The items in a full shopping cart at Costco in Everett, Mass., could each be a chapter in the story of the epic journey from field to fork taken by much of today’s food. It is an increasingly complex path that makes it difficult to guarantee safe consumption. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Workers work with fruit in front of wholesalers, before heading towards markets in Sao Paulo February, 2013. Consumer food prices rose 1.97 percent, compared with an increase of 1.29 percent in December. The ChristiNacho Doce/Reuters
Distributors at the Chelsea Wholesale Market in Chelsea, Mass., receive food products from farms in places like California and Florida as well as the Dominican Republic and Mexico. The distributors supply clients from small grocers to restaurant chains with daily orders of food and produce. Eaton & Eustis Company president, Anthony Sharrino, takes orders from buyers at the company's produce stand and storage facility at the Chelsea market. Ann Hermes/Staff
Field hands cut, trim, package, and box the lettuce in the fields. The Nunes Company distributes produce under the Foxy label. Tony Avelar /The Christian Science Monitor
Jerry Garcia, quality controller at Nunes Company, examines random heads of iceberg lettuce at the company plant. Tony Avelar /The Christian Science Monitor
An employee of Czech center of national reference laboratories prepares samples of vegetables for molecular testing on EHEC bacteria (bacterium Escherichia coli.) in Brno June 1, 2011. Samples of vegetables imported from various countries are tested for E.Coli at the laboratory. David W Cerny/Reuters
A Thai fisherman catches freshwater white tilapia fish at a fish farm in Samut Prakarn province, June 2012. Thailand's export-reliant economy has been hit by weak global demand just as it restores manufacturing capacity affected by last year's devastating floods, with several senior officials warning about a possibly sharper export slowdown. Sukree Sukplang/Reuters
A man looks at food displayed inside a glass cabinet at a market in Mataro, near Barcelona, Spain, Jan. 1, 2013. Emilio Morenatti/AP
A couple stands in line at McDonald's in New York's Times Square, July, 2012. McDonald's Corp posted its worst quarterly restaurant sales growth performance in nine years, lifting the curtain on the fast-food industry's ruthless fight for customers in a weak economy. Brendan McDermid/Reuters
A farmer sorts rice seedlings in Gowa district, in Indonesia's South Sulawesi province February, 2013. A new food law in Indonesia will require traders of food staples such as soybeans, sugar and rice to regularly report stock levels to the government or face sanctions for hoarding according to an influential lawmaker said. Yusuf Ahmad/Reuters
A sales assistant arranges cuts of imported meat in a delicatessen in St.Petersburg February 8, 2013. Russia has warned it might soon bar imports of US and Canadian beef and pork if producers do not certify them free of the feed additive ractopamine. Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters
People line up to buy eggs at $20 a kilogram ($1.5 dollars) at a program promoted by the government of the capital inside a trailer at Arbolillo neighbourhood in Mexico City, August, 2012. Mexico said it will drop tariffs on egg imports in an effort to halt steep price increases, which are hurting consumers' wallets and adding to inflation. Edgard Garrido/Reuters
Bags of onions stacked on a loading dock await packing for delivery by truck to a major supermarket chain in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Ann Hermes/Staff
A woman sells skinned pawpaw, papaya, as she walks in a market on World Food Day in Lagos, Nigeria, Oct. 16, 2012. The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization is marking World Food Day, a day dedicated to highlighting the importance of global food security. The FAO said hunger is declining in Asia and Latin America but is rising in Africa. One in eight people around the world goes to bed hungry every night. (AP Photo/) Sunday Alamba/AP
Crop insurance subsidies help farmers survive tough years, all agree. But critics say they are much too generous – and Congress could increase them further in its new farm bill.
To deficit hawks and critics of American farm policy, they are a clear example of wasteful government spending, lavishly rewarding farmers beyond what is necessary or fiscally prudent.
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