On average, farmers receive about 19 cents out of every consumer dollar spent on food, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The rest of that dollar pays for processing, distribution, advertising and other costs.

The cost of energy and its impact on businesses, which process, ship and store our food has a significant impact on food prices.

In addition, labor costs affect every part of the food-value chain.

As labor costs increase, our food can become more expensive.

What can 50 cents buy you?

As an illustration of the differences between what farmers receive for food they produce compared to what the food we eat costs let's use an imaginary lunch example.

This lunch contains a modest portion of ham, a side of potato salad, an ear of sweet corn, a roll with butter, and three slices of tomato.

The farm value of this lunch is roughly 50 cents.

The retail price for many local consumers is nearly $9.

The farmer's share of the retail food dollar has been on the decline every year since about 1950.

Commodity prices have increased lately, due to increasing global populations, the weak dollar, speculative trading and droughts in many parts of the world.

But overall, the impact of the raw commodity price is a very small part of the retail food cost.

That's because food that undergoes processing has that cost added on to its price.

A 1-pound loaf of bread retails at $3.19; the farmer receives about 18 cents for the wheat.

From an 18-ounce box of cereal retailing for $4.95, the farmer earns 14 cents.

A pound of boneless ham, retailing at $4.49, returns just 56 cents to the hog farmer.

A $5 six-pack of beer gives 12 cents to the farmer.

U.S. consumers spend about 10 percent of their income on food, and we also enjoy the safest and most abundant food supply in the world.

Compare this to France or Italy, where consumers spend 14.9 percent of their disposable income on food - still a relative bargain compared to China (26.4 percent), Russia (28.5 percent) and Indonesia (55.1 percent).

The farmer's share of the food dollar depends on the food being talked about.

Only about 2 percent of the price of potato chips and cereal goes to farmers.

By contrast, 45 percent of the sale price of milk, which requires less processing, goes to farmers.

I guess the take-home message is that many of us are fortunate to be able to afford a decent meal made of foods we can choose.

Escalating food costs can challenge our budgets and make us adjust what we buy.

However, when we complain to our friends about the cost of food – let's remember the small share of this price that can be attributed to our local farmers.

Editor's note: John Berry is the Lehigh County 4-H extension educator for Penn State Extension.

Some information for this article was adapted from thankachicken.com.