US has the most affordable food supplies

WASHINGTON - The American Farm Bureau just released a study that shows U.S. consumers spend less money at the grocery store than any other nation on earth.

The new study shows the United States has high-quality and the most affordable food supply in the world. 

Megan Nelson, AFBF economic analyst spent months researching global food prices and concludes that Americans enjoy the most affordable overall price for food at home.

"Americans actually have the most affordable basket of groceries. The amount of money that each individual spends out of their disposable income on food is about 4.8 percent. That was from 2017. That’s substantially lower than a lot of other areas," said Nelson.

According to the Farm Bureau study, people in low-income countries must spend much more of their household budget on food than those in high-income countries.

"For high-income countries, we’re looking at four to six, to maybe eight percent of their total disposable income being spent on food. But, then if you go into more low-income countries, you’re seeing over 50 percent of their household budget spent on food. And that has been true since the 1800s," added Nelson.

Farm Bureau economists say its important agricultural trade and policy help reduce global food price volatility.

"The importance of keeping price predictable for not only farmers but all individuals in these low-income countries is paramount. We really need to be able to stabilize markets abroad and build up trading partners, instead of having unstable trade flow," says Nelson.

The 4.8 percent of disposable income spent by Americans on food is less than half spent by Germans at 11.4%. The  French will spend 13.6 percent this year, while the Italians will spend close to 14.4%. All that is less than one-third the amount of income spent by shoppers in Johannesburg, South Africa at 20.1%, Mexico at 24.1%, which is close to what the US spent on food during the Great Depression at 24.4 percent.

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