September 06

November 2006, World Apple Report Highlights

Upcoming Battle Over Food Miles
Influential activists have been arguing that the number of miles a food travels is a good proxy for the energy a food requires and the pollution that it causes. They have been badgering governments and retailers to take "food miles" into account in public policies and private purchasing decisions. Scientists from New Zealand argue that "food miles' only includes the transportation segment of a product's life, that one needs to look at the entire product life, from farm to final waste disposal, to measure a food's environmental impact. They show that the total energy used and CO2 emissions generated per unit of New Zealand dairy products, lamb, fresh apples and fresh onions sold in the UK were generally less than for comparable UK-produced products sold in the UK. The "food miles" argument is likely to be used as a protectionist tool to impeded long-distance suppliers.

Significant Regional Differences in Retail Fruit Prices
Retail prices of Red Delicious apples and fresh oranges were examined for four major regions of the United States for the crop years 1996-97 to 2005-06. Retail prices for both fruits were substantially higher in the Northeast region and lower in the West region than in the North Central or South regions. These price differences could have a significant impact on per capita demand for apples and oranges and for interregional trade over time. Prices of Red Delicious apples lead orange prices by a substantial margin between 1996-97 and 2003-04. However, the lead narrowed in 2004-05 and orange prices surged ahead in 2005-06. Further analysis will be required to establish the causes and consequences of these retail price differences.

You Want Spinach With That?
An outbreak of E.coli 0157:H7 linked to bagged spinach has been blamed for 3 deaths and about 200 illnesses in September-October 2006. The current traceability system was slow to identify the source of the problem, a single supplier in California. In addition, the health authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been accused of overreacting by imposing a blanket ban on all shipments of fresh spinach. This article analyses the physical, medical, legal and economic aspects of food safety. It shows that meeting consumers' desire for zero risk would be prohibitively expensive. However, much could be done with present resources to reduce the frequency of health scares.

Special Statistics
United States: Retail Prices of Red Delicious, by Region 1996-97 to 2005-06 (chart).
United States: Retail Prices of Fresh Oranges, by Region 1996-97 to 2005-06 (chart).
United States: Average Retail Prices of Fresh Oranges and Red Delicious Apples,
1996-97 to 2005-06 (chart).
Former Soviet Union: Major Apple Producing Countries, 1995-97 and 2003-05 (table).
Big Three: Total Support to Agriculture, 1986-88 and 2002-04 (chart).

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