WEBVTT - Lab 033: Supermarket Sweep 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.280 When the pandemic first hit and we realized it was 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:06.080 spreading like wildfire and everybody was starting to get stay 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:09.480 at home orders. I was telling folks, Listen, things might 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:12.120 get hot of hand. You probably need to stock up 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:15.200 on groceries because I think everybody's gonna lose it and 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:17.720 everybody's gonna hit the grocery store and buy up everything. 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:19.200 So, yes, prepare yourself. 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:21.520 That's what I told my parents, my friends, my sisters, 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:22.840 everybody same. 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.720 Same. If you listened to LAB twenty three, we kind 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:28.320 of knew some things were in the pipeline, yes, and 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:32.400 so I think based on that, I really tried to say, Okay, 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:34.760 what do I need from the grocery store, But bruh, 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.240 the grocery store basically turned into supermarket suite. 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.680 Yes, people were buying everything toilet paper, paper, towels. I 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.040 didn't see that for months and months and months. So 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.159 I felt lucky that we had stocked up before everything 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.800 started getting crazy. But then there was also just food missing. Yes, 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:55.560 there was no flower, there was no chicken. I remember 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.560 you being very upset about bacon. Bacon is very important 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:00.040 to me. I just want to be clear about that. 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.600 And when I got to the grocery store, there was none, 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.840 and I almost had a full blown meltdown in the 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.440 grocery store. I was like, excuse me, sir, is there 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.720 any more on the bot and it was like, no, 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:14.920 there isn't any more in the back. 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:16.000 We're in a pandemic. 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:16.320 Girl. 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:18.000 I was like, oh, right, try to try to, try to, try, 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:18.280 try to. 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.080 It's really crazy because depending on where you lived, different 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:24.319 people were saying different things were missing, and it was 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.160 almost like overnight, something that you love could become a 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.759 high value item in this supermarket suite. Everybody's going forward, 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:32.280 They're all put it in their carts, and by the 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.440 time you get there, it is no more. 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:34.920 Right. 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.399 So we reached out to y'all because we wanted to 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.800 hear from you and know what your experience was being 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.759 in the grocery store during the pandemic and what items 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:45.640 you noticed that were gone. 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.000 So I've been going to grocery stores trying to find 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.120 ginger beer and I've found so many stores in Durham, 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:56.040 and for some odd reason, ginger beer be off the 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.880 shelf as well as flower and fish fries. 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.920 They's a pepperoni shortage period, but I try to use 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.520 turkey pepperoni, and that's not available. Chickpea flour hasn't really 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:08.920 been there for a while. At Trader Joe's, they didn't 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:10.080 have nutritional yeats. 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.160 I'm Latino and kind of my go to. I met 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.560 Keffadilla with the side of beans, and I went to 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.480 my grocery store and there were literally like no beans 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.360 other than red kidney beans, and they were like absolutely 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:23.519 no corn or flower dorothias. 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:25.880 It's really interesting to me that if I go to 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.520 what I perceived to be a more affluent neighborhood, there 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:31.160 is always cleaning supplies. 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:34.000 It kind of blew my mind some of the things 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.119 I didn't notice that where they were gone. 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.680 Y'all were eating a lot of beans. Somebody said, canned beans, 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:42.880 frozen beans. I don't even think I buy frozen beans. 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.240 Somebody else said, what are you doing with all the lagoons? 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.639 There were no lentils. Did you at least have a 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:48.480 good recipe. 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.119 I won't struggle in this because I don't eat none 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.040 of that. But y'all also said that y'all were missing 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:55.400 chicken red meat. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:56.920 That's where you're gonna get, my friends. 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.359 Even the imitation meat was going off the shelves. 0:02:59.480 --> 0:02:59.760 Yeah. 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:01.560 So some of the people that listen to the show 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.680 are vegan or vegetarian, and they were like, all of 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:05.960 my vegan. 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:07.160 Staples were gone. 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.120 All the meat eaters came and were like, well, if 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.800 I can't get ground beef, might as well get this 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:12.799 beyond meat over here. 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:14.960 But I was also surprised by some of the stuff 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.000 that I found. Yeah, you know, our friend from grad 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.119 school to Mika said she couldn't find soy sauce. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:20.320 Right, what are y'all doing? 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:22.240 What are you doing with the soy sauce? 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.679 It's so salty you only need a little bit, right, 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.280 Are y'all going for the low sodium soy sauce or 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:28.360 regular soy sauce? 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.239 I'm very confused by this. And then another. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.960 Person said, for breeze, what's happening? 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.680 Y'all know that for breeze isn't a disinfectant, right, It 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:38.120 just makes the air smell good? 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:39.400 Do you have stinky roommates? 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:41.119 And because y'all are going to be at home, I'm 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:42.800 gonna say it's that and that y'all didn't think it 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:43.560 was disinfectant. 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:45.840 Some of y'all also said all the struggle foods were missing, 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.280 frozen pizza, instant noodles, Kraft mac and cheese. If you 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.880 bind a deluxe box, that big blue box, that's not Struggle. 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.000 I just want to point that out. I'm TT and 0:03:58.040 --> 0:03:59.760 I'm Zachiah and from Spotify. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:20.039 This is Dope Labs. 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.200 All right. So those first few weeks of the pandemic, 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.760 that felt crazy to see all that stuff missing from 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.000 the grocery store. I was shot, But many weeks on 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.919 down the road, the grocery store still wasn't fully stopped. 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.640 There was like no meat, and I remember people saying, Oh, 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.000 we're gonna have a meat shortage. But then I was 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.440 seeing on the news that people were throwing away chicken 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:45.520 wings because there was no acc tournament. I don't know 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:48.440 how real that was. I just was seeing all this 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.880 conflicting messaging, like people were saying there's no food in 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.720 these areas. But then I saw people duffing potatoes in Idaho. 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:57.360 I didn't understand how that worked. 0:04:57.360 --> 0:04:59.400 All right, most of us are completely in the dark 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.200 about where this food comes from and how there could 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.360 be a shortage. When in America, that's one of the 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:06.840 things that folks are always saying, like, oh, we have 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:08.520 so much food waste. We have so much food waste, 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:10.000 so much food that we're wasting it. 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:12.560 And that brings us to today's topic. We're going to 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.560 talk all about food systems. 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:19.160 Let's jump into the recitation. So what do we know? 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.080 I know that there is huge infrastructure put in place 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:25.720 to make sure that folks can get to food, But 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:29.080 I feel like I don't know much more. We said 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.599 food systems, What does that actually mean? 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:32.479 Is a kid? You know? 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:34.920 I mean when I think about food systems, I think 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.560 about like the regulation of food. But I don't know 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.000 who is the food system president? Like who's in charge 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.400 of making sure that there's bacon at your a grocery store? 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:43.520 Who's responsible for that? 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:44.799 Is the government in charge? 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:45.400 I don't know. 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.720 We've got a lot of questions. So what do we 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:49.599 want to know? 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.400 I want to know, first of all, what is a 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.479 food system. I'm interested in how our food systems and 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.680 their ability to get us different types of food affects 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.760 like your ability to have a nutritious meal. Yeah, and 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:06.320 who's able to access nutritious meals, especially during a pandemic 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:07.960 when we're experiencing shortages. 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.359 What type of government assistance is available for people that 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.240 are struggling with food insecurity during the pandemic, and what 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:19.760 exactly is food insecurity? Who falls into that category. I'm 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.039 also interested when the food was missing, that felt scary, Right, 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.440 that's a weakness of our food system. But there were 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.760 some things that I felt like we always saw and 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:28.679 those are some strengths. 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:32.680 But I don't know what's driving those things. What makes 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.159 some things disappear quicker than others. 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.839 How are farmers impacted by the pandemic. 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:41.440 Yeah, well, let's get to the bottom of this and 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:42.480 jump into the dissection. 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.680 Our guest for today's lab is doctor Marie Spiker. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.200 My name is Marie Spiker. I am a registered dietitian 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.440 and I'm an assistant professor at the University of Washington 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:53.679 School of Public Health. 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.800 Doctor Spiker studies the connections between food systems, nutrition, and 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.919 public health, and we wanted her help understanding how the 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.880 food we eat gets from the farm onto our plate. 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.760 When we talk about the food system, the big picture side, 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.520 it's everything from farm to fork to flush. 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:14.360 Farm to fork to flush. Let's break that down. Let's 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:15.200 start with the farm. 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:20.720 So when we think about how food is produced, you know, plants, animals, 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:23.880 marine environments, all of that is part of that farm part. 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.080 And then after the food is produced, you have to 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.400 distribute it. It has to get to the stores for 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.200 us to purchase it, so it has to be sorted, clean, packaged, 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:34.160 and then shipped. 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.760 And we really have to consider what's going on in 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.360 the places where we are interacting with food, so food environments. 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:44.400 This could be cafeterias, grocery stores, farmers markets, all kinds 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:45.000 of places. 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:49.600 Depending on those food environments, it dictates our food choices. 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.400 You also have to ask is the food you want available, 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.960 Even if it's available, is it affordable? All that leads 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:57.320 us to the fork. 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.080 And then we get to the consumption part of the 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.920 food system, where we eating food, and there's all these 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:07.440 considerations around our own knowledge, our preferences, our cultural norms 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:12.560 and values, and how food actually interacts with our individual biology. 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:14.400 Finally, there's the flush. 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.880 Flush refers to the ways that human waste products can 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.440 be recycled back into the environment, as well as the 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.720 ways we waste food throughout the supply chain, whether that's 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.160 at the farm level or just things we dispose of 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.200 in our own households as consumers. 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:32.440 And the EPA put out an estimate for twenty ten 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.760 that said that thirty one percent of the food supply 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.720 was lost to waste. Doctor Spiker says, about a quarter 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:44.480 of our global population has agriculture livelihoods, so they work 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.959 in industries that provide food. So that's about a quarter 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.559 of people on Earth that have a hand in producing 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:53.200 the food that we eat. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.559 And you can also think of all the workers in between, 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.640 so you know, from the person who might do marketing 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.439 at a food company to the person who's delivering the 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:02.560 food to your doorstep. 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.679 I was looking at some stats and it was saying 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.720 that farmers account for one percent of the population in 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:10.480 the United States, and almost twenty eight percent of the 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.400 farmers are between the ages of fifty five to sixty four. 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.240 I don't know if that's representative of the population. Are 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:17.520 young folks getting into farming? 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:18.560 I have no idea. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:20.959 It's easy to think about food shortages, especially on the 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.000 heels of this pandemic, and this prompted us to really 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.000 learn more about the food supply chains in the United 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:31.240 States and how COVID nineteen specifically has affected our supply chains. 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.080 You know we didn't talk about was the flower Yes, 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.160 that's right. Everybody was trying to make bread. Everybody was 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.440 trying to do sour though, and I just stumbled upon 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.760 bread TikTok where they're making bread on TikTok and showing 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:44.320 how they do it. 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:45.880 That's a lot of work. I don't think I'll be 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:46.319 doing that. 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.440 No, I'm here for the whole loaf. Many of us 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.760 had this experience together. But we also know that pre 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:54.920 COVID there are many people in this country who don't 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.480 have enough food, and at the same time, we had 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.240 incredible food waste. And I think it makes you ask 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.240 this question of like, how do these two things exist together? 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:04.839 Right? 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.120 It doesn't make sense. How can you have one and 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.160 the other happening at the exact same time. 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:11.040 And so I think we want to know what causes 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.160 these shortages and surpluses. 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.880 So if we want to take like the thirty thousand 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.080 foot view of the US food system, the big picture 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.400 is that we have the privilege of a very safe 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:27.240 and abundant food supplying overall, and that may not be 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.480 the case when food is flying off the shelves due 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.839 to panic buying related to the pandemic or natural disasters. 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.959 And that's also not the case for many families who 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:41.560 are under resourced or who live in underserved communities. But 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:43.960 by and large, our food supply in the US is 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:48.120 one that really benefits from efficiency and from economies of scale. 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.800 Economy of scale is based on this understanding that there 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.120 are certain fixed costs related to production. That means the 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.160 price of certain things required for production don't change no 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.400 matter how much you make. So for example, this can 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.280 be labor, equipment, and even rent for land. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:08.080 Other costs vary like seed, fertilizer, and chemicals, and the 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.760 price can change depending on the market. 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:15.360 So I'm farmer Zakia and I'm growing carrots. The machinery 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.800 I need to till the land, the taxes on my property, 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.520 the machinery I need to sort carrots. The price of 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.680 those things don't change. Those are fixed costs that I 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.280 have to consider when I'm determining how much it costs 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:29.040 for each carrot. 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:34.079 But if Zakiyah increases the number of carrots that she produces, 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:38.440 she can easily lower her total cost per unit, allowing 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.640 her to increase profits and making the total cost for 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:43.040 the product lower. 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.040 So let's just do a quick example. If it's one 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.800 thousand dollars, is my total fixed costs? If I produce 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.679 a thousand carrots, that's a dollar carrot. But if I 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.559 produce five thousand carrots, my fixed cost per carrot goes 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:00.320 down to twenty cent per care. 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.760 So this economy of scale allows us to produce a 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.640 lot and at a less expensive price, and that means 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.080 that Americans have access to less expensive food. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:14.400 So in the US we're actually one of the few countries. 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.320 We're on average, we spend less than ten percent of 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:21.360 our household income on food, and there are countries, by contrasts, 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.960 where people might spend upwards of forty or fifty percent 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:26.320 of their income on food. 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.000 But more food at a lower cost brings us to 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:33.760 another consideration, and that's nutrition. Just because some food is 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.000 affordable doesn't mean it's the kind of food we need 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:36.800 to stay healthy. 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:39.400 When of the drawbacks of our food system is that 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.800 while we are efficient food producers, the foods we produce 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.160 don't necessarily align with our nutritional goals. 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.600 I don't know if y'all remember, but the key I'm 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:50.840 sure you remember because we're of the same age group. 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.160 As soon as I start thinking of nutrition goals and 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.480 what I should be eaten, I think of the food pyramid. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:02.960 Oh yes, I remember the food pyramid. The whole base 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:04.880 was like wheat, grains and bread. 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.240 I cannot They're like everybody needs to eat a ten 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.439 foot hogie yes dinner every night. 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:12.880 And you remember the very tip of that triangle. It 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.800 was like all the stuff you love, oil, vinegar, fats. 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.320 It was like, is this where the potato chips go? 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:19.600 But did you. 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.480 Know that the food pyramid is no longer Like it's wrong, 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:25.559 Like we're not supposed to go buy it anymore. 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:30.600 What do you mean is wrong? I'm still building my 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:32.120 meals based on that food pyramid. 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:37.280 That food pyramid was canceled back in two thousand and five. 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.240 So the original food pyramid that we all know it 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.200 started in nineteen ninety two. Then by two thousand and 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:45.480 five they said, okay, this isn't right, so they changed it. 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.320 So then the USDA in twenty eleven came up with 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.719 this thing called my plate, and the vegetables and grains 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:55.840 take up the largest sections on the plate. 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.480 So that's a lot of fruits and vegetables, and doctor 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:02.199 Spiker says the United States isn't currently producing enough for 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.120 everyone to get the recommended amount all. 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.360 The fruits and vegetables that we have in the US. 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.199 When you combine what we grow and what we import, 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:12.480 it averages out to about a cup and a half 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.840 per person per day, which falls short of the recommendation, 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.000 which is around two and a half cups per person 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:22.240 per day. So if everyone in America decided that's starting tomorrow, 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.080 we're all gonna do our five a day fruits and vegetables, 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.160 we wouldn't actually have enough fruits and vegetables in the 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.040 food supply to support that. 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:32.280 I'm not trying to cause a panic, but I also 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:34.840 don't want to downplay this. I mean, what are we 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:36.040 supposed to do? Take time? 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.920 Yeah, like Monday and Wednesday and Friday, the fruits and 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.640 vegetables are for me, and then Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays, 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.520 you got them. I guess we can't all be healthy 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:46.120 at once. 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:49.760 So how can we get enough fruits and vegetables here 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.160 to meet our nutritional goals? In the US. 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.160 If we wanted to close that fruit and veggie gap, 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.200 and we wanted to do it through domestic production, we 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.360 we actually need to devote another thirteen million acre to 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.360 fruit and vegetable production, which is easier said than done, 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:07.880 because not all of our land is suitable for growing 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:09.120 horticultural crops. 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:13.760 How big is an acre, Well, one acre is forty 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.600 three thousand, five hundred and sixty square feet, and that 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:21.240 means nothing to me. Football field with his end zones 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.440 is about one point three acres, So we're basically talking 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.520 about ten million football fields of fruits and veggies. 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:31.320 Where are we going to get thirteen million acres? That's 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.680 almost the size of West Virginia. 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:35.640 And even if we capture that much land for fruits 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:37.600 and vegetables, we still got to space it out. We 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:39.960 don't want one massive farm in West Virginia. And that's 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:41.200 for a few reasons. 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.560 Why do we see so much of some foods but 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.800 not of others? Doctor Spiker explains that this is due 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.480 to consolidation, which is another drawback of our safe, abundant 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:51.080 food system. 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.480 So a really good example of this is the way 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:58.160 we've consolidated meat packing plants. So in the nineteen eighties, 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:02.120 the top four company with the meatpacking plants for beef 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.280 controlled about a quarter of the overall market share, and 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.920 today the top four companies control over eighty percent of 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:12.480 the market share. We also have dramatically fewer meat packing 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.120 plants than ever before, and so any given farmer or 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:20.720 rancher has fewer options about where they can sell their product. 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:25.440 And this kind of consolidation creates a supply chain vulnerability. 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.040 That's a monopoly. They're talking about Time Warner, Cable and 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.480 all these other people. He's talking about. TikTok. You need 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:33.520 to figure out what's going on with the beef. Ye'ah 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.120 worried about the wrong folks. So this means we have 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:41.440 big farms that are producing crops more efficiently and giving 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.960 us this abundant food supply. But what happens to those 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:46.440 systems in the wake of a pandemic. 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.040 So on one side of the coin, when the system 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:53.280 is working as intended, we have this abundance of affordable 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.040 meat coming through. But on the other side of the coin, 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.440 that same system can actually be quite easily streamed in 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:04.919 the face of even slight changes in the workforce or 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:09.040 economics incentives or something else. And the pandemic, of course, 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.840 introduced not just slight changes, but major changes. 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:15.280 Even when a big storm is coming, you know how 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.080 everybody rushes to the store and buys up all the 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.480 bread and milk and eggs. I don't know what they're 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:22.800 doing just making French toast. I think that's the only 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:24.600 thing you can make with bread, milk, and eggs. 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:26.800 But I guess that makes me wonder, like what can 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.200 we do as consumers to alleviate some of that burden. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.399 Well, the challenge is like there's so much interplay between 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.480 the supply and demand, and so when I talk to farmers, 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.919 they say, we would love to grow more fruits and vegetables, 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.879 but the market is not there. And so you can't 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.240 underestimate the power that we have as consumers. And when 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:47.560 there is something that we want a certain food or 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:51.200 a way that it's produced, the food system has the 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:54.000 way of responding to that. It's actually quite responsive. 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:58.320 Absolutely every time a new food trend pops up, it's 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.480 all over the place in every grocery store. Yes, when 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.520 celery juice became the thing that everybody wanted to have 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.520 a glass of celery juice every day, first of all, 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.280 it's nasty. You're not gonna convince me otherwise. I know 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.080 it's nasty. I can see y'all choking that stuff down. 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:19.000 But there was a lot more celery in the grocery stores. 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.040 But I also felt like I saw a different effect 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.760 with like kale and collar greens. First of all, that 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.440 used to be like forty nine to fifty pound. Now 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:30.440 I want to get a bunch of kale, it's two 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:32.760 ninety nine, and I'm like, you know, it's gonna cook 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:34.280 down to half a cup. 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:35.680 That's one servant. 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.359 That's so true. That stuff never and doesn't keep its 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.440 same size. Same thing with all the different types of milk, 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:49.200 almond milk, oat milk, hemp milk. 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:50.760 All these different types of milk. 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.000 Everybody is ditching the cows milk and going over to 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:57.080 these alternative milks, and so now I see them everywhere, 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.600 and so that's so interesting though, right when we consider 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.639 this sponsor food market, it still feels like it's responsible 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.000 in some ways, but it's got some cogs, some some 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.840