FRUIT CONSUMPTION, DIETARY GUIDELINES, AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN NEW YORK STATE -- IMPLICATIONS FOR LOCAL FOOD ECONOMIES

Consuming locally produced foods offers many benefits to consumers, producersand the environment. As a result, local food economies are gaining attention as a meansfor boosting agriculture and food production in New York State. Concurrent with this interestin local agriculture is a national concern over the health effects of American foodconsumption patterns and the capacity of agriculture to support nutritious diets. This studymerges these areas of inquiry in the context of a nutritionally and economically importantagricultural sector, namely New York State fruit production.Three questions are examined in this research. 1) How does New York State fruitproduction compare with fruit consumption by New Yorkers? 2) How do production andconsumption of fruit compare with the recommendations of the U.S. Department ofAgriculture food guide pyramid? 3) What implications do these comparisons have forNew York State agriculture? These questions were addressed using existing national andstate data and valuable methods borrowed from recent USDA Economic Research Serviceanalyses.Annual per capita consumption estimates for the Northeast suggest that New Yorkersconsume approximately 180 pounds of fruit per person per year. Based on populationestimates, this level of consumption indicates that New Yorkers ate 3.2 billion pounds offruit in calendar year 1999. In contrast, New York State agriculture harvested an averageof 1.5 billion pounds of fruit annually during 1994-1998. After adjusting for processingconversions, post-harvest losses, and inedible portions, the consumable equivalent of thisproduction is 816 million pounds. Furthermore, a commodity-by-commodity comparisonindicates that New York produces three products (e.g. fresh apples, processed apples, andprocessed cherries) in quantities that exceed the estimated in-state demand. As a result,New York produces enough fruit to provide 18 percent of the total fruit consumption plus256 million pounds of “surplus” of the aforementioned three commodities.Comparisons with the Food Guide Pyramid demonstrate that though fruit consumptionin the Northeast is higher than the national average, intake is still well below the recommendations.At 1.9 servings per person per day, fruit consumption would need to increaseby 63% to reach the average recommended per capita intake for New York State.The disposition of current consumption is consistent with the Pyramid recommendationthat intake be split evenly between the Vitamin C-rich “citrus, melons and berries” and thecatch-all category “other fruit”. However, current dietary preferences may not satisfy theiiPyramid suggestion that consumers choose whole fruits most often since juices comprisemore than a third of all fruit servings. New York growers harvest enough fruit to provide20% of this recommended intake, but production is not evenly distributed between the twosubgroups. Almost all in-state production lies in the “other fruits” category (e.g. apples,grapes, and pears) while the production of melons and berries is insignificant relative to therecommended intake.The results of this research suggest both opportunities and challenges for NewYork State fruit growers and consumers. For most fruits, the in-state market is large relativeto current production. In addition, consumption of fruit needs to increase substantiallyto meet national nutritional goals. Taken together, these findings suggest potential formarketing more fruit, and more New York grown fruit, to New Yorkers. However, thelength of the growing season and the predominance of just two crops, apples and grapes,bring into question the ability of New York’s fruit sector to provide the diversity needed tosupply a more significant share of the state’s consumption. Moreover, current food preferencesmay limit sales of in-state produced fruit as over 60% of consumption comes fromcrops that cannot be grown in New York’s temperate climate. Despite these conflictingpatterns, potential exists for growers to target local and regional markets, particularly ifthey can entice the palates of nutritionally conscious consumers.