Wisconsin Ag Connection - Marketbasket Report Shows July 4th Picnic is Affordable

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Marketbasket Report Shows July 4th Picnic is Affordable
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 06/27/2017

The state and national Farm Bureau organizations have put together some figures on what it costs the average person to cookout this year on Independence Day. According to the summary, a Fourth of July picnic including hot dogs, cheeseburgers, condiment, pork spare ribs, deli potato salad, baked beans, corn chips, lemonade, chocolate milk and watermelon runs just less than $6 per person.

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau estimates that it would cost about $54.22 to feed 10 people during the holiday. That's eight-cents less than the price of the same goods last summer. Nationally, that price is closer to $55.70 or $5.57 per person, also down from 2016.

"The lower food prices found in this survey did not come as a surprise," said WFBF Spokesperson Amy Eckelberg. "Commodity prices have been stable during the last year or so contributing to the very minimal decrease in our survey's price.'

Nearly 100 volunteer shoppers in 25 states checked retail prices for summer picnic foods to put the informal survey together. In Wisconsin, volunteer shoppers in 30 communities conducted the survey in local grocery stores.

Meanwhile, the retail grocery prices have gradually increased over the last three decades while the share of the average dollar spent on food that farm families receive has dropped. In the mid-1970s, farmers received about one-third of consumer retail food expenditures in grocery stores and restaurants. Since then that figure has decreased steadily and is now about 16 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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