ERS Charts of Note
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Replacing calorie-dense snack foods with calorie-sparse fruits and vegetables can be one step in addressing childhood obesity and does not have to compromise a family’s food budget. An ERS analysis of prices per portion for 20 common snack foods and 20 potential fruit and vegetable substitutes found that 9 of the 20 fruits and vegetables and 8 of the 20 snack foods cost 25 cents per portion or less; an additional 8 fruits and vegetables and 10 snack foods cost between 26 and 50 cents per portion. On average, the 20 fruits and vegetables cost 31 cents per portion and the 20 snack foods cost 33 cents per portion. A household making all possible 400 substitutions between the 20 snack foods and the 20 fruits and vegetables would save an average of 2 cents and 126 calories per swap. The statistics in this chart are from "Gobbling Up Snacks: Cause or Potential Cure for Childhood Obesity?" in the December 2012 issue of ERS’ Amber Waves magazine.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Prices for turkey, a Thanksgiving staple, have increased more than prices for most other grocery store foods in recent years. From 2005 to 2011, average retail turkey prices increased by 47 percent, while food-at-home prices rose by 13 percent. Higher feed costs and energy prices led producers to reduce turkey inventories, driving up retail turkey prices. However, average turkey prices fall every year near Thanksgiving, and most years, retail turkey prices are at annual lows in November or December. Prices of other Thanksgiving foods have not followed similar trends. Potato prices, for example, have increased more in line with food-at-home prices and do not show a strong seasonal pattern. More information on food price changes and forecasts can be found in ERS's Food Price Outlook data product, updated October 25, 2012. For more information on the U.S. turkey sector, visit the Poultry & Eggs topic page on the ERS website.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
U.S. pumpkin production areas are reporting good crop progress for this year's Halloween season. With volume on track, average retail advertised prices for pumpkins in the early weeks of September 2012 were running as much as 25 percent below the same period in 2011. More recently, strong demand has moved prices closer to 2011 levels. Weekly fluctuations in advertised retail prices through mid-October have been within 6 percent (above or below) of the 2011 average. For more information on the U.S. pumpkin sector, visit Pumpkins: Background & Statistics information page in the ERS Newsroom.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
The value added by food processors, distributors, retailers, and other providers of marketing and distribution services can account for a substantial portion of a food's retail price. ERS compares prices paid by consumers with those received by farmers to determine the farm share of the retail price for many agricultural commodities, including a basket of 16 commonly-purchased fresh vegetables. The farm shares for potatoes, onions, carrots, and tomatoes have a greater impact on the basket's farm share, owing to the relatively larger quantities purchased by American households. The farm share for the fresh vegetable basket rose slightly from 25 percent in 2009 to 26 percent in 2010. Higher farm prices for onions and tomatoes more than offset lower farm prices for broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, Romaine lettuce, and sweet corn. Since 2000, the farm share of the retail price for the fresh vegetable basket has fluctuated between 23 and 28 percent. This chart appeared in the March 2012 Vegetables and Pulses Outlook, VGS-349.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Eating a variety and sufficient quantity of vegetables is an important component of a healthy diet. But is price a barrier? ERS estimated average prices paid in 2008 for 94 fresh and processed vegetables (including beans and peas) measured in cup equivalents. A cup equivalent is the edible portion that will generally fit in a 1-cup measuring cup; 2 cups for lettuce and other raw leafy greens. The actual amount of vegetables a person should eat per day depends on age, gender, and level of activity. For example, for a 2,000-calorie diet, 2 and 1/2 cup equivalents of vegetables per day is recommended. ERS researchers found that fresh iceberg lettuce, fresh whole carrots, dried pinto beans, and 9 other products cost less than 30 cents per cup equivalent, while 41 vegetables, including fresh romaine lettuce, baby carrots, and canned tomatoes, cost between 30 and 59 cents per cup equivalent. The data in this chart are from ERS's Fruit and Vegetable Prices data product on the ERS website, updated February 2011.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
In April and May 2011, the monthly average price received by growers for all types of potatoes topped $11 per cwt (hundredweight, or 100 pounds). The last time the all-potato price hit double digits was in the summer of 2008. At $15.61 per cwt, the average U.S. price for fresh-market potatoes in April was up more than $1 from a month earlier and more than double last year's $7.25 per cwt. Prices for processing potatoes have also been rising this year, hitting $8.38 per cwt in April. This chart is found in ERS' Vegetables and Melons Outlook, VGS-345, June 23, 2011.
Friday, March 4, 2011
As with most agricultural commodities, vegetable production has become increasingly concentrated over time as larger, more efficient farms have garnered a greater share of the domestic market. Thus, it is no surprise that ARMS data reveal that a majority of U.S. vegetable output comes from the largest farms. About 8 percent of all specialized vegetable and melon farms produced $1 million or more of agricultural commodities per year during 2005-07. These large commercial farms accounted for 87 percent of the total value of U.S. vegetable production. Given the relatively high per acre values of such crops as potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and asparagus, harvested area of these commodities is highly concentrated among farms with more than $1 million in sales per year. This figure is from Financial Characteristics of Vegetable and Melon Farms, VGS-342-01, February 2011.
Monday, December 2, 2019
Leafy greens, including romaine lettuce, are the sixth most commonly consumed type of vegetable in the United States. About three-quarters of U.S. romaine shipments come from two regions, California’s Central Coast and Yuma, Arizona; the rest come from other areas in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. From May to November, about three-quarters of romaine lettuce shipments in the United States come from California’s Central Coast region, while from December to April, about three-quarters come from the Yuma, Arizona region. From 1998 to 2018, foodborne illnesses and outbreaks associated with romaine lettuce occurred most frequently during March, April, September, and October—the time of the season prior to shifts in regional production. In 2017 and 2018 there were three multi-state, multi-national foodborne illness outbreaks of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 associated with the consumption of romaine lettuce in the U.S. and Canada. These outbreaks led to a total of 376 illnesses, 158 hospitalizations, and 7 deaths. This chart appears in “Special Article: Seasonality in Romaine Outbreaks and Regional Shipments” in the Vegetables and Pulses Outlook newsletter, released in May 2019.