Farmers' share of consumer food expenditures is shrinking

"A decade ago, farmers received 17.6 cents of each $1 spent on food by Americans. Their share now is barely above 14¢ while processors, retailers, and others in the food chain take a larger share, according to Agriculture Department economists, who have tracked the farmer/marketer relationship for a quarter century," Chuck Abbott reports for the Food & Environment Reporting Network. "Their 'food dollar series' says the farmer’s share of the food dollar has averaged 16.4¢ over the long term and the marketing share has averaged 83.6¢. The farm share is highest during periods of strong commodity prices and lower when commodity prices weaken. The share fell below 15¢ in 2016 and was 14.3¢ in 2019, the most recent year in the database."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently noted the trend on social media, saying "Now is the time to transform our food system to create a fairer, more transparent system, so at the end of the day more of that dollar ends up in a farmer’s pocket."