Farmers are getting less of what we pay for food, research from 61 countries around the world finds.

The new study in Nature Food examines how much of what consumers pay for food goes to farmers around the world, compared to the rest of the food value chain (FVC), which includes processing, packaging, transportation, and supermarket or restaurant sales beyond the farm gate.

The researchers estimate that up to 85% of the value of a food is created after a product leaves the farm.

“We can see that the farmer’s share of the food value chain in high- and middle-income countries on average has shrunk between 16 and 38% in the years between 2005 and 2015 as countries become wealthier,” explains Eva-Marie Meemken, an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen’s department of food and resource economics and a coauthor of the study.

“In lower-income countries, the proportion of food eaten away from home is increasing as well, while more and more processed foods are being purchased. This contributes to more packaging, processing, and transportation.”

Read the full article about farmers' share of what we pay for food by Ida Eriksen at Futurity.