Should the U.S. Stop Buying Some Imported Foods - Essay Example

 Should the U.S. Stop Buying Some Imported Foods? In recent years there has been increasing consumer demand for imported food within the U.S., with a desire for numerous varieties of exotic food and out-of-season foods, fueling the controversy over whether allowing so much imported food into the U.S. is in our collective best interest. Legislation has been passed to improve inspection of imported food, but it would be too expensive to inspect all of it. My position is that the U.S. should stop buying food imported from some countries because it puts our public health at risk, undermines the U.S. economy, and puts the U.S. at increased risk for bioterrorism. Imported food increasingly puts our public health at a greater risk One reason for this is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety testing has been cut in half since 2003 and the number of FDA employees involved in food testing has dropped 12 percent (The Associated Press 1). Only 1.3 percent of imported food was inspected in 2006 (The Associated Press 2). This has been enough to erase the gains made in inspections following 9-11, when concern about safety of imported food was the highest. Imported food faces the same health risks as food grown locally, which in recent times has caused E. coli and Salmonella food poisoning illnesses. But it would be much more expensive for FDA inspectors to inspect the farms and other sources of tainted food when it is overseas, if they were even given the authority. These problems make limiting imported food appear to be a wise choice, in order to avoid outbreaks of disease. The second reason imported foods are a risk to the U.S. is the potential effect on the U.S. economy. From 1960 to 2004, the U.S. had an agricultural trade surplus (Kilman 1), a situation that has reversed in just the last few years. This is mainly because free trade agreements have made entry of food imports easier. In 2006, the U.S. imported $10 billion more food than it exported, and food imports are increasing (The Associated Press 2). But the agricultural sector is one of the few areas of the U.S. economy that has a clear potential for a budget surplus. The large U.S. trade deficits are causing our economy to depend on foreign lending, which could cease and cause the value of the dollar to plunge. Other countries have recently invested in infrastructure and are emerging as strong food exporters. Genetically modified foods in the U.S. are also hurting U.S. exports. U.S. consumers are increasingly demanding more food choices, and more food availability when out of season. Increases in immigrant populations are also driving imported food demand. Some U.S. companies are using imported food ingredients in their products because foreign manufacturing costs are cheaper. All of these factors show that U.S. farmers are facing increasing pressure from foreign competition that should be alleviated by limiting the amount of imported food. A third reason that increases in imported foods are a risk for the U.S. is the growing risk of food being used in a bioterrorist attack. In the wake of the 9-11 attacks, there has been increasing controversy over the safety of importing food in the U.S., which mostly enters the country without being inspected. According to the Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson, imported food has the highest risk of bioterrorism (Food & Drink Weekly 1). The food chain, from the farm to the supermarket, is at risk from bioterrorism; but imported food has a longer food chain, and therefore more points which are vulnerable to biological attack. Some have suggested that imported food would be safer if legislation would be passed that would allow food to be inspected by the FDA in foreign countries before it comes to the U.S. (News24.com 1). But this would be prohibitively more expensive than inspection of locally grown food. The easiest and most affordable way to avoid a bioterrorist attack on the food supply appears to be to restrict food imports from countries with a high risk for producing terrorism. People that may disagree with my view stated in this paper that imported food should be restricted include consumers who highly value choice; those people who do not have much money to spend on food; and many food retailers. There are consumers who place a higher value on the variety of food available to them than on the safety or economical well-being of the U.S. Poorer consumers, especially, would welcome the effect imported food has in causing lower food prices. Food retailers stand to profit from meeting the imported food demand from consumers. As an example of opposition from food retailers, when some U.S. farmers recently demanded country-of-origin labeling on food, retailers blocked the legislation. Although it would seem that U.S. farmers would agree with my position, since they are facing increasing competition from foreign foods, some U.S. companies like Sunkist are actually importing food when their product is out of season (Kilman 1), and may now also oppose limiting imported food. Although imported food increases our quality of life by providing more consumer choices, more affordable food, and more opportunities to profit from retail of food, there are instances when the larger picture of the safety and economical well-being of the country as a whole must be taken into account first. The dangers of imported food requires that individual Americans make some sacrifices in quality of living in order to ensure the greater good of all. The individual sacrifice of eating California raisins instead of the possibly more desirable Middle East dates is a small one if it saves thousands of lives from biological attack. Food should be blocked from importation from countries which pose a high risk of bioterrorism. In addition, the overall percentage of imported food that has been inspected must be raised to a more acceptable level, through a combination of spending more money on inspections, developing more effective inspection techniques, and lowering the amount of imported food. If these measures are not taken, the chances of a devastating bioterrorist attack or food poisoning accident affecting thousands of Americans will become more imminent. U.S. farmers may also fail in large numbers with such high global competition from imported foods, resulting in an increased dependence on imported food, insurmountable trade deficits, and an unvalued U.S. dollar. However, taking measures to limit imported food and inspect greater percentages of it will increase our odds of emerging through an era of globalization and terrorism as a country intact, still confident in our identity of self-reliance forged with such high sacrifice by our pilgrim and pioneer Americans. Works Cited Food & Drink Weekly. "FDA Issues New Anti-Bioterrorism Guidelines to Secure Food Supply - Brief Article." 14 Jan 2002. FindArticles.com. Retrieved 07 Jun 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EUY/is_2_8/ai_81826775. Kilman, Scott. "Increasing imports of food creating trade problems for U.S. economy." Wall Street Journal. 8 Nov 2004. Trade Observatory. Retrieved 7 Jun 2007 from http://www.tradeobservatory.org/headlines.cfm?refID=37423. News24.com. "Food terror threat worries U.S." 12 Dec 2004. Retrieved 7 Jun 2007 from http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1634797,00.html. The Associated Press. "Risks of tainted food rise as inspections drop." MSNBC. 26 Feb 2007. Retrieved 7 Jun 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17349427. Read More