This week is Food Check-Out Week. The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation has designated this week as a time to celebrate the affordability of food in America. "One of the days within Food Check-Out Week represents the day where the average American has accumulated enough money to pay for their entire food bill for the year."
That includes groceries and dinner at restaurants, and even snacks. Paul Ketring at the Farm Bureau says the amount of money we pay for food is pretty good compared to other countries. "If you look at some of the figures there the United Kingdom is at 22% of their disposable income whereas America is only at 10% and we're really the lowest percentage of the industrialized countries."
In dollars, that's about 24-hundred dollars per person for the entire year. Ketring says the good news for consumers is that the percentage of our income spent on food has declined over the last 35 years. The news isn't as good for farmers, who get only 19-cents of every dollar spent on food. The rest goes to cover things such as wages, production, marketing and transportation.