Adulterated imports dilute markets for domestic foods
associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. “Foodfraudisoftenmotivatedbyeconom- ic gain and can lead to food safety risk.” Emphasizing that the world food sup- ply is safer now than it has been at almost any point inhistory, Ehmke discussed the issue during a virtual webinar sponsored by University of California Cooperative Extension specialists in Agricultural and Resource Economics. Inproviding examples of different types of known food fraud—whichaffects prod- ucts suchashoney, oliveoil,wine, tea, rice
andmore—Ehmke said this is not a small issue, adding, “Organizedcrimenetworks have been turning to foodmore andmore as away to finance their activities.” Shesaid figures fromtheUnitedNations provideapicture “of theglobal cost of food fraudandhowit compares toother typesof organized crime and illegal activity.” In 2017, Ehmke said, the illegal trade in food fraudwas worth $40 trillion. “There was a higher value of food be- ing traded fraudulently than there was in
ByChristine Souza When the price of honey or extra-vir- gin olive oil seems too good to be true, it probably is. Researchers, producers and others say criminals fromacross theglobeareengag- ing in food fraud,whichputsCaliforniaag- ricultural producers at a disadvantage as adulteratedimportsof foodssuchashoney Report calls for greater accuracy of USDA estimates Weather-relatedcropdamagehascaused theU.S.DepartmentofAgriculturetomake significant changes in its crop estimates in recent years—leading to large swings in market prices. A Farm Bureau Working Group has now issued recommendations on howUSDA can improve accuracy and farmer confidence in its survey results. TheAmericanFarmBureauFederation released the findings lastweek, suggesting ways for the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service to collect data quickly and accurately. AFBF Economist ShelbyMyers said re- centchangesinNASScropestimatesleddel- egates to the 2020AFBF convention to rec- ommend creationof theworking group, to reviewand suggest improvements toNASS datacollectionandreportingmethods. The 10-member farmer working group held monthly meetings and conducted more than a dozen interviews with staff and leaders from government, trade as- sociations,market analysis firms and land grant universities, Myers said. “In the end,” she said, “the working groupdevelopeda seriesof recommenda- tions for the agency that focused on tech- nology improvements andbetter commu- nication fromthe agency.” The working group made four recom- mendations, Myers said, the first being increased transparency, “being more forthcoming about how information is collected, reviewed, auditedandreported.” The second Farm Bureau recommen- dation toNASS, she said,was toaccelerate adoptionof newand innovative technolo- gy, so theagency “hasaccess to thebest re- sources, information, data, software, talent and networks.” Myers said the working group also rec- ommended NASS increase collaboration with Farm Bureau to accomplish shared goals, and that theagencybestrengthened for the benefit of U.S. agriculture. “Ifwecan implement these recommen- dations, itwouldgoa longway toward im- proving thegreatworkalreadybeingdone by NASS and strengthen the agency’s po- sition,” she said. More information and the final report may be found on the AFBF Market Intel page: www.fb.org/market-intel.
and olive oil make their way onto grocery store shelves. “Food fraud occurs when there’s an illegal deception in the production and marketing of food for economic gain, so the food that the consumer is consum- ing isn’t what they think it is, and some- one is profiting from that deception,” said Mariah Ehmke, University of Wyoming
See FRAUD, Page 22
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January 27, 2021 Ag Alert 3
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