Super Bowl Sunday is consistently one of the highest demand days for food across the U.S., supporting the farm economy. Faith Parum, an economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said Super Bowl Sunday can really reflect the abundance of American agriculture
“We have chicken wings, cheese, chips, pizza, guacamole, and all different kinds of snacks that Americans will eat [on] Sunday, and those are coming from farmers and ranchers across all of our 50 states and Puerto Rico, and so that’s really helping show the diversity and strength of US American ag.”
However, as folks come together to watch the big game, it’s important to remember that the farmers supplying the spread face rising production costs and tight margins.
“A lot of farmers and ranchers across the system and the country are not making money. We can think about corn and wheat farmers who are projected to lose money per acre, and that continues across specialty crop growers like potatoes, tomatoes, avocados and so all of this is really showing the financial strain on the farm economy.”
Parum said something to keep in mind is that farmers receive only a small share of every food dollar spent at grocery stores.
“They received about 15.9 cents for every dollar spent on food. The rest of that dollar spent went to things like marketing costs, processing, transportation, and so even though there’s strong demand around the Super Bowl for U.S. ag products, not all of that is going to the farmers, and so financial pressure is continuing to build for farmers and ranchers across the country.”
For more information on agriculture’s contribution to Super Bowl celebrations, go to fb.org.