Agri-Culture

Chapter 3

Reality Cheques

The Real Costs of Food

When we buy or bake our daily bread, do we ever wonder how much it really costs? We like it when our food is cheap, and complain when prices rise. Indeed, riots over food prices date back at least to Roman times. Governments have long since intervened to keep food cheap in the shops, and tell us that policies designed to do exactly this are succeeding. In most industrialized countries, the proportion of the average household budget spent on food has been declining in recent decades. Food is getting cheaper relative to other goods, and many believe that this must benefit everyone since we all need ...