Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The cost of food in America remains affordable.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, American consumers spend, on average, just over 10 percent of their disposable income for food. That means the average household will have earned enough disposable income – that portion of income available for spending or saving – to pay for its annual food supply in about five weeks, said Kentucky Farm Bureau president Mark Haney.

“America’s food supply is the most affordable as well as the safest in the world,” Haney said. “Domestic foods that are produced by farmers in Kentucky and throughout the United States are responsible, in part, for our nation’s increased standard of living.”

In recognition of this, Harlan County Farm Bureau celebrated Feb. 16-22 as Food Check-Out Week.

To mark the occasion, Harlan County Farm Bureau President Don Miniard and “Young Farmers” Dustin Miniard and Nathan Boggs delivered a beautiful vegetable basket to Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley. Harlan County Farm Bureau and the Harlan County FFA also handed out Food Check-Out Week information cards at grocery stores across Harlan County on Friday.

Long after Food Check-Out Week, Americans are required to continue earning income for other necessities. The Tax Foundation has reported that Americans must work over 100 days to pay their federal taxes.

“We work much longer to pay for federal taxes than for food,” Mark Haney said.