A typical response from farmers to critics of any sort is the argument that American farmers feed the world. And while this is technically true, in a very narrow perspective, this argument is invalid.

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, NPR’s food and agriculture correspondent Dan Charles published the story “American Farmers Say They Feed The World, But Do They?” This argument, which perhaps used to be more “true” is now simply false, and it does not resonate with American consumers’ current opinions.

Charles notes this claim has often been a moral argument of high-tech famers who are trying to justify the heavy use of pesticides, harmful industrialized farming practices and factory farming. He notes: “Farmers say they farm the way they do to produce food as efficiently as possible to feed the world.”

And these farmers truly seem to believe that this is the case, or else they are using this claim as a shield to remove themselves from the economic and environmental problems they create. Charles quotes Charlie Arnot, a former public relations executive for food and farming companies who is now the CEO of the Center for Food Integrity, who said: “U.S. farmers have a tremendous sense of pride in the fact that they’ve been able to help feed the world.”

This sense of pride in the cause to feed the world is evidenced by a meeting hosted by DuPont, a seed and chemical company, in Decatur, Ill. When farmers were asked, “How are you making a difference to feed the world?” they responded with phrases such as “growing corn and beans” and “planting as much as possible.” Some farmers pointed out how many people are leaving the business and how it remains the responsibility of the few to grow crops and raise livestock to feed the world, which often requires pesticides, genetically modified organisms and other questionable practices.

The necessity of these practices to produce such large quantities of “food” is precisely why this claim upsets those who feel that industrialized, large-scale, corporate farming is harmful to the environment and consumers eating the food products.

In his article, Charles interviewed Margaret Mellon, a scientist with the environmental advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists, who argues that this claim is simply false. She cites several damning facts, noting that 40 percent of the corn crop, America’s largest crop, goes into car fuel and that the majority of the soybean crop simply goes to feeding animals.

Mellon argues that instead of simply trying to grow more of one crop, sustainable, community-building solutions need to be put into practice. She said: “We need to empower women; we need to raise incomes; we need infrastructure in the developing world; we need the ability to get food to market without spoiling.”

The only truth that lies in the claim “American farmers feed the world” is the fact that bigger harvests in America tend to keep food prices lower all over the globe, and lower food prices theoretically mean more accessible food for the poor.

Charles notes an example given by Christopher Barrett, an economist at Cornell University, saying: “Chinese pigs are growing fat on cheap soybean meal grown by farmers in the U.S. and Brazil, and that’s one reason why hundreds of millions of people in China are eating much better than a generation ago — they can afford to buy pork. So American farmers who grow soybeans are justified in saying that they help feed the world.”

But even while the U.S. is able to indirectly provide in ways like this, it means providing food with low nutrients and little health value. America does not export leafy greens or other foods with nutritional value that the poor across the globe need.

Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of Eating Animals, which I have discussed in past columns, provides perspective on the efficiency of current factory farm practices. He responds to the question “Could we really feed the nearly 7 billion people on earth without factory farming?” saying that, “Well the argument is sometimes made that factory farming feeds the world, and it’s not only untrue; it’s the opposite of the truth. It takes seven calories of food input into an animal to produce one calorie of food output. It’s an extraordinarily inefficient way to produce food.”

In addition to this, a survey by the Center for Food Integrity shows that a mere 13 percent of consumers believe the U.S. has a responsibility to feed the world. This fact alone shows that the majority of Americans do not agree with this claim from farmers.

If farmers truly want to promote American pride and consumer values in their food products, they need to listen to what those consumers are saying and respect their values.