“American asparagus farms were worth just over $233 million in 1999. A decade later, those farms (or, those which still existed, as the farm sizes fell by two-thirds over that same decade) were worth just under $90 million. The drop off is stark, but it’s not because of a lack of demand from American consumers. In the 1990s, the United States started paying Peruvian farmers to grow asparagus, hoping they’d forgo growing coca (the plant used to make cocaine) and instead grow the totally legal vegetable. In 2004, the New York Times estimated that the cost of this program ran the United States around $60 million per year. The effect: a lot of cheaper-than-typical asparagus.”
http://nowiknow.com/the-war-on-asparagus/
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (see the spreadsheet titled “Table03″ on this page), American asparagus farms were worth just over $233 million in 1999. That, to date, is their highest total value. A decade later, those farms (or, those which still existed, as the farm sizes fell by two-thirds over that same decade) were worth just under $90 million. The drop off is stark, but it’s not because of a lack of demand from American consumers. In fact, if you check out Table11 on that same link, you’ll see that the annual per capita consumption of asparagus in the United States over that same period is way up, from 1.12 pounds per person to 1.52. Americans want more asparagus. We’re just getting it from elsewhere, and specifically, Peru.
China is by far the world’s largest asparagus producer (at 7 million metric tons a year), but Peru is number two at about 400,000 metric tons. Peru’s asparagus industry, though, is also relatively new. In the 1990s, the United States started paying Peruvian farmers to grow asparagus, hoping they’d forgo growing coca (the plant used to make cocaine) and instead grow the totally legal vegetable. In 2004, the New York Times estimated that the cost of this program ran the United States around $60 million per year. The effect: a lot of cheaper-than-typical asparagus, which has dramatically harmed the ability for U.S growers to compete.
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