The Deceitful American Food Exportation System

Sana Navaid
Snack Bites by Sana
4 min readNov 16, 2021

How efforts to help developing countries with food aid results in a catastrophic impact on food economies and the environment.

The United States is the leading food exporter of the world. Its rice and corn exports are sent all across the world. In just 2020, it sent 69.8 million metric tons of corn to 73 countries (Corn). With mass production, the nation easily lends half of all food aid globally (Park). This food has nourished millions of hungry people in so many countries (Park). While this food has brought short-term aid to many poor countries, it will have negative impacts on them in the long-term. Thus, it is important for the US to avoid sending its home-grown food abroad, and it should do it gradually to give all countries time to adjust to this change.

Sending American-grown food overseas disrupts food economies in developing countries. You would think that since US food is mass-produced, it would be cheap and easy to afford. But buying US exports instead of locally sourced foods halts the growth of the agriculture sector in developing countries (Elinder, 2005). This poses a threat to these communities because research has shown that agrarian growth is important in lessening poverty and hunger (Elinder, 2005). It works to increase local food availability, create jobs, stimulate the rural economy, and reduce the overall cost of food for consumers (Elinder, 2005). Thus, by reducing US-grown food presence, developing countries can focus on their own food sector and its growth. This will ensure less poverty and malnutrition in the future.

To send food aboard, the US must ship its goods. But this comes at a cost. It takes time and has a negative impact on the environment. Shipping overseas, especially over long distances, creates large amounts of CO2 (Food). Furthermore, sending food by plane produces 50 times more CO2 than by sea (Food). Secondly, having to export food requires time. It can take several weeks to months even (Khazan, 2013). In a world that values urgency, food is being shipped through faster means, which means it is also more polluting. Because of its poor environmental impact, the US should diminish American-grown exports abroad to avoid contributing to climate change.

This image demonstrates how the supply chain, which includes food transport contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2020). Environmental impacts of food production. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food

Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic disturbed the food supply chain. Because of the virus, many aspects of the supply chain have been affected. For example, because people became sick or were quarantined, labor shortages grew (Aday, 2020). This reduced the efficiency of food packaging operations (Aday, 2020). Also, different modes of transportation were impacted. With less air travel, it was harder to send perishable goods (such as fruits and vegetables) abroad (Aday, 2020). With the implications of the pandemic still looming, shipping food abroad with a broken supply chain widens pre-existing gaps and worsens food security in the US. Thus, it is important to avoid sending American-grown food overseas and instead focus on fixing the current system.

One may argue that if the US lessened shipping food abroad, it would cost Americans several job opportunities. Farmers and shippers would lose between 16,000 to 33,000 jobs if food was no longer exported (Khazan, 2013). Also, this would especially affect certain states such as Texas and Illinois where there is a large agriculture presence (Khazan, 2013). Thus, it would be important to slowly stop shipping food. During the transition period, local governments should reskill the unemployed workers to have jobs in other fields to prevent mass unemployment. Additionally, this shift would force export recipients to rebuild their agriculture sectors and give time to rebuild their food economy slowly. Lastly, gradually ending food exportation would reduce the environmental burden discussed earlier.

It is clear that shipping food overseas has consequences. Together, we can work together to reduce food exportation and focus on bettering the world by improving the agriculture economy, decreasing pollution, and fixing the supply chain. This can be done by boycotting major US food exporters by boycotting companies that export corn, rice, and soybeans can make all the difference. You can reach out to them by phone or email to share your concerns with food exports. Also, you can reach out to legislature to convince politicians to implement new policies to avoid sending food abroad. Together, these steps can work to rebuild the agriculture sector globally and create a healthier environment for all.

Work Cited:

Aday, S., & Aday, M. S. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on the food supply chain. Food Quality and Safety, 4(4), 167–180. https://doi.org/10.1093/fqsafe/fyaa024

Corn. (n.d.). U.S. GRAINS COUNCIL. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://grains.org/buying-selling/corn/

Elinder, L. S. (2005). Obesity, hunger, and agriculture: The damaging role of subsidies. BMJ : British Medical Journal, 331(7528), 1333–1336.

Food & Transportation. (n.d.). The Conscious Challenge. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.theconsciouschallenge.org/ecologicalfootprintbibleoverview/food-transportation

Khazan, O. (2013, April 5). Here Are the U.S. States That Benefit Most From America’s Wacky International Food-Aid Program. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/here-are-the-us-states-that-benefit-most-from-americas-wacky-international-food-aid-program/274709/

Park, K. (n.d.). The Great American Food Aid Boondoggle. Foreign Policy. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/10/america-wheat-hunger-great-food-aid-boondoggle/

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