A Full Plate of Issues on Food-Import Safety

The globalization of sources of food for Americans has been underway for the last 10 to 15 years and is likely to continue despite President Clinton’s initiative to tighten inspection of imported fresh fruits and vegetables, agriculture experts said Friday.

And efforts to tell other countries how to farm are fraught with political consequences, as U.S. growers have already learned in tussles with countries blocking American farm products, including Japan, South Korea and China.

The reason cross-border shipments will continue to grow is that consumers demand it. They have grown accustomed to the wide variety and year-round availability of produce that growers in foreign climates make possible.

On Thursday, Clinton said he would ask Congress for laws requiring that imported fruits and vegetables meet the same safety standards as home-grown crops. Imported fresh vegetables now represent 13.6% of all that are consumed, up from 9.4% in 1990.

Free trade is one factor behind the increase. Trade barriers on imported crops are falling, especially for produce from Mexico, where the North American Free Trade Agreement will do away with virtually all crop tariffs over the next four years.

Mexico alone has doubled its northbound exports of vegetables and fruit since 1990, to $2.1 billion last year, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures.

The incoming produce is feeding an enormous growth in demand from health-conscious consumers. Per- capita consumption of a variety of products, from tomatoes and melons to bell peppers and cucumbers, has shown increases ranging from 10% to 60% since 1990, said Joe Glauber, a food economist with the USDA.

“You see a lot more things available at the store from both domestic and international sources,” Glauber said, noting that many once-seasonal products such as berries and vegetables are now available year-round because of imports.

And farm production in California has continued to climb despite the growth in fresh food imports.

The state’s production of fresh vegetables was 24.1 million tons last year, up 20% from 1993, according to USDA statistics. The harvest of fruits and nuts was 13.8 million tons in 1996, the same as in 1993 and up 4% from 1990.

The production increase comes despite the paving over of tens of thousands of acres of Southern California farmland in the last several decades. The growth reflects increased technology and exploitation of land in areas once thought unusable for farming, such as the southern San Joaquin and Imperial valleys.

In San Diego County, farm acreage has slipped by a third since 1980, yet total revenue is up because of a switch to higher-value cut flowers and nursery crops, said Kelly Cunningham, research director for the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce.

Farm economists say the globalization of food merely parallels what is going on in dozens of industries, from aerospace and furniture to televisions and eyeglasses. That trend has sent California timber companies to Chile, shrimp farmers to Ecuador and tomato and strawberry producers to Baja California.

At least a dozen California farmers now grow crops alone or in partnerships with Mexicans in Baja, mostly concentrated in the San Quintin area, about 250 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border, said Refugio Gonzalez, Imperial County director of the UC cooperative farm extension.

The White House wants to not merely inspect incoming products but examine foreign farming methods, checking fields for sanitary conditions and water purity. But such demands are likely to cause trouble overseas, where farmers view the U.S. stance as protectionist.

Agricultural health and safety issues have been at the heart of some of the most bitter U.S. trade battles. As the most efficient producers in the world, U.S. farmers are usually on the other side, complaining about foreign governments inventing health issues to keep U.S. products out.

Until just a few years ago, Japan banned U.S. apples from its market because of pest and disease concerns that had been conquered in the U.S. market long ago, according to frustrated American growers. The Clinton administration is now engaged in a similar tussle with China.

The safety of U.S. beef is also being questioned by foreign buyers. Earlier this week, South Korea ordered a halt to beef imports from Nebraska-based IBP Inc. after 18 tons of meat were found to be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.