Whether you are a health fanatic or not, you are probably aware that fresh fruits and vegetables are good for you. In fact, for good health, the United States Department of Agriculture urges American consumers to eat anywhere from 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

Many health groups, such as those dealing with diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, cite the need to consume fresh fruits and vegetables to lessen the possibility or severity of these diseases. Even those dealing with obesity urge their clients to consume more fruits and vegetables, since fruits and vegetables have low energy density. This means that, on average, they have fewer calories per ounce than most other foods. Eating more fruits and vegetables as part of a reduced calorie diet can be beneficial for weight management.

You can search the Internet and quickly find thousands of articles with statistics related to the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. These statistics indicate that consumers in different geographic areas prefer different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Different age groups and different ethnic groups have their own preferences. The consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables will vary depending upon the education level or income status of consumers.

This is nothing new to us. We know that southerners eat more collards than those from up north, and it seems the only people who like Dixie Lee peas are from southeastern North Carolina.

One reason that many of us love to travel is that we get the opportunity to sample different foods than what we enjoy at home. There are often more than just subtle changes in food preferences from one county to another county and often between communities within the same county.

Hopefully, I now have you interested in the concept of eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. If so, and you do not have your own garden, I now would like to tell you where you can get all the fresh fruits and vegetables you want.

The Robeson County Farmers Market that operates in downtown Lumberton (8th and Elm Streets) is now operating wide open on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Although this market has been operating for several weeks, this coming Saturday is the official "Grand Opening" since Saturday is officially the first day of summer. The members of the Farmers Market Association wanted to celebrate their grand opening when the most farmers would be available at the market.

I urge you to come on out to the Farmers Market Saturday morning. There will be lots of delicious fresh vegetables, such as sweet corn, squash, potatoes, cucumbers, and cabbage. There may be some fresh peaches and blueberries and possibly some cantaloupes and fresh tomatoes. Come early and chat with the farmers for a while. In closing, I would like to share a little information about a topic that has received a lot of publicity during the past few weeks. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives recently passed Public Law No 110-234. Although the president vetoed it twice, both the House and the Senate overrode the veto. The full name for this public law is the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, but we all know it as the Farm Bill. Much of the publicity you heard was about how financially irresponsible the bill was; yet, it was essentially the same it has been for the past eight years. Other publicity related to how it subsidized farmers and seemed to imply that farmers are getting wealthy off government payments for no reasons at all.

All of you know I am one of the farmers' most supportive advocates. I realize how important it is to have a strong and financially solid food production system in place in the United States to make sure consumers, such as myself, have plenty of food.

You might think that this new Farm Bill is totally about the farmers and that all your tax dollars to support his bill will go to the farmers. But if you look closely at USDA's budget, you will see this is far from the way it is.

Nutrition programs in the United States take a major bite out of USDA's budget. Over 65 percent of the funds to support the new Farm Bill are earmarked for nutrition. Nutrition programs are very broad, but the major components are school lunches and food stamps. So almost 2/3 of your tax money for the Farm Bill directly supports these programs and only indirectly supports our farmers by supporting food consumption. Programs related to conservation and the environment receives 9 percent of the funds. Crop insurance, protecting consumers as much as farmers, receives 8 percent of the funds. Only 1 percent of the funds target disaster provisions, such as flooding, droughts, and storms.

The commodities part of the Farm Bill, the part that relates to payments for farmers to keep them financially sound so they can continue to produce our foods, is only 14 percent of the Farm Bill. So you can quickly see that only a small portion of the Farm Bill relates directly to the production of safe and affordable foods for average consumers.

I don't know the exact amount, but it takes only about 40 cents per day for the average taxpayer to support the total Farm Bill. That's 40 cents per day to make sure we continue to have an abundant supply of safe and wholesome food.

In a way, this new Farm Bill helps ensure you can continue to buy fresh fruits and vegetables at the farmers market. I sure hope you don't object that these farmers make a profit from their hard work and large investments. See you at the market.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 6/17/08