agribusinessreview.comJUNE 20248 opinionIN MYFood security is often defined by the three pillars of accessibility, safety, and defense. With increasing complexity brought on by our environment, regulations, and science & technology, having a safe food supply is all about appropriate, proper, disciplined, and rigorous risk assessment programs and tools. If we were to look at the intersection of food safety, consumer eating habits, regulatory environment, and application of science & technology (bio-engineering) it is not hard to see that without appropriate risk assessment at the farm level through to the finished product, the vulnerability of our supply chain to an outbreak becomes almost unavoidable. Our agricultural land is primarily used for commodity items, GMO for resistance to insects, and structured for maximum growth, with overall few recalls and outbreaks. On the other hand fruits and vegetables which are grown in a disproportionately smaller share of agricultural land are in most cases non-GMO, but are involved in more recalls and outbreaks. Ten years ago, a report came out by the Union of Concerned Scientists that covered how much of our agricultural land was being used to grow a variety of commodity crops versus what at that time was anticipated pull from consumers following recommended dietary requirements. A pull from the marketplace that still has not materialized or come close to early promises despitelarge-scalee communications from By Takashi Nakamura, VP of Food Safety, Fresh Del Monte Produce (FDP: NYSE)FOOD SECURITY CHALLENGES: HEALTH-DRIVEN AND CONSUMER CONSUMPTION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES STILL NOT AFFECTING AGRICULTURAL USAGE AND IMPACT ON RISK organizations such as the USDA. At the time this report was one of the first to economic model dietary shifts on farm production. Highlighted was a simple fact that the US agricultural land is not growing what we should be eating. That is, at that time about 2 percent of US farmland was used to grow fruits and vegetables, with 60 percent devoted to commodity crops such as wheat, corn, and soy. Takashi Nakamura
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