ANSWER
Hello vamvuu-ga,
Americans may not eat figs, but they’re definitely in love with Fig
Newtons. Many have chronicled its creation, traced the origin of the
name, disputed whether it’s a cookie or a cake and gave homage to it
in story, art and poem. It even has it’s own national day. Although
Nabisco owns the trademark the name is used generically, like Xerox or
Kleenex and there are many other versions around. If you prefer, you
can bake your own from the dozens of recipes available. Once I got
started I had a hard time not clicking on just one more link for
another interesting Fig Newton revelation.
http://www.fignewtons.com
Nabisco’s official Fig Newton Web site.
http://homeschooling.about.com/library/bljan16a.htm
National Fig Newton Day - January 16
http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxtradem.html
Trademarks – See #3 (still trademarked)
http://www.recipecottage.com/cookies-bar/fig-newtons.html
http://www.shoeboxrecipes.com/html/fignewtons.html
http://www.askyourneighbor.com/recipes/101.htm
Fig Newton recipes
http://www.newmansownorganics.com/food_fignewmans.html
Newman's Own Fig Newmans
http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/biscuits/fig/
21st Century Fig Festival – The Fig Newton shootout
http://www.foodreference.com/html/ffignewtons.html
Fig Newtons were one of the first commercially baked products in
America.
This cookie is the 3rd most popular cookie in the U.S., over 1 billion
are consumed each year.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385188439/002-2962622-8550469
A Fistful of Fig Newtons by Jean Shepherd (Illustrator)
A funny book
It was hard to abandon the chase for Fig Newtons to get down to the
serious business of finding out about just how many pounds of figs go
into them and whether Americans eat figs in any other form. This
search was a bit more challenging and dry statistical tables are not
nearly as much fun as chasing stories.
I thought of the California Dancing Raisins and the Happy Cows and
wondered if figs had their own fun marketing campaign. Alas, no. But
they do have their own marketing board which tell you about the
history of figs in California and gives you recipes but doesn’t bother
you boring statistics about production or export. It also tells you
more than you probably wanted to know about classifications of figs
beyond fresh or dried. Fig paste, fig concentrate and diced figs sound
fine but fig powder and fig nuggets one might rather not know about.
http://www.californiafigs.com/industry/page2.html#stats
California Fig Advisory Board
If Americans have a romance with the Fig Newton, the rest of the world
has felt the same way about figs since the dawn of history. They are
the sweetest fruit at 55% sugar content. Figs were cultivated in the
earliest empires in ???? and Egypt.. They grew in the Garden of Eden
and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Buddha sat under a fig tree.
Jesus cursed one. They are still a favored treat in most of the
Mediterranean and Middle East and are now exported worldwide.
Turkey and Greece are the largest fig producers follow by California
in third place. Then come Spain and Portugal. California produces 100%
of the domestic crop and over 60% of the figs consumed in the US.
Dried fruit consumption has been increasing but not figs. California
farms are hoping that the market has finally bottomed out and that
people are starting to eat more figs as they discover its wonderful
health benefits. According to the Food Institute Reports this year’s
dried fig crop will be about 14,000-15,000 tons. They also indicate
that for the last three years, the trend has been toward more fresh
figs. U.S. imports totaled 9.6 million pounds through July this year,
an increase of over 440% from 2001. Imports from Spain, Turkey and
Portugal all increased dramatically.
So what is the fig consumption per person? Not very much. According to
a report from the USDA Economic Research Service the per capita
consumption of dried figs for the years 1970 – 1998 ranged from a high
of .22 pounds in 1978 to .13 in 1998 and tended to hover between those
figures for the whole time. As you said in your question, Americans
don’t eat figs when they can recognize them.
It seems a reasonable conclusion that almost all of the figs consumed
in America are eaten in the form of Fig Newtons or disguised in other
pastries or snacks.
http://www.foodreference.com/html/ffigs.html
Food Reference – brief fig facts
http://www.meccagold.com/history.htm
History of the fig
http://www.cfbf.com/ffn/2002/ffn-021802.htm
California Farm Bureau Federation
Fig demand is up -- Monday, February 18, 2002
http://www.foodinstitute.com/catalog/tocdriedfruit.pdf
Food Markets in Review – Dried Fruits, Table of contents
Report $195
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data
USDA, Economic Research Service
ERS produces a range of data products available in different formats,
including online databases, spreadsheets, and web files. You can
search by topic, by title, or by date. All data products online are
available at no charge. Used Search Terms: +"dried fruit", +figs
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/sb965/data/fruitdr.xls
'Table 21--Dried fruit (processed weight): Per capita consumption,
1970-98
Dried Fruit per capita consumption 1970-1998
I hope you’ve been hooked by the mystique of the fig and the Fig
Newton and have a better idea of where they both come from.
Enjoy!
czh
SEARCH STRATEGY
fig marketing board
fig consumption fruit
fig production
dried fruit consumption
figs imports US
USDA Economic Research Service
fig newtons |
