and your point is ... ?

Just flipping through the April issue of Gourmet, and on that page where food factoids are presented, I see:

"In 1982, American farmers received 34% of the money consumers spent on fresh vegetables at retail stores; by 2004, it was only 19%.

Does that mean that in 1982, 66% of the money consumers spent on fresh vegetables at retail stores was going to non-American farmers, and by 2004, 81% was? Or does it mean that various middlemen are taking a larger share these days?

It doesn't mean anything. Without further clarification it's just a useless stat.

Let's have some clarification, then.


Quoted from: http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/Nove ... eature.pdf

More and more of what consumers spend for their groceries has
gone to the firms that process, package, and distribute agricultural
commodities. The farm share of retail food prices has likewise been
shrinking. For example, farmers earned 33 percent of what
consumers spent for fresh fruit at retail foodstores in 1982, but just
20 percent in 2004. Likewise, the share for fresh vegetables shrank
from 34 to 19 percent. However, new research finds that the more
recent estimates understate the share of the produce dollar going to
the farmer.

Thanks for finding that, gleam. If that's the news from which Gourmet drew its factoid, its interesting that the factoid says "American farmers" while the USDA statement just says "farmers."