Ensuring the Harvest

We should eat more fruits and vegetables. And it's not just our mothers who think so.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2011 unveiled a new set of dietary guidelines, dubbed "MyPlate," recommending that fruits and vegetables make up 50 percent of our daily food intake.

Yet our actual diet falls far short of this ideal. We eat too little healthy food and too much refined grains, sugars, meat, and fat—eating patterns that have helped drive a nationwide epidemic of obesity and associated chronic illnesses.

So if we need more fruits and vegetables on our plates, why is it that only 2 percent of U.S. farmland is planted with them?One answer may be that current U.S. farm policy presents serious practical obstacles for farmers who want to plant healthy food. Our 2012 report, Ensuring the Harvest: Crop Insurance and Credit for a Healthy Farm and Food Future, explains these obstacles and recommends policy changes to remove them.