9-20 FB Ag ROI

 The return on investment on what you produce may depend on what you produce.   The percentage that the US producer takes out of the US dollar spent in effect depends a lot on how much the product is processed. To explain, I talked with U. of I. agricultural economist, Dr. Paul Patterson. “That’s an aggregate number and it’s been a while since I’ve looked because the USDA would go through and show different commodities and something like eggs was like half the value actually 50% of that dollar actually came back to the producer because there’s not much you have to process. You just wash them and put them in a carton and off you go to the supermarket. There are other commodities were farmers only get 2% to 3% because they undergo a lot of processing. Some crops like fresh potatoes and some other fresh vegetables a higher percentage of that food dollar actually comes back to the farmer then something like a French fry where you have more processing. If you trace that dollar back there would be a lower percentage of that dollar than you would see compared to the fresh market.”