On May 15, 2008, at 2:03 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote:
> Does that take into account how much different the food supply is
> today
> than it was 30 years ago, or is it just energy and transportation
> costs?
> I mean, a good portion of the US pretty much _eats_ oil three times
> daily.
In 1959, it was 7% on energy, 25% on food, for a total of 32%. That fell to 6% and 21% in 1972, a total of 27%. It peaked at 9/20/29% in 1981. Troughed at 4/14/18% in 2001. In the first quarter of '08 it was 6/14/20%.
Those are averages. For poor people, the food burden especially is a lot higher.