Plants such as beans, lentils and chickpeas are the nutritional rage. They are plant derived foods with higher protein content and thus their production and consumption should be on the rise. But alas, the USDA data is not comporting with that nutritional advice.  Over the past four years, the U.S. area planted to dried peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas has gone down, along with production. Imports and exports of these commodities have risen, but the strong dollar distorts the situation. On a quantity basis, imports are up 5.1 percent and exports are down by 5.3 percent, but exports are still three times the volume as imports. Either way, the per capita availability of these supposedly preferred foods has gone down.   ...

TAGS – Softs, North America