WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) participated in Food Day last week by speaking out about food issues from an agricultural perspective.

Spokesmen from the stakeholder’s group made themselves available for interviews to talk about the day and its significance. The U.S. Food Day, started by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), was Oct. 24. This includes many issues about the safety of food, how it’s produced, how it’s delivered to consumers and similar matters.

World Food Day, started in 1981 by the United Nations, focuses on hunger and malnourishment around the world.

Bob Stallman, a USFRA board member and president of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), talked about Food Day and challenges facing the agricultural community as it tries to get its message out to the public.

“The USFRA has always been concerned about world hunger,” Stallman said. But the organization’s immediate concerns have to do with American consumers’ perceptions about the U.S. food supply, how food is grown and raised and their general lack of understanding of modern agriculture.

“This conversation about how food is grown, it’s occurred without input from farmers,” Stallman said. “It’s really our fault.”

USFRA recently conducted a survey of consumers and found the general public has quite a bifurcated view of the food system in the United States.

“About half of those surveyed said our food system is getting worse and less safe, and about half said it’s getting better and more safe,” Stallman said. “The point is, there’s a lot of confusion out there.”

He said when he goes overseas he’s careful about what he eats. “Our food safety system is very robust,” he said. “Are we perfect? No. We’re always seeking ways to improve.”

He said the U.S. consumer has many beliefs about modern agriculture and the food system; some of it is true, some of it isn’t. Questioners posted comments on the group’s Food Dialogues website regarding pesticides, for example. Stallman said farmers have to explain how they use pesticides.

“We use as little as possible because, frankly, it’s expensive,” he explained.

Some consumers believe large, mechanized farm operations are somehow unnatural.

“It’s almost like a faith-based belief,” Stallman said. “There’s a lot of people who believe that, and there’s really nothing you can do if they do believe that. You have to do your best to explain things.”

Some people believe there’s something wrong with large farms that feed animals intensively in confined quarters and that it’s unhealthy for the livestock. Stallman said such beliefs are based on a misunderstanding of what goes on on a large farm.

“Our goal as farmers and ranchers is to improve the health of animals. We don’t view size as an issue. We need all-size farms,” he added.

Stallman said consumers want a variety of choices. “Farmers and ranchers having a dialogue will help consumers understand better what their choices are,” he said.

“Farmers need to understand better what consumers want. If consumers want to buy organic products, they should be able to. The only problem is consumers don’t understand why organic products cost more than conventional at a grocery store.”

Stallman said he wants what the USFRA is doing to be more of a movement than a campaign, and younger farmers have caught on to social media as a way of reaching out to the public.

The people at the CSPI had a different take on Food Day.

“The typical American diet is promoting major health problems, causing serious environmental pollution and unintentionally creating poor working conditions for those who harvest, process and prepare our food,” said Michael Jacobson, CSPI director, in a statement. “It’s time to urge Americans to change their own diets for the better and to mobilize for desperately needed changes in food and farm policy.”

The CSPI teamed up with groups such as Slow Food, Inc. and media outlets including the Cooking Channel to spread the word about Food Day.

Although the CSPI and USFRA see food safety issues and modern agriculture differently, both agree Americans eat too much highly processed food that’s too sugary and too salty.

“A lot of American people don’t even know how to cook raw food anymore,” Stallman said.