We examine firm profitability in the food economy and determine the source of variance of firm profitability in family-owned and non-family-owned food processing firms. The results indicate firm effects dominate in explaining the variance in the business-segment performance in the food economy. More specifically, we find family-owned firms compared to non-family-owned firms have a higher percentage of total variance in the business-segment performance explained by yearly effects, industry effects, and firm effects for both the random-effects and fixed-effects models.