The prices consumers pay for most foods at the grocery store continues to rise, but the percentage that goes back to farmers and producers continues to drop. That’s according to Cyndie Sirekis at the American Farm Bureau Federation, which does a quarterly survey on grocery costs.Sirekis says “Right now about 22-percent of the average retail food dollar goes back to the farmer. That has changed significantly over time. About 30 years ago farmers were receiving about 33-percent of that food dollar.” The latest Farm Bureau survey was based on the cost of 16 basic items like milk, eggs, apples and chicken — which was 40-dollars and 51-cents. While consumers are paying more to feed themselves, Sirekis says it’s not much more compared to other items. She says “What we’ve seen is the price of food has increased over time, but it has increased at a lower rate than a lot of other common consumer items such as electronics, automobiles and some other things that we’re paying more and more for every year.” While the 16 basic food items cost 40-dollars and 50-cents this year, that compares with 28-dollars and 50-cents when the survey was first done in 1989.
