Nice graphic and quote from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy:" Within the United States, the real cost of fresh fruits and vegetables has risen nearly 40 percent in the past 20 years. The real costs of soda pop, sweets and fats and oils, on the other hand, have gone down."
Source: Schoonover and Muller, " Food Without Thought: How U.S. Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity," Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2006, http://www.iatp.org/iatp/publications.cfm?accountID=258&refID=80627
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I'd bet that the faltering fortunes of small and mid-sized family farms in the US is not unconnected with this trend, which would seem to indicate that an increasing share of the food dollar is going to industries that refine and process foods. Certainly, it's not unrelated to climate change, if you consider what all this refining, packaging, and transporting must mean in terms of energy expenditures. And it can't be unrelated -- at least in terms of impact, if not cause -- to the growing gap between rich and poor, considering the health and economic impacts related to the diets heavy in refined and artificial ingredients that the poor can afford.
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