There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.

The weather is a topic about which nearly everyone readily comments or has an opinion. Today another topic has emerged to rival it for people's attention. That topic is food costs. Both the weather and food are items which affect everyone , so it should not be surprising that these two subjects share the &tinction of being the concern of everyone. Since most people understand little more about the ingredients affecting food costs than they do about those affecting the weather, it should be worthwhile to analyze briefly the factors that determine food costs. I propose to highlight only a few major factors often overlooked by people who complain about rising food costs. First, for a number of years agricultural science administrators, in justifying the continuing investment of public funds for research activities, have emphasized the relatively small part of total family income that U.S. citizens spend for food. This has been justifiably attributed in large part to the adoption by our food producers of ideas and practices resulting from agricultural research. People accustomed to hearing this boast now generally believe that food should be cheap. Second, as recently as about 75 years ago, nearly 90 percent of our population lived in rural communities or on farms, where they either produced food for themselves and a few others or were close to where food was produced. Today only about 5 percent of our people still participate in the production of food, and most of the other 95 percent live far away from food producing areas. Third, food has today become an important item of international trade and commerce for the U.S. It brings income into the U.S. and is one of the few items of international trade which compete favorably with other nations' products in the world market. Fourth, with so few people needed to produce the abundant U.S. supply of food, many labor-saving devices and practices are essential ingredients in the agricultural system. What has all of this to do with food costs? Quite a bit! As fewer people are engaged in producing food and more people have moved further away from its source, more people have by necessity become involved in preparing and delivering that farm product to the table of the consumer. At the same time, fewer farmers are now required to produce more food to meet the demand. This change has been possible through increased size …