A Broken Food System By The Numbers

I suppose it is my inner scientist that truly loves to look at things by the numbers.

And, today, I have some numbers that will truly shock you.

They are numbers that show that we need to take some serious action soon. Otherwise, our health as individuals and as a species may be in serious danger. In fact, we are already in serious danger.

Remember the E. coli outbreak with spinach in 2006?

What about the recall of over 21 million pounds of ground beef due to contamination last year?

Or, perhaps you recall the frozen pizzas were responsible for illness and even death?

Most recently, we have been the victims of a Salmonella outbreak from tainted tomatoes that has sickened individuals since this past April.

Don't things seem to be falling apart?

Well, if we seriously consider these statistics, we should realize that all of this could be avoided by taking actions to fix our broken food system.

• 75% of the spinach crop in the United States is grown in a single California valley.

• 75% of all the beef in the United States is produced by three companies.

• 50% of the more than 40,000 products in an average grocery store are produced by ten companies.

• Food purchased in the United States travels an average of 1,500 miles from farm to table.

• Only 3.5 cents of every dollar spent on food in a grocery store goes to the farmer that produced the product.

• 3,000 acres of farmland in the United States are lost to development every day.

• In 2005 and 2006, the United States lost 8,900 farms.