mercredi 31 juillet 2013

Individuals Spending A Lot Less Overall On Food, But More On Unhealthy Foods

By Cornelius Nunev


Americans have it good, in a sense, in that we spend less than many other first-world nations on food, which is fairly essential. Granted, farming subsidies do have a fair bit to do with it. However, we have also been spending more on junk food than almost any type of food item.

Good news for nation

Compared with other developed nations, Americans spend less cash on food annually. Still, the average American income is $50,000 per year, and that is not quite enough money to look after a typical family of four with pets.

According to Mother Jones, out of the $32,051 in yearly outlays from the average home in 2009, 6 percent was for food. According to the Agency of Labor Statistics, the typical household spent $6,372 on food that year. Of that, $3,753 was food for the home and $2,619 was from home. However, the typical British family spent 9 percent of their income on food that year; the French spent 14 percent.

Largely, according to a recent article by NPR, it has to do with the cost of food in America steadily decreasing over the past 30 years.

Maybe Michelle has a point

Data from the Agency of Labor Statistics showed that now, about 8 percent of yearly outlays is spent on food. That is much better than the 13 percent we saw in the average household in 1982 though.

Food prices have really decreased a lot in that time. In fact, no meats went up in price. Steak costs dropped from $7 a pound to $4.90 a pound from 1982 to 2012. Grapefruit prices increased 6.5 percent and bell pepper prices increased 34 percent. Other than that, no other vegetables and fruit increased in price.

Michelle Obama's grievances about kid food health are totally justified whenever you consider the percentage of what individuals spent on different foods. From 1982 to 2012, there were many changes in the amount spent on food. For instance, Vegetables and fruit went from 14.5 percent to 14.6 percent, staying relatively the same. Meats dropped from 31.3 percent to 21.5 percent. The worst part is that processed foods and sweets increased from 11.6 percent to 22.9 percent.

Thanks to subsidies

According to Mother Jones, part of the reason we pay less for groceries is decades of farming subsidies, which amounted to $261.9 billion from 1995 to 2010. Since 1970, the amount of corn produced in America has gone tripled, rising from 4 billion bushels to 12 billion last year.

Some costs are going up. According to Forbes, grain and meats have both begun rising recently. In 2011, the price of meats went up by 8 percent. Grain prices doubled.

The low prices also do not benefit the farmer much. Aside from not much cash in nominal terms, the Department of Agriculture estimates 15.8 percent of revenue from selling food goes to the entity that produced it, according to a post on The Daily Green.



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