6—Lancaster Farming. Saturday, May 19. i 973
1
Food Prices
(Editor’s Note: The following
story was prepared by Rex H*
Warland and Robert O. Herr
mann, Associate Professors,
Rural Sociologist and
Agricultural Economist,
respectively, The Pennsylvania
State University.)
Only a small percentage of
American consumers place the
blame for rising food prices on
farmers or retail grocery stores.
These attitudes were revealed in
a nationwide study conducted
recently by The Pennsylvania
State University.
With increased concern about
rising food costs, many con
sumers have demanded price
controls on food, some have
called for consumer boycotts,
and a few have proposed other
ways of dramatizing their
dissatisfaction with high food
prices. How widespread is this
consumer unrest? Whom do they
blame?
Last fall the Department of -
Agricultural Economics and
Rural Sociology at The Penn
sylvania State University con
ducted a nationwide survey
which provides some answers to
these questions. It investigated
the public’s concern about
current consumer issues, what
they thought should be done to
solve consumer problems, and
what they personally were doing
about their own consumer
problems. This national study is a
follow-up to an earlier study
made throughout Pennsylvania
and reported in the February 1972
issue of Farm Economics. For
the more recent study over 1200
people throughout the United
States were interviewed by
telephone. The people in
terviewed represented a cross
section of the American
population. Although several
months have passed since the
interviewing was conducted, the
results still provide a good basis
for determining consumer
reactions to food prices as well as
some basis for predicting what
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consumers are most likely to do
in the near future.
The survey participants were
asked if they thought certain
consumer items cost what they
should or whether they cost too
much. A majority indicated that
most of the goods and services we
asked them about cost too much.
Food products were at the top of
the list of consumer complaints
with 85 percent saying food costs
were too high. Close behind food
prices were complaints about the
cost of medical services provided
by hospitals (80 percent said they
cost too much). Approximately 70
percent said that automobiles,
doctor services, and drugs and
medicines were too costly. In
contrast, only 40 percent said that
major appliances cost too much.
The results clearly show that
rising food prices have aroused
the concern of large numbers of
consumers throughout the nation.
There is also evidence that these
concerns increased during the
year or so before the study was
conducted. These changes can be
seen when the results .of the
present study are compared with
those of several surveys con
ducted 9 to 12 months earlier. For
example, several surveys done in
the summer and fall of 1971 in
dicated that about two-thirds of
those interviewed thought food
cost too much. At the time of this
survey, the figure had risen to 85
percent. These results suggest
there is widespread consumer
unrest and dissatisfaction which
could result in increasing
demands for governmental ac
tion in the months ahead.
The survey participants also
were asked who they thought was
most to blame for today’s high
food prices. This information was
considered important because of
the continuing speculation by the
news media and by special in
terest groups about whom con
sumers are blaming for high food
prices. We have heard, for
example, that consumers are
angry at farmers or blame
FEATURING
- Who Do Consumers Blame?
grocery stores for high food
prices. In turn, some farm groups
and some food retailing
organizations have become
concerned that they are losing
the public’s favor.
The answers to the question
summarized in the ac-
companying table show some
surprises. Contrary to the opinion
of some observers, farmers are
blamed the least often. Only 8
percent of those interviewed
indicated that farmers were the
culprits. Instead, labor unions
were the group which was named
the most frequently (45 percent).
Food manufacturers were the
group second most frequently
held responsible; they were -
blamed by a quarter of the
respondents. A smaller per
centage blamed consumers and
grocery stores. Nearly one-fifth
of the survey participants said
they didn’t know who was to
blame.
Overall, the least amount of
blame was placed on the
producers (farmers) and
retailers of food (grocery stores),
the segments of the food industry
at the beginning and the end of
the food distribution chain. In
fact, consumers blamed them
selves as often as they blamed
farmers and grocery stores.
Blame fell more heavily on those
usually considered the mid
dlemen (food manufacturers and
labor unions). But it also is clear
that no one group was singled out
for blame by a majority of those
interviewed. No group was
named by over half of the
respondents even though they
could name as many groups as
they wished.
These results suggest that the
image of farmers and grocery
stores among consumers is good
despite the claims of some.
Consumers apparently do not
believe that farmers and grocery
stores are taking excessive
profits which are driving the cost
of food up. Their accusations
instead are focused more on
those who manufacture and they are in the automob
distribute food products. The construction, steel, and pul
relative amount of blame placed transportation industries. It n
on the labor unions is somewhat be that some consumers havi
unexpected, because unions are' bad image of all labor nnim
not nearly as widespread or including those in the food
visible in the food industry as (Continued On Page 17)
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