All food expenditures for U.S. families and individuals totaled $629.4 billion in 1997, up 3.7 percent.

Food spending accounted for only 10.7 percent of the total disposable personal income, down slightly from 1996.

Consumers spent $569.1 billion for U.S.-produced food in 1997, with farmers receiving only a 21.6 percent share of the food dollar. The remaining 78.4 percent of the American food dollar went for marketing, processing, wholesaling, transportation and retailing.