evaluate your dietary needs should you choose to limit or remove meats from your diet.

Here are five essential nutrients only found in meat:

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 is primarily found in animal foods like fish, meat, and eggs.

This vitamin is essential for a healthy body, as it helps develop red blood cells, keeps our cells healthy, and supports nerve and brain function. B12 also boosts our energy levels by preventing megaloblastic anemia, a condition that can make people feel tired and weak.

According to the National Institutes of Health, adults should aim for an average daily intake of 2.4 micrograms of B12. It’s important to remember that plant foods don’t naturally contain vitamin B12 unless they’re fortified, making it challenging to get enough of this nutrient on a plant-only diet.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D comes in two forms: D2, found in plants; and D3, found in animal foods. Both forms are important for our health. In our bodies, vitamin D helps absorb calcium, promotes bone and cell growth, reduces inflammation, and supports a healthy immune system.

While both types of vitamin D are essential, a deficiency in vitamin D3 has been linked to a higher risk of cancer, heart disease, and multiple sclerosis. To boost your vitamin D3 intake, try eating fatty fish and egg yolks, which are among the best sources.

A study recommends a daily vitamin D supplement dose of 2000 IU (50 µg) for various health benefits, including reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease, and multiple sclerosis.

DHA

DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, is an omega-3 fatty acid essential for brain function. It plays a crucial role in infant brain development and is vital for maintaining normal brain function in adults. Deficiencies in DHA have been linked to cognitive decline and an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and depression.

Recent research also highlights the impact of DHA on metabolic health, with findings showing that a low-fat diet with less DHA increased women’s plasma triglycerides and the severity of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The best source of DHA is fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines. However, for those following a plant-based diet, algal oil supplements are an excellent alternative, providing the necessary DHA without animal products.

Complete Proteins

There are two types of proteins – complete and incomplete – and they differ based on their amino acid profile.

There are over 20 types of amino acids and nine essential amino acids. Complete proteins contain all nine, while incomplete proteins lack at least one amino acid. Because our bodies can’t make these crucial amino acids, they must come from our diet.

Animal-based foods, such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy, are all sources of complete proteins. Plant-based foods, like fruits and veggies, seeds, nuts, and grains, lack one or more essential amino acids, making them incomplete proteins and not a good sole source of protein in your diet.

However, you don’t necessarily have to eat meat to get your amino acids, but you do have to be strategic. You can mix and match incomplete proteins to create a complete one. For example, when consumed together, rice and beans create a complete protein. So do peanut butter and whole wheat bread.

Digestive properties

Plant and animal proteins differ not only in their amino acid composition, but also in their digestive processes.

The speed at which protein is absorbed directly affects our metabolism. Animal-based proteins are generally more nutritionally efficient because they are absorbed more quickly by the body. It typically takes 36 to 72 hours for the body to break down protein into its amino acids for absorption.

Since plant proteins often need to combine with other foods to provide all the essential amino acids, their digestion and absorption take longer. Recent research supports these findings, showing that animal proteins are more effective in stimulating muscle protein synthesis due to their higher digestibility and better amino acid profile.

However, combining different plant-based protein sources can still provide a complete amino acid profile for those on plant-based diets.

Here’s why we must vote…

This promises to be a very close race for President and many other state and local offices, so every vote counts. And our food and agriculture system has a lot at stake in this election…

We’re still without our long-overdue Farm Bill – the massive legislation that sets the ground rules for how our entire system for providing ample, affordable, safe and nutritious food operates.

This election could help clear the political air in Washington enough to allow this important piece of legislation to move forward – finally.

Food and agriculture have not been a prominent element of either presidential camp, apart from the expected vote-for-me rhetoric delivered in campaign swings through key farming states.

That’s probably because our food system continues to deliver a diverse, safe and nutritious supply of all the things our families want and need when they sit down at the dinner table.

The lack of prominent attention to farm and food in the national campaigns is a reflection of the success the amazing food system we have established over the years.

Other issues just seem to be more compelling than “tweaks” to a system that overall works very, very well. 

Overall Campaign Differences for Food & Ag 

This election may help clarify the future direction of the many, many policies and programs that help keep the system functioning. However, keep in mind that presidents have limited authority when it comes to agriculture regulation and policies. Congress determines most of these policies through the Farm Bill, which has been in a stalemate since 2023.

Both parties have issued platforms full of promises and noble intentions for food and agriculture, with ample pledges to all elements of the food chain, from the farm field to consumer plate. But exactly how many of those promises – and what kind of promises – actually will be pursued depends on the victorious presidential camp.

Harris/Walz

To many, the election of Kamala Harris signals a continuation of the basic direction of existing Biden-Harris Administration policies.

Accelerating a transition to a “greener” food system via environmental and climate goals would likely remain key elements of her administration’s agenda.

For farmers and food producers, efforts to help new, limited resource and/or socially disadvantaged producers would continue, as would the $42 billion spend on an underserved rural internet program.

Protecting consumer rights via the price of food also is expected to be a target, through a more aggressive approach by way of government attention to alleged price gouging.

Trump/Vance

Former President Donald Trump, in contrast, can be expected to take a more business-like approach, with less focus on the environmental and climate regulations, or for efforts to ‘manage’ the marketplace to control or bring down food prices.

A more aggressive approach to trade also might be anticipated, reflected in his campaign rhetoric of ‘getting tough’ with U.S. trading partners. That is an important issue for U.S. agriculture, which exported commodities and products worth $196 billion in 2022 and $178 billion in 2023. Improvements must be made to Reference Prices, Crop Insurance, Dairy Margin Coverage and Specialty Crop Insurance.

Trump will also invest in Starlink as the internet provider for farmers and rural America. This is cheaper than the $42 billion in infrastructure currently proposed with the Biden-Harris Administration.

A Deeper Dive into the Campaigns

To provide more context into the key differences of each campaign, we’ve compiled a summary from the recently-released Farm Bureau Presidential Candidate Questionnaire. We hope this helps you as we approach Election Day:

TRADE

Trump: Wants to end reliance on China for critical goods and strengthen American policies

During his presidency, he sent $28 billion to protect farmers from Chinese abuses. During his presidency he negotiated over 50 trade agreements to boost farm exports, create jobs, and support farmers. He replaced NAFTA with USMCA. Trump will not let states dictate or place barriers on their borders which makes it difficult for farmers to sell their products around the country.

Harris: Has stood up to unfair China trade practices as Vice President

She will not tolerate unfair trade from China or any competitor that undermines American farmers and ranchers. Regarding interstate trade, Harris will fight to reduce barriers and make it easier for farmers, ranchers, and other small business owners to earn a living and support a family off their hard work. She will modernize regulatory review/analysis and enhance public participation.

TAXES

Trump: Will protect the pro-farmer tax cuts from 2017

This includes the elimination of estate taxes, death taxes and family farm estate taxes. He will permanently keep in place the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Harris: Will end recently established tax cuts, thus raising taxes

This creates the foundation to form new tax codes that benefits the middle class and smaller farms and ranches.

LABOR

Trump: Will prioritize merit-based immigration

This means that those who are admitted to America contribute and strengthen the economy and the country.

Harris: Supports an earned pathway to legalization and eventual citizenship for agricultural workers

She will strengthen the H-2A visa program. The Biden-Harris administration invested $50 million to address agriculture labor challenges and protect farm workers by improving the immigration system.

CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT

Trump: Believes that it is critical to ensure America has the cleanest air and cleanest water

He states that the American farmers are the Climate Champions of the world because they sequester more GHGs than what they emit during production.  He will also end the Green New Deal, dismantle the ‘net zero’ energy policy, and restore America’s energy independence.

Harris: Believes in a collaboration between farmers and government

The Inflation Reduction Act put $20b to help the agricultural community adopt and expand conservation strategies – all while saving money, and ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes and increasing productivity.

ENERGY

Trump: Committed to having the lowest cost of energy and electricity in the world – which will help American Agriculture

Part of this is ending market distorting restrictions on Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal. He believes in ethanol and exporting it around the world.

Harris: Sees a future of American energy security, independence, and clean energy economy creating jobs

She voted in favor for the $10b Inflation Reduction Act for rural renewable energy, rural electrification, loans to producers, renewable energy and domestic biofuels.

REGULATORY REFORM

Trump: Transparency and common sense are key guidelines

During presidency, he cut 7 regulations for every 1 new regulation, saving American households $11,000

Harris: Will fight to reduce barriers and make it easier for farmers, ranchers, and other small business owners to earn a living and support a family

The Biden-Harris Administration has pushed to improve and modernize the process of regulatory reviews, enhance public participation and improve regulatory analysis.

BIOTECHNOLOGY

Trump: Supports access to agriculture biotechnology and quick review so farmers can have faster access to innovation

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement allowed farmers and ranchers expanded access to biotechnology and eliminated non-scientific barriers.

Harris: Has fought to expand biotech education and job training programs

Their administration will reinvest in agriculture research at land-grant universities for innovation and progress to farmers.

But no matter your political views…

Please get to the polls and be part of a nation-wide effort to bring some clarity and direction to the national and local policies that shape our daily lives – and sustain the most productive, responsive and efficient food system in human history.