Individuals Spending A Lot Less On Real Meals But More On Junk Food

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, agricultural subsidies do have a good bit to do with it. Nonetheless, we have also been investing more on unhealthy foods than almost any other type of food item.

Low expenditures comparatively

The average American household is said to have an income of $50,000 per year. That isn't really exactly the lap of luxury for the typical two-parent, two-child plus assorted pets home. However, the good news is that, as a nation, we spend less on food than other developed countries.

Compared with other nations, the United States 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.

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.

Reason for Michelle's campaign

Recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates yearly household expenditures on food have ticked up to around 8 percent of annual outlays. However, that is considerably less than the typical household in 1982, when food spending was closer to 13 percent.

During that time, the cost of most food groups has dropped; in some cases considerably. For instance, the cost of steak has dropped 30 percent, from $7 per pound in 1982 to $4.90 per pound in 2012. No meats have gone up in price. Only one fruit and one vegetable increased in price in that time, those being grapefruit and bell peppers, the costs of which increased by 6.5 percent and 34 percent, respectively.

You can certainly see changes in what people are spending most of their money on now compared with 1982 though. Now, people spend about 21.5 percent of the spending budget on meats when it used to be 31.3 percent. Now, people spend 22.9 percent on processed foods and sweets when people used to spend 11.6 percent. Fruits and vegetable expenditures have stayed almost the same though since they are now at 14.6 percent and they used to be 14.5 percent. Michelle Obama's plan to help children get healthier is well justified whenever you consider these statistics.

The agriculture subsidies

From 1995 to 2010, the agriculture industry has received $261.9 billion in subsidies. The amount of corn produced manufactured 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.

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

Only about 15.8 percent of the cash brought in from selling food goes to the farmer who produced it, which means farmers do not benefit from the low prices, according to the Department of Agriculture. The Daily Green points out that this means farmers need higher costs.



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