Food Labels

Food Labeling is something that all health conscience people pay attention to. The information on the label can help people make healthier choices, as well as inform them of what they are putting in their body. One of the things that we looked at this week was how strict the rules are for labeling a food as having "reduced fat" or "high fiber." The FDA makes guidelines for how companies are able to use these. A food that is "high" in fiber would have to be 20% or more of your daily value. A food that is "low" in fat, would have to be 5% or less of your daily value.

When a food is labeled as fat reduced, it has to follow another set of strict guidelines. These foods must have at least 25% less fat than what is regularly consumed. This is measured in RACC, or referenced amounts customarily consumed. Foods that are labeled as "Fat Free", "Sugar Free", or "Sodium Free," must have less than .5 g, 5mg, and .5 grams respectively. They are allowed to be marketed as "free," but they can add up when consuming multiple servings. 

In order for a food to be labeled "heart healthy", it must meet the requirements to be labeled as healthy below. 

Conditions for the Use of "Healthy"

	Individual Food	Seafood/Game Meat	Meal/Main Dish
TOTAL FAT	low fat	< 5 g fat /RACC & /100g	low fat
SATURATED FAT>
low sat fat	< 2 g sat fat /RACC & /100g	low sat fat
SODIUM	≤ 480 mg /RACC and /l.s.; or /50 g, if RACC is small	≤ 480 mg /RACC and /l.s.; or /50 g, if RACC is small	≤ 600 mg /l.s.
CHOLESTEROL	≤ disclosure level	< 95 mg /RACC & /100 g	≤ 90 mg /l.s.
BENEFICIAL NUTRIENTS	Contains at least 10% of DV /RACC for vitamins A, C, calcium, iron, protein, or fiber except: raw fruits and vegetables; or a single ingredient or mixture of frozen or canned single ingredient fruits and vegetables (may include ingredients whose addition does not change the nutrient profile of the fruit or vegetable); enriched cereal-grain products that conform to a standard of identity in 21 CFR 136, 137, or 139.	Contains at least 10% of DV /RACC for vitamins A, C, calcium, iron, protein, or fiber	Contains at least 10% of the DV /l.s. of two nutrients (for a main dish product) or of three nutrients (for a meal product) of vit. A, vit. C, calcium, iron, protein, or fiber.
FORTIFICATION	Per 21 CFR 104.20	Per 21 CFR 104.20	Per 21 CFR 104.20

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The FDA is also currently looking at food labels that would make some changes to the current system. Under the new label, the Calorie section would appear larger. This is done to make them stand out more. A second change that they are going to make is to have serving sizes that actually reflect what we are eating. This would change a food such as ice cream, and increase the serving size to one cup from half a cup. A third major change that is occurring is that labels will have a separate line for added sugar. This will make it easier for the consumer to see if the sugar is added, of if it is already in the food naturally.


When we go to France, we will be able to see how their food labels are similar and different. One different thing that many of their labels do have is the country or region of origin of the food. This is especially important for alcoholic products such as Champagne, and cheese products such as Parmesan. When we go to France we will be sure to keep an eye out for this on all of the foods, as well as look at the nutrition on their foods. It may be hard to read because of the different language, but we will figure it out.

International Agricultural Development

International agricultural development seeks to address and try to solve issues in agriculture that deal with topics such as inequality, food production, and distribution in areas of the world that need help. These areas of the world are often referred to as "Third World" or developing countries. People of these countries face problems of malnutrition, food insecurity, and rural poverty. Because the agricultural sector is so important, it requires funding and aid. The problem is that either there is not enough assistance or there isn't any at all.

The lack of growth in agricultural production has been an important topic of discussion in recent years. There are two trends that are important to agricultural investment: foreign aid to agriculture and domestic public expenditure to agriculture.

Figure 7 depicts the sectoral distribution of total aid. The Ag, Forestry, Fishing sector shows a steady decline from 1995 to 2005, and then the beginning of a slight growth. The growth in the sectoral distribution of total aid could be due to the global food crisis that severely affected developing countries in 2007-2008.


There are many programs and organizations that specialize in the issue of agriculture and development. The Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) advises US AID on "on agriculture and higher education issues pertinent to food insecurity in developing countries."

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) strives to "create holistic policies that are capable of addressing the social, environmental and economic dimensions of sustainable development."

IFAD's mission focuses on "rural poverty reduction, working with poor rural populations in developing countries to eliminate poverty, hunger and malnutrition; raise their productivity and incomes; and improve the quality of their lives."

An example of Agricultural and International Development at work is "India's Rice Revolution."

In an area where 93% of the population depend solely on growing rice and potatoes to sustain their lives and families, a discovery was made that could change the way in which crops are grown without herbicides or GMO's. These farmers have changed how they plant rice, they focus on "less is more." This means that instead of planting the seedlings in large clumps in water-logged fields, the farmers take care of and nurture a smaller number of seeds and then transplant the plants into fields. They space out the plants and keep the soil drier while carefully weeding around the plants and roots. The good news is that even a 30% increase in rice yields could help alleviate poverty.

If we can find new ways of planting, increasing yields, and teaching sustainable practices--in developed and developing countries--the world could be one step closer to ending agricultural and international development issues.

Agricultural trade and international development

Agricultural trade is extremely important in the modern world as it helps to provide greater quantity, wider variety and better quality food to the fast increasing world demand at the lower prices. In addition, agricultural trade generates an income for millions of people either directly or indirectly employed by agricultural sector. At the global scale, agricultural trade is believed to be one if not the only source of the foreign exchange for some countries that is crucial for development.

In some places people still spend most of their income in order to provide themselves with food. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, The world’s poor faced the greatest burden from higher food prices. In developing nations, like those in the Middle East, more than 40 percent of average household budgets go toward food purchases. Even in the emerging BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, between a quarter and a third of household income is spent on food. In more affluent nations, like the United States, the average household spends less than 10 percent of its household budget on food.

Development of agriculture is also exceedingly important as it is a way to improve the quality of humans’ life. There are two ways to measure it which are Gross National Income (GNI) and Human Development Index. GNI is a total of the money earned by people within a certain region or country whereas HDI is a statistic that represents the life expectancy, education, and income indices that are all used in order to rank countries into tiers of human development. Norway, United States, and Sweden are among the high human development countries. Globalization is one of the factors that allowed these countries to have a higher life standards.

 

The study of the economics of international trade in agricultural and food products is relatively new. Therefore three main areas of agricultural economics profession need to be developed which production economics, marketing, and policy. Nowadays, there is a number of organizations worldwide that regulate the international including agricultural commodities. The main organization in the world is World Trade Organization. The WTO is a rules-based, member-driven organization — all decisions are made by the member governments, and the rules are the outcome of negotiations among members. Currently, there are 161 member states. WTO makes sure that trade is done legally and gives advantage to developing countries not to be discriminated.

Despite the fact that there is enough food to feed everyone in the world, there are millions of undernourished people. International trade is one of the solutions that can help overcome this world problem and allow everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food without lacking any vitamins and take adequate amount of calories daily.