2014年职称英语卫生类概括大意习题（7）

Why Does Food Cost So Much

　　In 1959 the average American family paid $989 for a year’s supply of food. In 1972 the family paid $1,311. That was a price increase of nearly one-third. Every family has had this sort of experience. Everyone agrees that the cost of feeding a family has risen sharply. But there is less agreement when reasons for the rise are being discussed. Who is really responsible?

　　Many blame the farmers who produce the vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, and cheese that stores offer for sale. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the farmer’s share of the $1,311 spent by the family in 1972 was $521. This was 31 per cent more than the farmer had received in 1959.

　　But farmers claim that this increase was very small compared to the increase in their cost of living. Farmers tend to blame others for the sharp rise in food prices. They particularly blame those who process the farm products after the products leave the farm. These include truck drivers, meat packers, manufacturers of packages and other food containers, and the owners of stores where food is sold. They are among the “middlemen” who stand between the farmer and the people who buy and eat the food. Are middlemen the ones to blame for rising food prices?

　　Of the $1,311 family food bill in 1972, middlemen received $790, which was 33 per cent more than they had received in 1959. It appears that the middlemen’s profit has increased more than farmer’s. But some economists claim that the middleman’s actual profit was very low. According to economists at the First National City Bank, the profit for meat packers and food stores amounted to less than one per cent. During the same period all others manufacturers were making a profit of more than 5 per cent. By comparison with other members of the economic system both farmers and middlemen have profited surprisingly little from the rise in food prices.

　　Who then is actually responsible for the size of the bill a housewife must pay before she carries the food home from the store? The economists at First National City Bank have an answer to give housewives, but many people will not like it. These economists blame the housewife herself for the jump in food prices. They say that food costs more now because women don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen. Women prefer to buy food which has already been prepared before it reaches the market.