Monday, August 5, 2013

Americans Spend More On Junk Food, Less On Groceries Overall

By Cornelius Nunev


Believe it or not, Individuals spend less on food than most of their counterparts in developed nations. Though less is spent all around, more is being used on unhealthy foods and sweets than on more nutritious fare.

Spending a lot less on food

In contrast to other developed countries, Americans spend less money on food yearly. Still, the average American income is $50,000 per year, and that is not quite enough cash to take care of a typical family of four with pets.

In contrast to other nations, the U.S. is not looking too bad since the typical British family spends 9 percent of the annual outlay on food and the typical French family will spend 14 percent. Mother Jones points out that Individuals only spent six percent of the $32,051 annual outlay for 2009. That adds up to $6,372 total on food for the year: $3,753 for food in the home and $2,619 for food away from the home.

An NPR article points out the cause of this. It said that during the last 30 years, American food costs have been dropping.

Listen to Michelle

In 1982, the average household spent 13 percent of the yearly outlay on food, which means we are actually doing better now. This is regardless of the truth that the amount spent has increased to about 8 percent now, according to recent Agency of Labor Statistics data.

Food costs have really dropped 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 costs increased 34 percent. Other than that, no other vegetables and fruit increased in price.

What some may view as troublesome is how much is spent on what type of food. Meats declined from 31.3 percent of food expenditures in 1982 to 21.5 percent of expenditures in 2012. Fruits and vegetables stayed broadly the same at 14.5 percent in 1982 and 14.6 percent in 2012. However, processed foods and sweets doubled from 11.6 percent in 1982 to 22.9 percent in 2012. Michelle Obama might be criticized for advocating feeding kids more fruits and vegetables, but she might be on to something.

Thanks to subsidies

From 1995 to 2010, the agriculture industry has received $261.9 billion in subsidies. The amount of corn produced produced in America increased from 4 billion bushels to 12 billion bushels in that time. This is part of why we are paying less for groceries, according to Mother Jones.

The price of meat went up 8 percent in 2011, and the price of grain doubled. This just shows that costs are beginning to go up, according to Forbes.

The low prices also don't benefit the farmer much. Besides not much money 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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