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Abstract
Excerpt from the report Summary: Farm families in the North Central Region consumed food worth an average of $1,358 in 1951, or more than $350 a person, as reported in a sample survey of rural households in these States in 1952. Included in the $1,358 is $608 worth of home-produced food valued at retail prices. Nearly all of these farm families had some home-produced food and only one-fifth produced less than 30 percent of their food on their own farms. On the average, home production supplied about half (45 percent) of the dollar value of food consumed during the year on farms in the North Central States. In addition to their home-produced food these farm families spent an average of $738 during the year to buy food, or $4 a week per person. Money spent for food accounted for one-quarter of their net money income (after taxes). The families with incomes below $2,000 spent more than half (54 percent) of their disposable incomes to buy food.