Higher Grocery Prices Don’t Mean More Farmer Profits
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Farm EconomyAFBF Staff
photo credit: Getty Images
Farmers continue to operate in the red even as grocery prices rise. Chad Smith tells us despite that, many consumers don’t know the challenges facing farm country.
Smith: Farm income is not keeping up with the rising costs of groceries. Terri Moore, vice president of communications for the American Farm Bureau Federation, says farmers get a very small share of every dollar spent on food.
Moore: It's partly because we have a very complex food supply chain. So, although farmers are the first link in that chain, there are many other links: processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, and all of those take a piece of the pie when it comes to the food dollar. We know from USDA analysis that their share is only about 5.8 cents of each industry food dollar.
Smith: Farmers may worry that shoppers think farmers are getting rich off high food prices, but that’s not the case.
Moore: Consumers deserve more credit than that. Based on some surveys that have been done, they don't blame farmers, and they don't think farmers are getting rich when food prices go up. In fact, the number one direction they point in a June survey is at tariffs, and number two is big corporations.
Smith: Moore said there’s no “silver bullet” to bolstering the ag economy, but steps can be taken.
Moore: Here at home through efforts like Buy America and, of course, increased biofuel production, but also abroad. We need to expand our export markets and build new ones. Stabilizing those supply costs, ideally lowering them, but at a minimum, stabilizing them so they're more predictable is important, and we really need to get that farm bill done.
Smith: You can read more about pressures facing farmers and consumer sentiment by going to the Farm Bureau Intel page at FB.org. Chad Smith, Washington.
