KAP Work on Farm Share of Consumer Grocery Bill

[charliep]

How many of you have looked at the following press release? I found very interesting.

http://www.kap.mb.ca/nr08/FarmersShare.pdf

[liberty]

"In a research project conducted this summer, KAP found that an average of only 27% of the cost of an entire week’s worth of groceries for a family of four goes back to the farm gate."

"Only" 27%?? What I gather is that KAP feels that this is too low a figure. However, what should it be? 35%? 60%? 61%?

While it's certainly true that consumers often know very little about farming operations, it's also true that many farmers know next to nothing about the high-cost, capital intensive nature of food processing, preferring instead to demonize investors in these fields as parasitical bloodsuckers. The KAP report does nothing to address these issues.

While an average farmer may be putting at risk a million or so dollars of capital to run a farm, railways, elevator companies, meat and vegetable processors and retailers regularly stake billions of dollars on their operations. These operations perform the bulk of the activity in getting food to the consumers' tables, so it is only natural that they receive the bulk of the proceeds from doing so. If anyone cares to do some serious research on the topic, they would find that the firms further up the food chain often don't have such stellar returns on invested capital either (just ask Maple Leaf Foods).

If the farmer's share of the food dollar is going down, it is not because of someone's evil plot, but rather because food is much more processed today than it ever was. The next time you're in a supermarket, think about the differences in food products today compared to thirty years ago. There's a lot more ready-to-heat and/or eat food out there today, all of which requires more capital investment to produce, and which is bound to absorb more of the consumer's dollar.

[charliep]

I maybe took the release somewhat different.

My take is the need to communicate better with
consumers about value of primary agriculture in
what they buy in the grocery store/local restaurant.
Consumers are generally positive about agriculture
but they are becoming less knowledgeable about
it. As agricultural prices go up because of a
number of different factors (energy, wages, etc) in
addition to crops and livestock prices, they need to
be reminded of what all goes into their food.

My two bits.