328 Diet and Health
foods because we like them, by which we mean the way we respond to their fla-
vour, smell, sight and texture. Most of us prefer sweet foods and those that are
‘energy-dense’ (high in calories, fat and sugar), and we like the taste of salt. The
universality of such preferences suggests some physiologic basis for all of them, but
the research is most convincing for sweetness. Ripe fruit is innately sweet and
appealing, but many of us can and do learn to enjoy the complex and sometimes
bitter taste of vegetables. Whether a taste for meat is innate or acquired can be
debated, but many people like to eat steak, hamburgers and fried chicken, along
with desserts, soft drinks and salty snacks. Such preferences drive the development
of new food products as well as the menus in restaurants.
Cost: add value but keep prices low
One result of over-abundance is pressure to add value to foods through processing.
The producers of raw foods receive only a fraction of the price that consumers pay
at the supermarket. In 1998, for example, an average of 20 per cent of retail cost –
the ‘farm value’ of the food – was returned to its producers. This percentage, which
has been declining for years, is unequally distributed. Producers of eggs, beef and
chicken receive 50 per cent to 60 per cent of retail cost, whereas producers of veg-
etables receive as little as 5 per cent. Once foods get to the supermarket, the pro-
portion represented by the farm value declines further in proportion to the extent
of processing. The farm value of frozen peas is 13 per cent, of canned tomatoes 9
per cent, of oatmeal 7 per cent and of corn syrup just 4 per cent.^17
As shown in Figure 14.3, the remaining 80 per cent of the food dollar goes for
labour, packaging, advertising and other such value-enhancing activities. Conversion
Source: USDA FoodReview 2000; 23(3): 27–30
Figure 14.3 The distribution of the US food dollar: 80% of food expenditures go to
categories other than the ‘farm value’ of the food itself