One of the most notable misconceptions of many Americans is that the people of the United States are worse off than their European counterparts. If we look at income alone, Americans are wealthier than Europeans on several data points: The US outperforms GDP per capita for most of the European Union. The American middle class is also surpassing the European one while challenging what even counts as middle class.
In addition, basic necessities are cheaper for most consumers. As I wrote earlier, Americans spend 5 percent of their disposable income on food, compared to 8.7 percent in Ireland (the lowest in the EU), 10.8 percent in Germany, 12 percent in Sweden, 17 percent in Hungary and 25 percent in Romania. However, some critics claim that the American food system prioritizes efficiency over sustainability, which in turn harms the environment. This is where the analysis gets very interesting.
Towards the end of the 1980s, the divergence in agricultural production between Europe and the United States became noticeable. While Europe has maintained stable levels of agricultural production since about 1985, the United States doubled its productivity between 1960 and 2000 and is on track to break the 150 percent increase in productivity in the near future. Meanwhile, US agricultural inputs are slowly declining to 1960s levels, meaning the US is producing a much larger amount of food with fewer resources. For example, in corn production, this means that the United States produces 70 bushels per acre, while European countries produce less than 50 bushels.
An interesting mix of regulatory action and inaction has led to this divergence. A major contribution began in the 1970s when Germany introduced the “precautionary principle,” now commonly known as the precautionary principle. This directive is a preventive public safety regulation that reverses the burden of proof for the official approval process: For example, a new crop protection product can only be approved if it has demonstrably no adverse effects on human health or biodiversity. The precautionary principle does not just rely on mere toxicity, but extrapolates to an extensive and difficult-to-substantiate level of evidence that a product could never cause harm. This significantly lengthened the approval process for new chemicals as the EU enshrined this in its treaties – with the ironic effect that older pesticides stayed on the market while newer products did not get approval.
Indeed, in the field of biotechnology, evidence has emerged of the negative effects of the precautionary principle and, incidentally, another reason why American agriculture is more efficient. Genetically modified foods, commonly known as GMOs, as well as newer gene editing technologies, remain illegal in the European Union. Despite the fact that jurisdictions such as the United States, Canada, Brazil and Israel have been using these plant breeding techniques for decades, the precautionary principle and tough European regulatory approach prevent their use.
Indeed, European policies have made agriculture less sustainable because Europe has neglected the innovation aspect. Take the example of soil destruction. Agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions because carbon dioxide is stored in the soil and when farmers disturb the soil through tillage, this CO2 is released into the atmosphere. The more you disturb the ground, the more you emit. While over 70 percent of agriculture in the United States is reduced tillage or direct tillage, Europe still produces over 65 percent of its food with conventional tillage. The reason: No-till requires a significant use of pesticides, which are frowned upon in Europe.
Without innovation, agriculture cannot become more sustainable. While the European Union intends to reduce farmland, reduce the use of synthetic pesticides and keep novel biotech solutions illegal as part of its Farm to Fork (known as F2F) strategy, the United States has opted for a different approach. The USDA’s Agriculture Innovation Agenda (AIA) promotes the notion that more innovation through public and private research and investment will make the food system more efficient and sustainable. AIA is the forward-thinking approach, while F2F seeks to reduce farming’s impact on the environment by limiting farmland use and reducing farmers’ toolboxes to control pests and crop diseases.
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However, the American food system is also facing challenges. American environmentalists and litigators appear to want to introduce a European-style regulatory system through the courts, including through lawsuits against food companies. The highly contentious American system creates a perverse effect where you have to convince a judge or jury of the ill effects of a crop protection product, not a scientific agency staffed with experts to analyze data. As a result, the development of agricultural chemicals becomes a burden that only large companies can actually afford, resulting in market concentration. This is problematic because at a time when we need agricultural efficiency and innovation more than ever, it is imperative that there is competition in agrochemistry and agrotechnology. The competition creates the basis for scientists, industry professionals and farmers to obtain a variety of choices in the marketplace.
Ultimately, we should acknowledge the wonders of modern agriculture. The advantages of high-yield farming are obvious: we feed more people more sustainably and at the same time have to charge them less for it. For example, we need 60 percent fewer cows and still produce twice as much milk as in the 1930s. We must build on such successes to make our food system more efficient and sustainable.
Bill Wirtz is a senior policy analyst at the Consumer Choice Center, focusing on emerging technology, agriculture, commerce and lifestyle regulations. He recently published No Copy-Paste: What not to Emulate from Europe’s Agriculture Regulation.
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