Rhonda's Ramblings

So, let’s talk about food. And not just about what I’m making for dinner tonight. Though that is always a fun subject.

I was listening to Marketplace on NPR a couple of weeks ago. It was a story about “Redefining poverty in the US. According to the reporter, “…food has gone from a third of a family’s costs in the ’60s to an eighth today.” That struck me. From 30% of our income to 12.5% is a big change. And it made me wonder. With all the talk about food prices going up, are they really just staying pretty level overall? Why are we spending so much less? What does that other 17% go towards? Satellite TV? Car payments? Savings?

As I was listening to this story, I was reminded of a letter that Michael Pollan wrote to the next president. In this letter he states:

What our food system does well is precisely what it was designed to do, which is to produce cheap calories in great abundance. It is no small thing for an American to be able to go into a fast-food restaurant and to buy a double cheeseburger, fries and a large Coke for a price equal to less than an hour of labor at the minimum wage — indeed, in the long sweep of history, this represents a remarkable achievement.

So, perhaps this is why we spend so much less on food. Because we can. And we can still get enough food to quench our hunger…and even to make us obese. And we don’t have to work as hard to get our food as people may have had to in the past.

Is this a good thing? I’m not sure. Would we value food more if we had to pay more for it? Are we willing to pay more for better quality food?

I am, admittedly, a bargain shopper. (And I may be a bit proud of that fact. ) But I’m willing to pay more for locally grown quality produce, which is usually way better than the outdated produce that I can find in our supermarket.

I know that I have more questions than answers, but I do recommend reading that whole Micheal Pollan article, even though it is long. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he does have some good thinking points.

So, what percentage of your income do you spend on food? Do you pay more for better quality (whether it is perceived to be better quality like a brand name, or actually better quality like produce that is fresh and crisp)? Do you feel like it is more expensive to eat healthier?

*I should say, that upon further research (on the internet of course), I was not able to find the statistics that Marketplace quoted. Most of the statistics that I found online quoted much lower food expenditure percentages in the 1960’s than Marketplace reported. I did find couple of articles that may give you a better idea of the actual change in food expenditures.

Food Expenditure Table

Americans spend less than 10% of income on food.