Significant scientific findings about palm oil have arisen from painstaking research in many laboratories.
Twelve of the many scientific facts about the nutritional effects of palm oil are presented here. Each fact has been thoroughly examined and evaluated by scientists in some of the world's most respected laboratories, using universally approved methods, to render them worthy of international acceptance.
This compilation of documented facts on the nutritional effects of palm oil has been published in full or in part in international scientific journals and is endorsed by committees of several of the most recognized and respected nutrition scientists in this field. (Refer : MPOPC Health, Nutrition and Palm Oil: A Compilation)
A Compilation of the Nutritional Effects of Palm Oil and Palm Olein
FACT 1: Palm Oil is Not Palm Kernel Oil or Coconut Oil - Palm oil from the fruit of the palm is physically and chemically different from either palm kernel oil which is derived from the seed, and from coconut oil, both of which are highly saturated.
FACT 2: Long Record of Safe Use - Palm oil has been a safe and nutritious source of edible oil for healthy humans for thousands of years. (1)
FACT 3: Consumed Worldwide - Palm oil and its liquid fraction, palm olein, are consumed worldwide as cooking oils and as constituents of margarines and shortenings; these oils are also incorporated into fat blends used in the manufacture of a variety of food products as well as in home food preparation.
FACT 4: Excellent Dietary Energy Source - Like other common edible fats and oils, palm oil is easily digested, absorbed and utilized in normal metabolic processes. It plays a useful role in meeting energy and essential fatty acid needs in many regions of the world. (2)
FACT 5: Free of Cholesterol and Trans Unsaturated Fatty Acids - Palm oil, like other vegetable oils, is cholestrol free. Having a moderate level of saturation, it does not require hydrogenation for use as a fat component in foods and, as such, does not contain trans fatty acids. (3,4)
FACT 6: Rich Carotenoids - Red (unprocessed) and red or golden (specially refined) palm oils, the major cooking oils in many parts of the world, are rich sources of beta-carotene, a precursor of Vitamin A, which some studies have found to have antioxidant properties.(5)
FACT 7: Vitamin E Antioxidants - Palm oil and palm oil products are naturally occuring sources of the antioxidant vitamin E constituents, tocopherols and tocotrienols. These natural antioxidants may act as scavengers of damaging oxygen free radicals. Some studies have suggested that antioxidants may play a protective role in cellular aging, atherosclerosis and cancer. (6,7,8,9) .
FACT 8: Balanced Fatty Acid Composition - Palm olein contains a mixture of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids. The relative concentrations are 44% oleic acid, 10% linoleic acid, 40% palmitic acid and 5% stearic acid. The concentrations of palmitic and oleic acids are reversed in unfractionated palm oil i.e. 44% and 40% respectively. The fatty acid composition of palm oil is similar to that of the adipose tissue in most people on an ordinary diet.
FACT 9: Provides Linoleic Acid: An Essential Fatty Acid - Palm oil triglycerides carry linoleic acid predominately in the 2-position, which favors absorption and availability for use in the body
FACT 10: Favorable Nutritional Studies - Human feeding studies and epidemiologic data have found that palm oil and palm olein have effects on blood cholesterol levels that are similar to olive oils. (10,11) In several studies of normocholesterolemic men and women, a diet that included palm oil resulted in reduced blood cholesterol compared to entry level values, and palmitic acid (16:0) (which comprises 90% of palm oil) was found equivalent to oleic acid (18:1) insofar as it affected cholesterol metabolism. (11,12,13) There is evidence that a balance between linoleic (18:2) and palmitic (16:0) acids may be required to maximize HDL levels. (14) Substitution of palmitic acid (16:0) from palm oil or palm olein for the lauric acid (12:0) and myristic acid (14:0) combination from palm kernel or coconut oils leads to a decrease in plasma and LDL cholesterol. (15,16,17) Of several fats tested, including a fat blend approximating American intake, a palm oil-enriched diet fed to hamsters induced the highest level of protective HDL-chlolesterol and the greatest production of liver LDL receptors, key to removal of harmful LDL-cholesterol from the blood. (18)
FACT 11: Thrombosis - Rats fed a palm oil-enriched diet were found to have a reduced tendency for blood clotting. (19)
FACT 12: Cancer - Red palm olein is a source of carotenoids which some animal studies have found to inhibit some types of cancer. Animal studies have found that a diet containing palm oil, as compared to lard, beef tallow, corn oil and soybean oil, exerted an inhibitory effect on the development and incidence of experimentally -induced breast cancer in rats. (20,21) Animal and cellular studies have also found that tocotrienols inhibit the growth of cancer cells in vivo (22,23) as well as in vitro. (24,25)
12 NUTRITIONAL FACTS - REFERENCES
Cottrell, R.C., (1991) Nutritional aspects of palm oil. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 53: 989S - 1009S.
Calloway, D.H. and Kurtz, G.W (1956) The absorbability of natural and modified fats. Food Research 21: 621-629
Agriculture Handbook 8-4 (1979). Composition of Foods, United States Department of Agriculture, Science and Education Administration, Washington, D.C.
Life Sciences Research Office (1985). The Health Aspects of Trans-Fatty Acids, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Rockville, MD.
Krinsky, N.I. (1993). Actions of carotenoids in biological systems. Ann. Rev. Nutr. 13:561-588.
Walton, J.R. and Packer, L. (1980) Free radical damage and protection: relationship to cellular aging and cancer. In: Vitamin E, a Comprehensive Treatise, ed. L.J. Machlin, Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York, pp. 495-517
Hirai, S., Okamoto, K., and Morimatsu, M. (1982). Lipid peroxide in the aging process. In: Lipid Peroxides in Biology and Medicine, ed. K. Yagi, Academic Press, New York, pp. 305-315
Cross, C.E., (1987). Oxygen radicals and human disease. Ann. Int. Med. 197: 526-545
Elson, C.E. and Qureshi, A.A. (1995). Coupling the cholesterol and tumor- suppressive actions of palm oil to the impact of its minor constituents on 3- hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase activity. Prosta. Leuko. Ess. Fatty Acids. 52: 205-208.
Wood, R., Kubena, K., Tseng, S., Martin, G. and Crook, R. (1993). Effect of palm oil, margarine, butter and sunflower oil on the serum lipids and lipoproteins of normocholesterolemic middle-aged men. J. Nutr. Biochem. 4: 286-297
Ng, T.K.W, Hayes, K.C., de Witt, G.E, Jegathesan, M.,Satgunasingham, N., Ong, A.S.H. and Tan, D.T.S (1992). Palmitic and oleic acid exert similar effects on serum lipid profile in normocholestrolemic humans. J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 11: 383-390
Hayes, K.C., Pronczuk, A., and Khosla, P. (1995). A rationale for plasma cholesterol modulation by dietary fatty acids:Modelling the human response in animals. J. Nutr. Biochem., 6:188-194
Choudhury, N., Tan, L., and Truswell, A.S. (1995). Comparison of palm olein and olive oil: Effects on plasma lipids and Vitamin E in young adults. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 61:1043-
Sundram, K., Hayes, K.C. and Siru, O.H. (1995). Both dietary 18:2 and 16:0 may be required to improve the serum LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio in normocholesterolemic men. J. Nutr. Biochem., 6: 179-187
Ng, T.K.W, Hassan, K., Lim, J.B. Lye, M.S. and Ishak, R. (1991). Non- hypercholesterolemic effects of a palm oil diet in Malaysian volunteers. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 53:1015S-1020S
Sundram, K., Hayes, K.C., and Siru, O.H. (1994). Dietary palmitic acid results in a lower serum cholesterol than a lauric-myristic acid combination in normolipemic humans. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 59: 841-846
Hayes, K.C., Pronczuk, A., Lindsey, S. and Diersen-Schade, D. (1991). Dietary saturated fatty acids (12:0, 14:0, 16:0) differ in their impact on plasma cholesterol and lipoproteins in human primates. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 53: 491-498
Lindsey, S., Benattar, J. Pronczuk, A. and Hayes, K.C. (1990). Dietary palmitic acid (16:0) enhances HDL cholesterol and LDL receptor RNA abundance in hamsters. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 195: 261-269
Hornstra, G., (1988). Dietary lipids and cardiovascular disease. Effects of palm oil. Oleagineux 43: 75-81
Sylvester. P.W., Russell, N., lp, M.M. and lp, C. (1986). Comparative effects of different animal and vegetable fats fed before and during carcinogen administration on mammary tumorigenesis, sexual maturation and endocrine function in rats. Cancer Res. 46: 757-762
Sundram, K., Khor. H.T., Ong, A.S.H. and Pathmarathan, R. (1989). Effect of dietary palm oils on mammary carcinogenesis in female rats induced by 7,12- dimethylbenz (a) anthracene. Cancer Res. 49: 1447-1451
Komiyama, K., Iizuka, K., Yamaoka, M., Watanabe, H.,Tsuchiya, N and Umezawa, 1. (1989). Studies on the biological activities of tocotrienols. Chem. Pharm. Bull. 37:1369-1371
Goh, S.H., Hew, N.F., Norhanom, A.W. and Yadav, M. (1994). Inhibition of tumor promotion by various palm oil tocotrienols. Int. J. Cancer. 57:529-531
Guthrie, N. Nesaretnam, K., Chambers, A.F. and Carroll, K.K. (1993). Inhibition of breast cancer cell growth by tocotrienols. FASEB J. 7:A70
Guthrie, N., Chambers, A.F, Gapor, A. and Carrol, K.K. (1995). In vitro inhibition of proliferation of receptor-positive MCF-7 human breast cancer cells by palm oil tocotrienols. FASEB J. 9:A988
http://www.americanpalmoil.com/facts.html
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Food Business. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Food Business. Tampilkan semua postingan
The Year 2012 looks favourable for those players in the market who wish to outstand themselves with new food products, catering to their customers to meet the growing demand and change of tastes.
Undoubtedly, today the trend has turned towards cereals for breakfast, yoghurt, sugar-free, fat-free and gluten-free food products considering the rising health-consciousness of the consumers in the scenario.
Therefore, cereals and yoghurt might be some of the food products that would be on the floors, this year with major players like Kraft Foods and Nestle gearing up for launches.
Easy-meal solutions
In this regard, Kraft Foods, USA, one of the brands of supermarket food items is reportedly updating a line-up by launching more than 70 brands whereby all these products have been created for those consumers who look for easy-meal solutions with new flavour combinations.
Barry Calpino, VP, Kraft Foods, USA, was quoted as saying that Americans were having more interactive experiences with food and that they wanted the opportunity to do some of the cooking themselves, whereby with the global influence and the merging of different cultures, consumers were open to new flavour combinations and that being able to customise the flavour and texture to enhance the end dish was important and Kraft foods was delivering.
According to reports, the company is offering convenient dinner kits such as Kraft Sizzling Salads, Fresh Take and Velveeta Cheesy Skillets where each of them features a unique flavour combination and allows consumers to add their own chicken, pork or fish.
While in Breakfast items, options include Breakfast Biscuits, Kraft Milkbite Milk, Granola Bars and Philadelphia Cooking Creme.
Health-conscious food
All these products would provide the consumers with more health-conscious food items for the breakfast-on-the-go as biscuits consist of whole grains and the Granola Bars were to deliver calcium.
Meanwhile, Kraft Foods in the US will also be launching a new range of products, including a line of energy drinks. One squirt of MiO Energy Liquid Water Enhancer, for instance, is said to deliver 60 mg of caffeine, the equivalent of a six-ounce cup of coffee when mixed with eight ounces of water, a report said.
Further, in the category of easy-meal solutions, Kraft has also added new flavours to its Sizzling Salads dinner kits like Zesty Fajita and Teriyaki Ginger. The kits include sauces and toppings that allow consumers to build starter and dinner-sized salads with a cooking sauce for meats and a salad dressing, the MilkBite Milk and Granola Bars contain the equivalent calcium of an eight-ounce (235 ml) glass of milk, reports added.
Therefore, considering all the aspects of health and the demand for such products in the market this year, from breakfast to dinner with snacks, drinks and many more products, the company is expected to have good rolls.
Further to say, the US-based General Mills, one of the leading food companies for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks has reportedly announced its latest cereal flavour, Dulce de Leche Cheerios, which has undergone a makeover and can be easily available in peanut butter-flavoured cereals.
Not only this, but also the company is preparing itself for the launch of other products in the pipeline like lactose-free yoghurt, “Yoplait Lactose-Free” and calcium-fortified Granola Bars.
“Yoplait Lactose-Free” is reported to be available in strawberry, peach, cherry and french vanilla flavours across the US late this month.
Strong trends
Meanwhile, according to some of the research groups such as Technomic, Mintel and Leatherhead have predicted that lactose-free, gluten-free and sugar-free would become a strong trend in the food and nutrition sector this year.
Talking about the cereal partners in the food industry Nestle would be one of the important points of ace. The company, in its 50: 50 joint venture with the US-based Green Mills, is planning to continue to have expansion in the breakfast cereal market, as it is reportedly expecting consumption of cereals will increase in the coming years.
The new food magazine in its website has published that the company has planned to open a new factory having an annual production capacity of about 15,000 tonnes of breakfast cereal in western Turkey as the trend of having cereals for breakfast is gaining ground in that country.
The Indian scenario
In the wave of growing food business, the Indian market has different demands. As the consumers believe in natural food products “yoghurt” is consumed and being considered as healthier for breakfast in particular.
“At this jucture, Parag Foods has flavoured yoghurt in its kitty,” Rahul Akkara, VP, marketing, Parag Foods, informed F&B News in a chat over telephone.
Akkara said that the flavoured yoghurt, albeit in its nascent stage was growing at a rate of 20 per cent every year in India as the demand was high, particularly in metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat.
Western influence
He said that the reasons were typically due to the Western culture. People who travel to other countries have noticed that flavoured yoghurt was widely consumed specially by children.
He further said that this was an impetus for the Indian companies to offer the same on a wider aspect at an international competitive price as this was natural and had no preservatives added to extend the shelf life of the product.
Hence yoghurt is considered to be a healthy breakfast, according to him.
The Year 2012 looks favourable for those players in the market who wish to outstand themselves with new food products, catering to their customers to meet the growing demand and change of tastes.
Undoubtedly, today the trend has turned towards cereals for breakfast, yoghurt, sugar-free, fat-free and gluten-free food products considering the rising health-consciousness of the consumers in the scenario.
Therefore, cereals and yoghurt might be some of the food products that would be on the floors, this year with major players like Kraft Foods and Nestle gearing up for launches.
Easy-meal solutions
In this regard, Kraft Foods, USA, one of the brands of supermarket food items is reportedly updating a line-up by launching more than 70 brands whereby all these products have been created for those consumers who look for easy-meal solutions with new flavour combinations.
Barry Calpino, VP, Kraft Foods, USA, was quoted as saying that Americans were having more interactive experiences with food and that they wanted the opportunity to do some of the cooking themselves, whereby with the global influence and the merging of different cultures, consumers were open to new flavour combinations and that being able to customise the flavour and texture to enhance the end dish was important and Kraft foods was delivering.
According to reports, the company is offering convenient dinner kits such as Kraft Sizzling Salads, Fresh Take and Velveeta Cheesy Skillets where each of them features a unique flavour combination and allows consumers to add their own chicken, pork or fish.
While in Breakfast items, options include Breakfast Biscuits, Kraft Milkbite Milk, Granola Bars and Philadelphia Cooking Creme.
Health-conscious food
All these products would provide the consumers with more health-conscious food items for the breakfast-on-the-go as biscuits consist of whole grains and the Granola Bars were to deliver calcium.
Meanwhile, Kraft Foods in the US will also be launching a new range of products, including a line of energy drinks. One squirt of MiO Energy Liquid Water Enhancer, for instance, is said to deliver 60 mg of caffeine, the equivalent of a six-ounce cup of coffee when mixed with eight ounces of water, a report said.
Further, in the category of easy-meal solutions, Kraft has also added new flavours to its Sizzling Salads dinner kits like Zesty Fajita and Teriyaki Ginger. The kits include sauces and toppings that allow consumers to build starter and dinner-sized salads with a cooking sauce for meats and a salad dressing, the MilkBite Milk and Granola Bars contain the equivalent calcium of an eight-ounce (235 ml) glass of milk, reports added.
Therefore, considering all the aspects of health and the demand for such products in the market this year, from breakfast to dinner with snacks, drinks and many more products, the company is expected to have good rolls.
Further to say, the US-based General Mills, one of the leading food companies for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks has reportedly announced its latest cereal flavour, Dulce de Leche Cheerios, which has undergone a makeover and can be easily available in peanut butter-flavoured cereals.
Not only this, but also the company is preparing itself for the launch of other products in the pipeline like lactose-free yoghurt, “Yoplait Lactose-Free” and calcium-fortified Granola Bars.
“Yoplait Lactose-Free” is reported to be available in strawberry, peach, cherry and french vanilla flavours across the US late this month.
Strong trends
Meanwhile, according to some of the research groups such as Technomic, Mintel and Leatherhead have predicted that lactose-free, gluten-free and sugar-free would become a strong trend in the food and nutrition sector this year.
Talking about the cereal partners in the food industry Nestle would be one of the important points of ace. The company, in its 50: 50 joint venture with the US-based Green Mills, is planning to continue to have expansion in the breakfast cereal market, as it is reportedly expecting consumption of cereals will increase in the coming years.
The new food magazine in its website has published that the company has planned to open a new factory having an annual production capacity of about 15,000 tonnes of breakfast cereal in western Turkey as the trend of having cereals for breakfast is gaining ground in that country.
The Indian scenario
In the wave of growing food business, the Indian market has different demands. As the consumers believe in natural food products “yoghurt” is consumed and being considered as healthier for breakfast in particular.
“At this jucture, Parag Foods has flavoured yoghurt in its kitty,” Rahul Akkara, VP, marketing, Parag Foods, informed F&B News in a chat over telephone.
Akkara said that the flavoured yoghurt, albeit in its nascent stage was growing at a rate of 20 per cent every year in India as the demand was high, particularly in metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat.
Western influence
He said that the reasons were typically due to the Western culture. People who travel to other countries have noticed that flavoured yoghurt was widely consumed specially by children.
He further said that this was an impetus for the Indian companies to offer the same on a wider aspect at an international competitive price as this was natural and had no preservatives added to extend the shelf life of the product.
Hence yoghurt is considered to be a healthy breakfast, according to him.
UK organic food sales fall, outlook challenging
Posted by Labels: Food Business, Organic Farming, United KingdomSales of organic food in Britain have fallen further over the last year, as consumers seek to save money in tough economic times, and recovery in 2012 will be difficult, the Soil Association said on Friday.
Sales in the 12 months to end-October fell around 5 percent, after falling 5.9 percent in 2010, although online businesses, independent shops and box schemes performed well, Finn Cottle, trade consultant at Britain's largest organic certification body, told Reuters in an interview.Final sales figures for this year have not been published yet, but the industry was worth 1.7 billion pounds ($2.63 billion)in 2010, according to the Soil Association, with shoppers spending more than 33 million pounds ($51.07 million)a week on organic products.
"We're still not into a positive situation, but it's been relatively stable given the lack of consumer confidence generally," she said.
"I think it will be challenging to recover in 2012, but what we seem to be experiencing is that those channels where organic is strong, continue to be strong."
Organic sales have struggled to pick up in a year of record low consumer confidence in Britain, where unemployment recently hit a 17-year high.
Consumers stop buying organic food and trade down to cheaper options when their household budgets are under pressure.
A committed core of 8 percent of consumers accounts for over half the market in organic food.
Data for November and December was not available yet, Cottle said, but customers usually spend more in the run-up to Christmas, which could boost organic sales.
Cottle said supermarkets have not done enough to promote organic products, instead focusing on discount lines that appeal to consumers in an economic downturn.
"For 2012, we would really love that the supermarkets put organic back on their agenda again and they start refocusing on it," she said.
Baby food, butter and yoghurt have performed particularly well this year.
Organic red meat has also shown strong sales because it does not cost much more than non-organic meat and retailers have promoted it, Cottle said.
The organic industry must target occasional buyers and show consumers "this is not a fad" next year, she added.
"It's a bit of a mixture as to what the outlook is," she said.
"There's everything to go after.
We still have a 1.7 billion pound market and we're going to make sure that we maintain and grow it."
UK organic food sales fall, outlook challenging
Posted by Labels: Food Business, Organic Farming, United KingdomSales of organic food in Britain have fallen further over the last year, as consumers seek to save money in tough economic times, and recovery in 2012 will be difficult, the Soil Association said on Friday.
Sales in the 12 months to end-October fell around 5 percent, after falling 5.9 percent in 2010, although online businesses, independent shops and box schemes performed well, Finn Cottle, trade consultant at Britain's largest organic certification body, told Reuters in an interview.Final sales figures for this year have not been published yet, but the industry was worth 1.7 billion pounds ($2.63 billion)in 2010, according to the Soil Association, with shoppers spending more than 33 million pounds ($51.07 million)a week on organic products.
"We're still not into a positive situation, but it's been relatively stable given the lack of consumer confidence generally," she said.
"I think it will be challenging to recover in 2012, but what we seem to be experiencing is that those channels where organic is strong, continue to be strong."
Organic sales have struggled to pick up in a year of record low consumer confidence in Britain, where unemployment recently hit a 17-year high.
Consumers stop buying organic food and trade down to cheaper options when their household budgets are under pressure.
A committed core of 8 percent of consumers accounts for over half the market in organic food.
Data for November and December was not available yet, Cottle said, but customers usually spend more in the run-up to Christmas, which could boost organic sales.
Cottle said supermarkets have not done enough to promote organic products, instead focusing on discount lines that appeal to consumers in an economic downturn.
"For 2012, we would really love that the supermarkets put organic back on their agenda again and they start refocusing on it," she said.
Baby food, butter and yoghurt have performed particularly well this year.
Organic red meat has also shown strong sales because it does not cost much more than non-organic meat and retailers have promoted it, Cottle said.
The organic industry must target occasional buyers and show consumers "this is not a fad" next year, she added.
"It's a bit of a mixture as to what the outlook is," she said.
"There's everything to go after.
We still have a 1.7 billion pound market and we're going to make sure that we maintain and grow it."
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Carolyn Anderson likes to chat up the growers at her local farmers market in Missouri, at times hanging out behind the beds of pickup trucks brimming with ears of corn.
For Anderson, 29, it's all about keeping it "local." And there's fresh evidence of just how big of a deal that word can mean for farmers' finances.
A new U.S. Department of Agriculture report says sales of "local foods," whether sold direct to consumers at farmers markets or through intermediaries such as grocers or restaurants, amounted to $4.8 billion in 2008. That's a number several times greater than earlier estimates, and the department predicts locally grown foods will generate $7 billion in sales this year.
While there's plenty of evidence local food sales have been growing, it has been hard to say by how much because governments, companies, consumers and food markets disagree on what qualifies as local. The USDA report included sales to intermediaries, such as local grocers and restaurants, as well as directly to consumers through farmers markets, roadside stands and the like.
It found that farm sales to people like Anderson have just about doubled in the past two decades, from about $650 million, adjusted for inflation, in the early 1990s to about $1.2 billion these days.
The much bigger, $4.8 billion figure came when sales to local restaurants, retailers and regional food distributors were added in.
"Think of it as expanding what the picture looks like," said Stephen Vogel, who helped do the study for the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service. "What this report does is say, 'Look, this market is bigger than you thought.'"
But the report also puts the local food movement in context. It's dominated by fruit and vegetable growers. While only 5 percent of U.S. farms sell their products in local and regional markets, 40 percent of vegetable, fruit and nut farms do.
Consumers tend to assume that the produce they are buying at these markets are fresher, made with fewer chemicals and grown by smaller, less corporate farms. That may be true in some cases and not in others.
"Local" also doesn't necessarily mean "organic," a label that carries strict requirements for growers and is overseen by the Agriculture Department. But the word still carries plenty of cache with consumers like Anderson, a farmer's granddaughter who sees shopping at the farmers market in Kansas City, Mo., as a ripe opportunity to get to know the growers and what went into the stuff they're selling.
"Especially on a beautiful day, you're chatting with them about their livelihood — I enjoy that experience as well as the food that comes out of it," she said.
The number of farms selling directly to consumers has grown, from an estimated 86,000 in the early 1990s to about 136,000 now, according to the USDA. And the number of farmers markets has about doubled, from 2,756 in 1998 to 5,274 in 2009.
Paul Gnaedinger has raised everything from organic corn and soybeans to wheat and rye on his organic farm near Pocahontas, Ill. Lately, he's turned to grass-fed beef.
He sells regionally and wasn't surprised in the growth in local food sales, chalking it up to consumers becoming more savvy in their purchases — and perhaps a bit greener, knowing that shorter shipping distances may lower the carbon footprint and the chances of contamination in transport.
"I don't want to say they're not trusting of other food sources," said Gnaedinger, 53, who also works as a nurse. "They do tell me they don't want to buy something in Colorado one day, then see it shipped to California before it's shipped here.
"There's real demand in the market for people wanting to know where their food is coming from, that it's going through local channels."
On his 1,800 acres near Friesland, Wis., Larry Alsum, 58, grows several varieties of potatoes that he sells mostly to grocers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. He also handles wholesale distribution for farmers who grow everything from cabbage to sweet corn, squash, cucumbers and peppers.
He says his operation has blossomed into a $50 million business — roughly double what it was a decade or so ago — with a focus on locally grown food. Perhaps only one in five consumers actually cares what that means, he said, but it's more than did just a few years ago.
"As the cost of oil and gasoline continue to rise, there are going to me more opportunities for locally grown," he predicted. "And that just gives us a built-in advantage in marketing."
Copyright © 2011
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Carolyn Anderson likes to chat up the growers at her local farmers market in Missouri, at times hanging out behind the beds of pickup trucks brimming with ears of corn.
For Anderson, 29, it's all about keeping it "local." And there's fresh evidence of just how big of a deal that word can mean for farmers' finances.
A new U.S. Department of Agriculture report says sales of "local foods," whether sold direct to consumers at farmers markets or through intermediaries such as grocers or restaurants, amounted to $4.8 billion in 2008. That's a number several times greater than earlier estimates, and the department predicts locally grown foods will generate $7 billion in sales this year.
While there's plenty of evidence local food sales have been growing, it has been hard to say by how much because governments, companies, consumers and food markets disagree on what qualifies as local. The USDA report included sales to intermediaries, such as local grocers and restaurants, as well as directly to consumers through farmers markets, roadside stands and the like.
It found that farm sales to people like Anderson have just about doubled in the past two decades, from about $650 million, adjusted for inflation, in the early 1990s to about $1.2 billion these days.
The much bigger, $4.8 billion figure came when sales to local restaurants, retailers and regional food distributors were added in.
"Think of it as expanding what the picture looks like," said Stephen Vogel, who helped do the study for the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service. "What this report does is say, 'Look, this market is bigger than you thought.'"
But the report also puts the local food movement in context. It's dominated by fruit and vegetable growers. While only 5 percent of U.S. farms sell their products in local and regional markets, 40 percent of vegetable, fruit and nut farms do.
Consumers tend to assume that the produce they are buying at these markets are fresher, made with fewer chemicals and grown by smaller, less corporate farms. That may be true in some cases and not in others.
"Local" also doesn't necessarily mean "organic," a label that carries strict requirements for growers and is overseen by the Agriculture Department. But the word still carries plenty of cache with consumers like Anderson, a farmer's granddaughter who sees shopping at the farmers market in Kansas City, Mo., as a ripe opportunity to get to know the growers and what went into the stuff they're selling.
"Especially on a beautiful day, you're chatting with them about their livelihood — I enjoy that experience as well as the food that comes out of it," she said.
The number of farms selling directly to consumers has grown, from an estimated 86,000 in the early 1990s to about 136,000 now, according to the USDA. And the number of farmers markets has about doubled, from 2,756 in 1998 to 5,274 in 2009.
Paul Gnaedinger has raised everything from organic corn and soybeans to wheat and rye on his organic farm near Pocahontas, Ill. Lately, he's turned to grass-fed beef.
He sells regionally and wasn't surprised in the growth in local food sales, chalking it up to consumers becoming more savvy in their purchases — and perhaps a bit greener, knowing that shorter shipping distances may lower the carbon footprint and the chances of contamination in transport.
"I don't want to say they're not trusting of other food sources," said Gnaedinger, 53, who also works as a nurse. "They do tell me they don't want to buy something in Colorado one day, then see it shipped to California before it's shipped here.
"There's real demand in the market for people wanting to know where their food is coming from, that it's going through local channels."
On his 1,800 acres near Friesland, Wis., Larry Alsum, 58, grows several varieties of potatoes that he sells mostly to grocers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. He also handles wholesale distribution for farmers who grow everything from cabbage to sweet corn, squash, cucumbers and peppers.
He says his operation has blossomed into a $50 million business — roughly double what it was a decade or so ago — with a focus on locally grown food. Perhaps only one in five consumers actually cares what that means, he said, but it's more than did just a few years ago.
"As the cost of oil and gasoline continue to rise, there are going to me more opportunities for locally grown," he predicted. "And that just gives us a built-in advantage in marketing."
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