Erin Breen
Could it be? Well, not actual Hunger Games as in the movies that showcase an annual fight to the death, but it seems that some kind of game is afoot in the European Union when it comes to balancing agricultural output there with fruits and vegetables actually reaching citizens.
Graph showing the percentages of each country’s citizens getting no fruits and vegetables a day.It’s no stretch to think that those in charge of a country could possibly be more concerned with overall exports for that country than feeding their own. But that’s a pretty big leap in thinking without analyzing some numbers and trends on that idea. For instance, the latest numbers available on annual crop output, and on fruit and vegetable consumption in the European Union.According to the latest data from the Eurostat databanks, more than a third of the citizens in the E.U. go without a single serving of fruits and vegetables daily. It’s a bit shocking to think that so many of the countries show solid agricultural exports and yet for many of them the people who live there don’t benefit. The playing field for agriculture isn’t level for all of the EU countries but the numbers show production does not always equate to feeding citizens.
Colorcoded map of countries getting zero portions of fruits and vegetables a day by percentage of country populations.
Those statistics include all 27 countries in the EU and they are reported in categories of zero portions a day, 1-4 portions daily and 5 or more. And 34% of those living in the EU fall in the column of zero.
Romania tops the list with 65% of its citizens going without. Bulgaria comes in second with 58% living without fruits and veggies daily. Followed by the eastern block countries of Latvia, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Ireland is 16th on that list with a third of its residents in the zero-portions-a-day column.
Colorcoded map of countries getting 1-4 portions of fruits and vegetables by percentage of population.
Belgium leads the list of countries who’s residents get between 1-4 servings of fruits and vegetables a day with 71% of Belgians eating more healthfully. France comes in at 50% for that category. And Ireland is 7th on that list with 37% getting daily greens.
Color coded map of countries getting 5 or more portions of fruits and vegetables a day by percentage of population.
The UK leads the list of fat cats with a third of it’s citizens getting 5 or more portions of fruits and veggies daily and Ireland is second with more than a quarter of the Irish eating a substantially green diet daily.
So is it that E.U. countries grow food and ship it out? Or are they unable to grow fruits and vegetables to feed their own? Statistics actually show that agricultural production and crop yields for EU countries have remained rather static for the past five years. There is some variance but not a lot. And for some countries some crops grow so quickly that farmers can grow multiple harvests on the same land in a year. Of course amounts of arable land suitable for agriculture and weather patterns play into the end results. But the basis of this analysis is on grown crops including cereals, vegetables, nuts and fruit.
And Eurostat statistics measure that output in tons per hectacre.
But Turkey, France, Poland, Germany and Spain lead the list for overall crop production. And Romania, that tops the list of percentages of their population going without fruits and vegetables daily, comes in 8th in agricultural production. So where is the food going?
Bar graph of agricultural production on arable land in EU countries.Let’s take Romania as an example. Remember, it leads the list when it comes to the percentage of citizens who get zero servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Romania is also 7th on the list when it comes to exporting agricultural products from the EU. In 2013 Romania saw a 20% increase in agricultural exports to China. And according to Romania Insider.com, overall agricultural exports from Romania hit €5.4 billion in 2014.Romania exports wheat, corn barley and cigarettes. It imports raw tobacco, (to make those cigarettes) and chocolate.Ireland is pretty equal in its numbers. It’s citizens are evenly split at a third getting no fruits and vegetables a day, a third getting 1- 4 servings and a third getting five or more. The Emerald Isle is 23rd in terms of agricultural production in the EU. And according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: “Ireland is self-sufficient in terms of the majority of agricultural commodities where the quantity produced significantly outweighs what is required domestically.” Basically, they say Ireland feeds its own first, and then sells what’s left to help feed the rest of the world.
And then there’s Turkey that leads the exporters in the EU with the largest export of agricultural crops in the EU. A third of Turkey’s citizens still get no fruits and vegetables in a day, two thirds get 1-4 servings. And only 3% of Turkey’s citizens fall into the fat cat category of getting 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables in a day.
The EU bands together in terms of overall exports and tariffs involved with both exports and imports. But there are of course a lot of other factors to be considered. Politics within each country and education levels effect what actually gets to the citizens. If people aren’t educated they don’t recognize that fruits and vegetables are part of a healthy lifestyle. Then there are hurdles to be cleared with distribution, transportation and general access. And cultural differences also account for some of the differences in diet and in taste. But it seems there’s a clear discrepancy between how much in terms of fruits and vegetables s being raised in some countries and what actually gets to people’s dinner tables. And that raises another question comparing what’s raised in each country and what gets shipped out leaving another entire category of green to those in charge, nourishing nothing more than bank accounts.
And these statistics admittedly don’t compare agricultural output to actual population by country. Neither do they reflect mortality rates. So this is not an accusation nor an indication that somehow people are being starved to death by greedy exporters. It’s more of a statement on accessibility and a general look at what’s being grown where, and who appears to be benefitting most from that production. It also raises a lot of other questions worth looking into in future reports.
Sometimes shedding light on problems can bring about change and sometimes small adjustments to any game can bring out a whole new outcome.