How Thanksgiving Dinner Is Getting Cheaper

By Alexander Green I may not know much about your personal circumstances. But I know something you should be grateful for this Thursday.

The American Farm Bureau Federation just released its latest price survey of items typically found at a Thanksgiving dinner.

And the cost of that big bird and all the trimmings has gone down. Feeding 10 people will run an average of $49.12 – down from $49.87 last year.

A one-time blip?

Not at all. In inflation-adjusted terms, the cost of Thanksgiving is 23% less expensive today than it was in 1986.

In fact, economist Mark Perry at the American Enterprise Institute points out that when you calculate how many hours we need to work to pay for the average Thanksgiving dinner, the price drop is 31%.

That’s because the average worker today would need to put in 2.21 hours of work to pay for the meal versus 3.21 hours in 1986.

Despite the world’s increasing population, global food production per capita is at all-time highs, even as the amount of agricultural land reaches new lows.

How is this possible? Is it due to agricultural subsidies, price controls, government quotas or federal regulations?

Just the opposite. We eat more for less thanks to the astonishing innovation and efficiency of the private sector.

In the 1960s, agronomist Norman Borlaug discovered the key to high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat.

This didn’t just launch the so-called Green Revolution. It saved more than a billion people from starvation, winning Borlaug the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Since then, DNA-splicing – or genetic modification – has continued to increase productivity and lower prices.

Some folks insist this is harming the health of consumers. But that charge is groundless.

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More than 75% of processed foods on U.S. grocery shelves – breakfast cereals, snack foods, even soft drinks – contain genetically modified ingredients.

According to the Environmental Working Group, the nation’s leading environmental health research and advocacy organization, the average American consumes 193 pounds of genetically engineered food each year. Yet we are living longer than ever.

Moreover, life expectancy is increasing.

The National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society and the American Medical Association have surveyed thousands of studies on GMOs and declared that there is no scientific reason to believe genetically modified crops pose any new or different health risks.

In recent decades, we have seen advances in agriculture that are both sustainable and environmentally friendly. Genetically modified seeds allow farmers to produce better-quality crops while using less pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

The end result is more food on less land at a lower cost.

According to the Department of Agriculture, U.S. agricultural output is at an all-time high. For example, America’s farmers now grow five times as much corn as they did in the 1930s – on 20% less land. The yield per acre has grown sixfold in the past 75 years.

Even the normally gloomy New York Times notes that “our industrialized food system nourishes more people, at lower cost, than any comparable system in history.”

So when you sit down this Thursday, be grateful for your good health, …read more

Source:: Investment You

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