Counting hidden costs shows Illinois farmers a better way

The old man leaned on his cane and stared at the line that inevitably forms at the Merwyn’s stand at the Old Capitol Farmers’ Market during strawberry season. At first he seemed to be mumbling to himself, but when he stepped up the volume it was clear he wanted those of us in line to hear him. “I got strawberries last week at the store for sixty-nine cents,” he said. “Now they’re up to a dollar ninety-nine.”

“How much they sellin’ ’em for here?” No one answered, so the old man repeated his query a little louder. I turned towards him, pointed at the sign and said, “They’re three dollars and fifty cents.”

The old man sucked his teeth. “You should go to the grocery store — they’re only a dollar ninety-nine there.” I don’t usually pick fights with frail old men, but somehow I couldn’t stop myself: “Yeah,” I said. “And I’ll bet they’re shipped in from California and grown with toxic chemicals. They don’t have much flavor ’cause they’re picked before they’re ripe — probably by illegal immigrants who’re paid slave wages.”

The old man sucked his teeth again, thrust out his chin and shrugged. “They taste fine to me,” he said, then stumped off. Torn between indignation that he was trying to dissuade people from buying luscious local berries, and embarrassment for challenging him, I thought about the conundrum of America’s food system. Foods grown and shipped from thousands of miles away, available throughout the year in season and out, cost less than their local counterparts. Why is our food so cheap? Make no mistake; America’s food is really cheap. In 1960, the average family spent 18 percent of its income on food; today that figure has plummeted to nine percent.

That’s less than was ever spent on food throughout history, and less than is spent currently anywhere else worldwide. And that cheap food comes in a staggering array of choices; from pre-prepared heatand-eat dinners to fresh produce. Moreover, the produce comes not just from America, but from all over the world and is available year round at virtually the same price as when it’s locally in season.

If that sounds almost too good to be true, in many ways it is. Because there are hidden costs for that cheap food, costs that Robert Kenner, director of the just released documentary film Food Inc., says are often “deliberately hidden from us.” One of the main reasons prices at the checkout counter are so low are subsidies. The federal government subsidizes just five crops: corn, soybeans, cotton, rice and wheat. Of those, corn is by far the biggest player.

Only the tiniest fraction (less than a bushel per person) of the 1 billion bushels of corn grown annually comes to consumers as corn — on the cob or as chips, tortillas, cornmeal, etc. And that mostly comes from varieties other than field corn. Most field corn is used for animal feed; the rest is turned into a multitude of products and additives such as high fructose corn syrup. It’s been estimated that 50-60 percent of corn farmers’ income comes from those government subsidies — the only way farmers can stay in business when the price they’re paid for corn is less than the cost of producing it.

The bottom line is that you’re paying for your food not just at the store, but also with your taxes.

It’s a system many farmers have gotten comfortable with. “Corn and soybeans are easy!” says Pana farmer Jack Erisman. “It’s plant, spray, harvest, drink coffee, collect your government payment.”