Our Food Week, Observed at Statehouse

Boise--Monday, February 12th marks the Farm Bureau’s  ‘Our Food Week’ at the Idaho Statehouse.

“Our Food Week is a program that comes down from the American Farm Bureau,” said Women’s Leadership Committee Chairman Judy Woody.

The Committee teams up with all the County Farm Bureaus to gather food and materials for the snack bags.

“We got a lot of it donated, we’re reaching out to our lawmakers to tell them to say thank you and we appreciate all that they do,” said Woody.

This 12th day of February marks the number of work days from the first of the year it takes to pay for a year's worth of food for the average family.

It takes the average American 77 days to earn enough income to pay their federal taxes; 62 days to pay for housing and household operation expenses; 52 days to cover health and medical care costs; 39 days for state and local taxes; and 36 days for recreation, clothing, and accessories.

“The snack bags are made up of different Idaho grown foods that representative of commodities grown here like potatoes, wheat, milk, and fruit. said, Woody.

USDA says the average American spends about $2,400 on food consumed at home and in restaurants. Farmers get about 22 cents of every dollar spent on food in this country. But there are additional costs things like wages, materials for production, processing, marketing, transportation and distribution of the nations food supply.

"Today's event is a reminder of where our food comes from and it's important to note that only two percent of our population actually lives on farms, produces the food, fiber, and fuel in this country," said Woody. 

While Americans spend slightly less than 10 percent of their disposable income for food, those figures are considerably higher abroad: Japan, 14 percent; Israel, 20 percent; China, 26 percent; the Philippines, 38 percent; and Indonesia, 55 percent.

Back in 1980, farmers received 31 cents of every dollar spent but it took Americans a long time to pay for it. In 1970, it took American families an extra two weeks to pay for their annual food supply.