Quick Facts

The food dollar series provides an overview of the food system, with estimates of the farm share and of the distribution of food dollar value-added shares over time:

• For every dollar spent in 2018 in the U.S. on domestically produced food (food dollar), U.S. farmers sold 14.6 cents of farm products to non-farm establishments (farm share), up from 14.4 cents in 2017. This is the first year-to-year increase in the farm share since 2011. 
• Farm production costs per food dollar rose to 8 cents in 2018, up from 7.7 cents in 2017 and the first year-to-year increase since 2013.
• Foodservice costs per food dollar rose in 2018 to 37.4 cents, having increased for 9 of the past 10 years since 2008 when foodservice costs were 29.0 cents.
• Energy costs rose for the third consecutive year in 2018 and are now 4.2 cents, but remain below their average since 1993 of 4.5 cents.