Americans Spending Less Overall On Food, But More On Junk Food

Surprisingly, Individuals spend less on food than most of their alternatives in developed nations. Though less is spent all around, more is being used on unhealthy foods and sweets than on more wholesome fare.

Low expenditures comparatively

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

The Agency of Labor Statistics explained that in 2009, the average household spent $6,372 on food. About $2,619 of that was for food from home and $3,753 was for food in the home. Mother Jones reports that the spending is only 6 percent of the $32,051 yearly outlay for the year. The French spend 14 percent on the food of the outlay while the British spend 9 percent on food.

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

Maybe Michelle has a point

Data from the Agency of Labor Statistics showed that now, about 8 percent of annual outlays is used on food. That is much better than the 13 percent we saw in the average household in 1982 though.

During that time, the cost of most food groups has decreased; in some cases drastically. 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 individuals are spending most of their money on now in contrast to 1982 though. Now, individuals spend about 21.5 percent of the budget on meats when it used to be 31.3 percent. Now, individuals 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 kids get healthier is well justified whenever you consider these statistics.

Thanks to subsidies

According to Mother Jones, part of the reason we pay less for groceries is decades of farming subsidies, which amounted to $261.9 billion from 1995 to 2010. Since 1970, the amount of corn produced in America has gone tripled, increasing from 4 billion bushels to 12 billion last year.

Grain prices and meat costs have increased a lot recently, though. In 2011, the price of grain doubled and the price of meat increased 8 percent.

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 costs, according to the Department of Agriculture. The Daily Green points out that this means farmers need higher costs.