Columnist Says a Mouthful
Posted: April 10, 2008
Columnist Alan Guebert says a mouthful about food prices in a column this week entitled “Don’t Complain With a Full Mouth.”
Guebert details how the late former Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz used a loaf of bread as a visual aid to demonstrate the farmer’s share of the food dollar.
“Farmers don’t set the price of food,” Old Fencerow to Fencerow would proclaim as he unwrapped the bread before an audience. “The market does.”
He’d then move the loaf, slice by slice, from one side of the podium to the other to illustrate what each step of the breadmaking process – flour milling, baking, packaging, transportation, wholesaling, advertising, retailing, labor – cost.
Finally, with just one piece of the loaf remaining, Butz would ask “And the farmer’s share? Well, it’s right here,” he’d reply, waving high the last slice, “and it’s the heel!”
Guebert also notes that the major player in the market when it comes to setting food prices are Mother Nature and Uncle Sam.
So, go ahead and complain about today’s rising food prices. Make sure you point to today’s biggest pushers, though – weather and Washington, not farmers.
