Release No. 0078.04

Contact: Office of Communications
202-720-4623 

Transcript of Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman’s Keynote Address:
“Ensuring A Healthy Food Supply” 
Agricultural Outlook Forum 2004
Arlington, Va - February 19, 2004 

SECRETARY VENEMAN: “Thank you very much, Keith, for that very, very kind introduction. 

“Good morning to you all and welcome to the 2004 Outlook Forum.

“I want to thank Keith again for the excellent job that he does and to all of those from USDA who put a lot into this year’s program. I especially want to recognize Gerry Bange and Ray Bridge of our World Agricultural Outlook Board who have really led the effort in this regard. 

“The many distinguished speakers and our presenters are key to the success of this conference and we truly appreciate the participation of all of you.

“I want to welcome the speaker who will follow me today, Jim Cantalupo, Chairman and CEO of McDonald’s. I will be more formally introducing him in a few minutes.

“And at the dinner this evening, and I know a number of you will be attending, my counterpart in the European Union, Franz Fischler, will be speaking.

“Our annual Outlook conference helps focus our attention on where it belongs, on the future. As you heard from Dr. Collins and Dr. Penn, farmers and ranchers are operating in a changing world that continues to present challenges, but also enormous opportunities, as well.

“There are several issues we are addressing right now that offer opportunities for agriculture. One of the most important is our continuing response to BSE. We are developing and implementing a verifiable national system of animal identification that will become a permanent part of our livestock industry.

“We are also working to more clearly define the international trade rules for BSE. And we are making enhancements to our public health and food safety systems, and we are upgrading our protection systems for animal health.

“Another area that could hold long-term opportunity that is now being pursued is the Administration’s ongoing trade agenda. This holds the potential for greatly expanding markets around the globe for our farmers and ranchers.

“We are also in the process of implementing a new Internet e-Government initiative to enhance opportunities for agriculture producers to access data and information via the web to better manage their businesses.

“The theme of this year’s Outlook Forum illustrates yet another challenge, and, no doubt, opportunities. We chose the theme “Ensuring a Healthy Food Supply” because of the increasing focus on diet and health issues in America, and the potential impact of these trends on the food system.

“We cannot address these topics without discussing overweight and obesity, which are reaching crisis proportions, not only in the United States, but in countries all around the world.

“Consider this, 65 percent of Americans today are overweight or obese. Of that total, 31 are obese, which is double the rate from the year 1980 and another 34 percent fall into the category of overweight.

“The number of severely obese people has increased 300 percent since 1986.

“We are seeing some 300,000 Americans die every year from causes attributable to obesity such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and other illnesses.

“While obesity harms our health it also is translating into high financial and social costs.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that obesity cost our economy $117 billion in the year 2000; $61 billion in direct medical costs, and $56 billion in lost productivity.

“The numbers are undoubtedly much higher today.

“Half of those medical costs are borne by taxpayers in the form of Medicare and Medicaid payments.

“Dealing with issues surrounding our waistlines is not new. Americans have a long history of struggling to maintain a healthy weight.

“Diet books became bestsellers in the 1970s just as aerobics and jazzercise became household words. 

“In the late ’70s, we began to recognize that many major health problems in our country were diet-related.

“In 1977, the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs issued a report calling for practical guidelines to the individual consumer as well as national dietary guidelines or national goals for the country as a whole.

“In 1980, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans were published, which advised us to reduce fat, cholesterol and sodium and to increase our consumption of fruits, vegetables and grains. 

“The impact of these recommendations rippled throughout the whole food chain. 

“Between 1980 and 1999, total milk consumption declined an average of 15 percent per person; egg consumption declined 8 percent; and red meat consumption declined about 10 percent. 

“From 1980 to 2000 average annual fruit consumption rose 4 percent.

“Vegetable consumption rose 26 percent but frozen fries, potato chips and iceberg lettuce made up a third of the total vegetable servings.

“Consumption of grain products by the year 2000 had increased by more than a third over the early 1980s. However, less than one serving per day came from whole grains, far short of the recommended number of whole grain servings.

“And average consumption of sugar and caloric sweeteners increased 24 percent in the same period.”

[Many industries have responded to these consumption trends with products containing lower fat.]

“Mandatory nutrition labels beginning in 1994 led to further increased marketing of lower-fat alternatives. 

“Despite all these changes, however, Americans have grown fatter.

“Many factors have been cited to explain this. For instance, as our country becomes more prosperous, consumers take advantage of many more food choices, and they’re not always healthier alternatives.

“Higher incomes lead Americans to prepare less of their own food and they eat a larger share of their food outside the home.

“In the year 2002, we spent nearly half of our food dollar on food eaten away-from-home, up from about one-quarter of our food dollar in 1960.

“When people consume more food outside the home, they also tend to take in higher calorie levels.

“Another contributing factor in overweight and obesity is a sedentary lifestyle, which is especially acute in children.

“Studies indicate that children spend on average more than four-and-a-half hours a day engaged in what is known as “screen-time” or time spent in front of the TV, computers and videogames.

“Just think if only a fraction of that time were spent exercising. 

“And as more Americans than ever are looking for ways to lose weight, we are seeing another trend quickly emerge from our food choices: carbohydrate-restrictive diets.

“In 1997, the Atkins Diet landed on the bestseller list where it has remained for about 350 weeks.

“Similar diets followed such as Sugar Busters and the Zone, and now the South Beach Diet has dominated the sales charts for about 40 weeks.

“This has been driven by personal weight loss stories as well as some recent studies that indicate carb-restrictive diets might be more effective in weight loss than their high-carb counterparts, at least for some people in the short run.

“Needless to say, a great deal of debate continues. But those studies demonstrate that we continue to learn more and more about nutrition and health every day.

“Consumers’ food preferences are also changing in other ways. Consumers want food to be available wherever they are, whether it’s at the mall, the gas station, or even the home improvement store. And they want it prepared, convenient and ready to eat.

“All of these changes illustrate the concept of a consumer-driven food system that we often discuss.

“As diet fads become trends, and trends become lifestyle changes, American agriculture soon feels the impacts.

“Let me return to the low-carb example. Although estimates vary, anywhere from 10 to 40 million Americans are watching their daily carbohydrate intake. In fact, the front page of The New York Times today talks about the low-carb boom and they cite a statistic that 40 percent of consumers in America are watching their carbohydrate intake.

“Recent data suggests reverses in many of the previous consumption patterns, strongly correlating to the popularity of current diet trends. 

“Bloomberg Media reports reduced sales of many foods between 2002 and 2003; bread, down 2.5 percent; pasta, 4.6 percent; instant rice, 8.2 percent; dehydrated potatoes, 3.2 percent; and orange juice, down 3.8 percent.

“The National Bread Leadership Council says that as many as 40 percent of consumers ate less bread in the year 2003 than they did the year before.

“Consumption of added fat increased 16 percent between 1997 and 2000, reversing a short-lived trend of declining consumption of added fats in the early 1990s.

“Sales trends show that Americans are shifting their purchasing habits and driving the marketplace in ways that they hope will help them lose weight. But more than a quarter century after the Senate Select Committee’s report citing the need for national dietary guidelines, America is clearly losing the “battle of the bulge” and there is a profound and growing sense that our public health messages are not getting through.

“We have seen over the last 20 years that many Americans have made changes to match what they believe is consistent with good dietary advice: increase consumption of fruits, vegetables and grains, and decrease consumption of fats and cholesterol.

“Despite those good intentions, what Americans have actually done, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control report, is to increase their intake of calories.

“The CDC found that between 1971 and 2000 women increased their calorie intake by 22 percent and men by 7 percent.

“A recent comparison of actual consumption to National Academy of Sciences nutrition standards found that both men and women are eating about twice as much added sugars and solid fats as recommended. Men are eating less than half the recommended fruit servings, and only about one-fifth of the dark-green vegetables recommended.

“Women are eating less than one-fifth of the legumes recommended. And both men and women are eating only about a quarter of the recommended whole grains. 

“A goal of the 1992 Food Guide Pyramid was to help consumers better understand how to implement dietary recommendations, including the Dietary Guidelines.

“The evidence tells us that we need to do more to help consumers understand how they can make healthy decisions. For example, a common complaint among Americans is still that they do not understand what constitutes an individual serving size.

“The result is, portion sizes have grown larger, along with our collective waistline.

“As scientific experts prepare the next edition of the dietary guidelines, we have an opportunity to learn from the past 20 years and do a better job on the nutrition education part of that process.

“Along with updating the guidelines, USDA is reviewing the food guide pyramid, the educational symbol that goes along with the guidelines.

“Our challenge is to communicate how consumers can make healthier choices that fit their lifestyles because we know that one size does not fit all when it comes to something as individual as our diets and physical activity levels.

“As we look at revising the food guidance symbol, it is important that we help Americans understand how they can make changes in their own diets to obtain better health, including a healthy weight.

“We believe that it is important to be transparent throughout this revision process. 

“In September of 2003, we published our review of the most up-to-date scientific data and proposed our interpretations based on that data.

“Some of the issues we asked for comment on include: 

“What are the appropriate calorie intake recommendations, given America’s low level of physical activity? 

“How do we encourage increased consumption of currently under-consumed foods including whole grains, dark leafy vegetables, and legumes?

“And how do we, at the same time, convey a message to eat less calories?

“We plan to issue a proposal for public comment on the graphic and consumer information later this year with a final document being released in early 2005.

“Completion of this review, coupled with the release of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, provides an opportunity to make this guidance as meaningful as possible for individuals.

“Common sense tells us that the most effective way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight is through personal diet and exercise choices and the proper role of government should be to help support, cooperate and educate.

“The President’s Healthier US Initiative exemplifies this approach by calling on us to be physically active every day, eat a nutritious diet, get preventive screenings, and make healthy choices.

“These are also the guiding principles that we are using at USDA as we examine how we can best meet the nutrition needs of our own country and promote healthy weight.

“USDA is uniquely positioned to link food production; processing, nutrition research, extension education and food supply economics to consumer food guidance and food assistance programs.

“USDA’s six Human Nutrition Research Centers conduct basic and applied research to identify and understand how nutrients and other food components affect health.

“Many of these centers are affiliated with Universities such as the University of California-Davis, Tufts University in Boston, and Baylor University in Houston. 

“The ultimate goal of this food-based agriculture research is to identify foods and diets, coupled with genetics and physical activity, that sustain and promote health throughout the life cycle. 

“Research clearly plays a vital role in our diet and health.

“In order to better examine the current knowledge and science regarding obesity, nutrition and diet behavior, I am pleased to announce that USDA will host a scientific conference in October with other federal agencies as partners, to specifically examine obesity prevention.

“We are also co-sponsoring a separate conference next month that will examine the economics of obesity.

“And to better understand what we eat and why, the President’s budget for fiscal year 2005 proposes a study on the relationship between the food supply and consumer knowledge, behavior and health.

“Nutrition education is also a critical component of USDA’s roles in healthy diets.

“The food assistance programs that we at USDA administer such as School Lunch and School Breakfast program, Food Stamps, the Women, Infants and Children, or what we commonly refer to as the “WIC” program, all of these together, comprise about 60 percent of USDA’s total budget.

“These programs touch one in every five Americans and they provide channels, critical channels, for nutrition education.

“The Women, Infants and Children program has a particularly strong nutrition education component. And I might note that 47 percent of the children born in the U.S. today are born into families receiving WIC assistance.

“In addition, our extension programs provide broad reach in the education programs that they conduct.

“Over the course of this year, USDA will fully examine our current nutrition education programs, as well as look at how we can better work with those across other agencies of the government.

“Along with many programs comes the potential of many different nutrition messages. We want to ensure that our messages are consistent, that they make the biggest possible impact, and that they actually make a difference in consumer behavior.

“I have asked two of our under-secretaries at USDA, Under Secretary Joe Jen, who oversees our Research, Education and Economics area, and Under Secretary Eric Bost, who oversees our Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, to lead this important effort and provide recommendations on how we can more effectively leverage all of our nutrition education programs.

“We will also continue to implement proper and supportive policies in other areas. The Child Nutrition Reauthorization process in Congress provides an opportunity to promote healthy school environments.

“We intend to work with Congress on a reauthorization bill that would encourage schools to formally commit to the principles of good school nutrition by:

“Ensuring that school meals meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans;

“Offering healthful food options in vending machines, school cafeterias and a la carte menu service;

“Promoting the consumption of fruits and vegetables;

“Integrating nutrition education into the curriculum; and promoting physical activity.

“The magnitude of the obesity crisis demands that we focus our nutrition and health expertise and coordinate and target our efforts. 

“I am committed to ensuring that USDA’s resources are used wisely, and that they address our health and nutrition needs in a relevant way.

“But for ultimate success, America needs a partnership that includes agriculture, industry, scientists, and the public health community as well as individuals.

“A prime example of this kind of partnership to address public health concerns and consumer demand involves trans-fatty acids.

“USDA’s Agricultural Research Service scientists performed vital research to identify the negative role of trans fats.

“Industry and producer groups then worked with USDA and universities to produce a modified sunflower oil that is naturally free of trans fats, which Frito-Lay is now using as an alternative in the production of their snack foods.

“This partnership of actions is estimated to remove 50 million pounds of trans-fatty acids from the American diet.

“The law that created USDA in 1862 envisioned an agency that would acquire ‘useful information connected with agriculture, and distribute among the people new and valuable seeds and plants.’ More than 140 years later, that role has grown in both scope and importance.

“But today we still heed our original calling, planting seeds of knowledge that are yielding vast benefits for America’s farmers and ranchers as well as for consumers.

“Americans are paying more attention to diet and health issues but dedication and action must follow words. We must be resolute against the public health threats that would weaken us from within so that our nation remains strong and prosperous.

“I want to thank all of you for attending our conference today, and I hope you enjoy the two days this Forum. Thank you very much.”

MR. COLLINS: The Secretary will take questions. Please raise your hand. There are ushers with wireless microphones, they will bring one to you.

QUESTION: Nippon TV.[Inaudible] ….Letter to you from Congress regarding whether the BSE cow was a downer? What do you comment on the letter from Congress? Thank you very much.

SECRETARY VENEMAN: “This relates to a question about a letter we recently received from a House committee looking at the issue of the BSE find in Washington. And there is some question about whether or not the cow was actually a downer. I think first of all it is important to point out that we were testing, we found the cow and we are dealing with the situation. Secondly, our veterinary records from our veterinarian who was at the plant clearly state that the cow was a downer and finally I would note that our Office of the Inspector General has been looking into this issue since the issue first appeared in the press and I think that’s the appropriate place for it to be addressed.”

QUESTION: In the discussion of BSE and the healthy food supply, how do you see this affecting the 2007 Farm Bill?

SECRETARY VENEMAN: “Well, I think that all of these issues are issues that we continue to see as part of the changing food system, not only in our own country, but throughout the world.

“One of the things we did as we prepared for the last Farm Bill is we put out the report that I’m sure you’re familiar with on Food and Agriculture Taking Stock for a New Century. I think many of the things that we discussed in that book are still relevant today. We have a changing food system. We have more focus on issues like food safety. We have a consumer-driven food system. We have more focus on issues like the environment. In fact, the last Farm Bill increased environmental spending by 80 percent.

“I think all of these will continue to be issues as we go into the next Farm Bill.”

MR. BELKERT: [Tony Belkert] I would like to see if you could expand a little bit on the national identification plan that the USDA is coming up with.

SECRETARY VENEMAN: “This question is relating to the National Animal Identification Plan which on December 30th when I announced a series of actions that USDA would take in response to the BSE outbreak, I said that we would accelerate our implementation of a verifiable national animal identification program. 

“There has been a considerable amount of work done over the last several months by a group that’s been looking at how do we establish standards for such a system. And we now have a group of people within USDA looking at how do we structure the architecture? How do we put together the system? What kind of information will feed into that system?

“There’s been a great deal of debate about should we mandate a certain technology on every animal. And I think that it is clear that we want to have a flexible system that will allow technology to advance and to have the technologies feed into a system that will allow us to collect the information that we need for animal health purposes particularly. But as we know from a number of activities there is more and more to look at from the food chain and I don’t know whether or not Mr. Cantalupo will talk about this, but looking for the ability from other parts of the food chain to identify where the animals have come from.”

MR. STENZEL: [Tom Stenzel] United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association. Madam Secretary, could you share your perspective on the USDA fruit and vegetable pilot program that’s in the schools now and the results to date?

SECRETARY VENEMAN: “Thank you, Tom, for that question. I’m advised that this will be my last question.

“This question relates to a program that was in the Farm Bill as a pilot and it allowed USDA to purchase additional fruits and vegetables in schools in certain selected states that were selected as part of the pilot.

“What we have found is this has been a very successful program that we have found that children are very willing to accept fruits and vegetables as a snack food when they are presented at the schools. We are also finding in some of the follow-up work that we have done that the children who are participating in these programs through schools are tending to ask for fruits and vegetables as snacks at home with more frequency than those who have not been part of the program 

“So it’s been a very successful program. It’s been one we’ve talked about trying to find ways to expand including looking at ways to partner with private sector to provide more fruits and vegetables in to the school systems and give children the opportunity to have more access.

“I want to thank you again very much and it is now my pleasure to introduce our next distinguished speaker for this morning.”

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