Hockessin, Del. – Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) released two new reports focused on: the existing financial gap relative to addressing public health and a comparison of Dads and Moms. The first report is the third in a series, 2015 Gap Analysis, The Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Challenge: How Federal Spending Falls Short of Addressing Public Health Needs. Like the previous two reports, it was designed to assess the extent to which federal policy makers, through their spending decisions, have made fruits and vegetables a national public-health priority. The report’s two primary goals are: 1) Illuminate the national stake in greater fruit and vegetable consumption; and 2) Quantify the extent to which spending by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reflects food consumption recommendations of the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 and the public health risks associated with inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables.
The main findings of the report demonstrate:
- The fruit and vegetable consumption gap is large, chronic and growing: Dietary Guidelines’ recommendations continue to greatly exceed per capita intake.
- The public health risks due to the fruit and vegetable consumption gap are substantial and avoidable.
- Economic costs to the nation due to the fruit and vegetable consumption gap are very large and increasing. In fact, the $63.3 billion costs to the nation due to the fruit and vegetable consumption gap was larger than the annual spending of 46 states and the GDP of 121 countries. It also increased more than 12% in the last 5 years.
- USDA spending contradicts the priority of fruits and vegetables in the dietary guidelines: Lower-priority foods like meat dominated USDA spending, with six times its share, while USDA spending on fruits and vegetables was only about one-third their share. This spending gap has only widened in the past 5 years.
- USDA spending for nutrition education remains far short of levels needed to encourage substantial increases in fruit and vegetable consumption. Bringing nutrition education funding to more effective levels would require a nearly six-fold spending increase from $342 million to $1.97 billion.
- Fruits and vegetables are also a low spending priority for NIH and CDC despite the sizable health risks attributable to the consumption gap. Only 1% of NIH research projects on cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke, for example, focused on fruits and vegetables, despite the fact that the fruit and vegetable consumption gap contributes between 5.6%-22.2% of the risk of those three major diseases.
- Federal fruit and vegetable spending overall needs to increase three-fold, from $3 billion to more than $9 billion, which still only represents a very small percentage of USDA and HHS budgets.
“This report consistently revealed that fruits and vegetables remain a low priority for federal policy makers when viewed in light of public-health concerns and recommendations,” said Elizabeth Pivonka, President and CEO of PBH. “Despite supportive rhetoric of public officials, the problem is pervasive as large spending gaps were identified across multiple federal agencies.”
Since the overall federal fruit and vegetable spending gap dwarfs recent federal outlays for fruits and vegetables, a substantial shift in priorities would be needed to reverse these spending patterns, especially for USDA, which accounts for the bulk of the federal fruit and vegetable spending gap. In fact, depending on the source of increased funds for fruits and vegetables, federal fruit and vegetable spending would have to more than triple or quadruple to close the spending gap. If Congress and Administration officials were willing to adopt more public-health oriented spending priorities, those gap-closing expenditures would be within reach since they represent only small percentages of recent USDA, NIH and CDC budgets.
The second report, Dads’ vs. Moms’ Attitudes Related to Fruit & Vegetable Consumption 2015, is the first in a planned series with updates occurring every 2 years. This report was compiled based on data from a survey, conducted throughout 2014, comparing 600 moms with 600 dads. The survey was conducted to better understand the influence of dad on food shopping, meal planning, feeding their children, and overall consumption of fruit and vegetables. Report highlights include:
- Dads are significantly less likely than moms to report that they eat 2 or more cups of vegetables each day. Dads also report eating less fruit than moms, though not significantly.
- While dads are more likely than moms to think it is not important to include fruit and vegetables in family’s meals and snacks, they are more accepting than moms of all forms of fruits and vegetables given the higher availability of canned, frozen, and dried fruits and vegetables they report having in their homes.
- Supermarket flyers, ads, and displays and television were the top communication methods for both dads and moms when it comes to making a food decision. However, dads were more likely than moms to cite radio commercials, internet advertisements, and billboards as an effective communication methods.
- Regarding Fruits & Veggies—More Matters®, there is a significantly higher awareness of the brand and likeliness to purchase products that bear the brand among moms than dads.
To review and download these report, visit: https://gumroad.com/pbh#
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Contact:
Kristen Stevens, COO, Produce for Better Health Foundation – kstevens@pbhfoundation.org or 302.235.2329, x312
About Produce for Better Health Foundation
Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) fruit and vegetable education foundation. Since 1991, PBH works to motivate people to eat more fruits and vegetables to improve public health. PBH achieves success through industry and government collaboration, first with the 5 A Day program and now with the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters public health initiative. Fruits & Veggies—More Matters is the nation’s largest public-private, fruit and vegetable nutrition education initiative. To learn more, visit www.PBHFoundation.org and www.FruitsandVeggiesMoreMatters.org. Follow Fruits & Veggies—More Matters on Facebook or Twitter.
PBH is also a member and co-chair with Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) of the National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance (NFVA), consisting of government agencies, non-profit organizations, and industry working to collaboratively and synergistically achieve increased nationwide access and demand for all forms of fruits and vegetables for improved public health. To learn more, visit www.NFVA.org.
Source: Produce for Better Health Foundation
