A More Detailed Food Dollar: Enhanced Accounting of U.S. Food Costs

For decades, the USDA, Economic Research Serviceʼs (ERS) Food Dollar has measured the costs of producing and marketing food from the farm to the final point of sale. These measures have come to be known as the farm share and the marketing share of the Food Dollar. In 2011, industry group shares were introduced, which measure the distribution of costs across supply chain industries, also in terms of consumer food expenditures. Methodological and data source quality improvements have led to historical revisions of the Food Dollar. These revisions provide a more detailed accounting of the U.S. food system and variation in farm, marketing, and supply chain costs over time and across products and outlets. This report highlights major differences in the Food Dollar from the change in the underlying model from 2011 to the new model used for 2026 and the impact of these modeling changes on estimated value shares.