Last week I was at the grocery store and grabbed a bottle of water on the way to the cash register. I felt bad about adding more plastic in the landfill, but needed the water to wash down my Advil and bring some relief to the headache caused by grocery shopping.

         As I checked out, I was dumbfounded by the high cost of all of this questionable food. Then I heard a person in the next aisle complaining about the food prices, “those darned farmers and the government bailing them out with subsidies and crop insurance.”

         “Nearly 80 percent of the ‘farm bill’ is for food assistance programs” was on the tip of my tongue, but I noticed the person behind me was ready to pay with a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program card – the food stamp program.  I didn’t want to make her feel bad for using food assistance to buy food for her family. She was a reminder of why I needed to write about keeping food costs in moderation.

         I didn’t have time to go over to the person swearing about farmers, so I bit my tongue.  If she understood the economic story of food production, she would not being blaming or complaining about farmers and ranchers.                 

         Few understand the risk farmers and ranchers live with every single day. Everything they work so hard for can be gone in 24 hours. The most unpredictable factor is the weather. An unexpected spring blizzard killed thousands of head of cattle on the prairies a couple years ago, immediately costing those ranchers hundreds of thousands of dollars. When there was drought in the southwest multiple years in a row, ranchers ran out of feed for cattle – and had no way to get it to them without paying extremely high transportation costs. A number of ranches closed their doors and consequently, cattle numbers went down, pushing beef prices higher in the grocery store. This past spring, weather events pushed plant dates two months late, if the fields got planted at all.

        Farmers and ranchers are price takers, not price makers. Growing food is no longer “Old McDonald’s” farm; it is a system of great complexity and risk. There’s a perception that commodity agriculture has pushed farmers to grow “heavily subsidized crops.” I would beg to differ; there is demand for those products, largely driven by feed for livestock, energy and exports.

         Friends tell me they find food prices frustrating. “All I really want is great tasting, affordable, healthy food. Why does it have to cost so much?”

         Growing food and getting it to your grocery cart is a complex system. It is one that deserves thoughtful discussion – and recognition of the many layers of profit between what is received at farm and ranch versus what you pay in the grocery, deli or restaurant.

         As you select food for your family, know there is a farmer or rancher at the start of food cycle risking a million dollars and their family’s agricultural heritage while pouring their heart, hard work and hours into growing food for you. That perspective may make your $100 grocery bill a bit more tolerant.

Read more at  Food Truths from Farm to Table to arm yourself with 25 truths you urgently need to know about food so you can shop without guilt, confusion, or judgment. A new book, Food Bullying, releases November 5 to upend the way you think about eating choices.