More Super Bowl food spending does not automatically mean more money for farmers. A February 2025 Agriculture.com article cited about $17.3 billion in U.S. Super Bowl weekend spending for 2024, with 80% attributed to food and beverages, but its examples show that the farmer’s share varies sharply by product and processing. For a farm, the practical question is whether a product and sales channel can produce a stronger net return after costs—not simply a larger slice of the retail price.
What the spending figures do—and do not—say
The Agriculture.com article, published February 7, 2025, cited the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s estimate of about $17.3 billion in 2024 Super Bowl weekend spending and said 80% went to food and beverages. Those are historical figures reported in that article; they are not a measure of what farmers received.
The same article cited a National Retail Federation estimate of $86.04 per U.S. household for 2024 game-day fare. That basket included more than food and beverages, such as broadcasting costs, team accessories, and party essentials. It is a per-household estimate, so it should not be treated as directly comparable to total weekend spending.
Other figures in the article were forecasts or study estimates rather than universal household bills: the National Chicken Council projected 1.47 billion chicken wings would be eaten, 1.5% more than in 2024; and a Wells Fargo study estimated a $139 meal for 10, up 0.1%. The article also reported the study’s comparison figures of 11.5% higher avocado prices and 7.2% higher chicken-wing prices. These estimates describe their sources’ particular measures and periods, not a guaranteed spending pattern for every fan or market.
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How much of a game-day purchase reaches the farmer?
Agriculture.com reproduced examples attributed to National Farmers Union, USDA, and National Agricultural Statistics Service data. The prices and receipts below are examples from that article, not current national averages or timeless prices.
| Product example | Retail price | Reported farmer share |
|---|---|---|
| Salsa, one jar | $2.79 | $1.47 |
| Ground beef, one pound | $10.99 | $1.90 |
| Tortilla chips, 10-ounce bag | $5.99 | $0.14 |
| Cheese, 8-ounce item | $4.79 | $0.12 |
| Soda, two-liter bottle | $2.67 | $0.06 |
| Beer, 12-pack | $14.99 | $0.06 |
The figures illustrate how differently the value of food can be divided along the chain. They do not show a farm’s net earnings: the farmer-share amount is not the same as profit after the farm’s production and marketing costs.
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Why the type of food changes the comparison
The American Farm Bureau Federation’s football-food analysis, drawing on USDA Economic Research Service tools, reports that about 28% of consumer dollars for fresh vegetables go to farmers. It contrasts unprocessed foods with processed products such as corn chips. That is a useful reminder that a fresh vegetable and a packaged snack are not interchangeable examples of “the farmer’s share.”
USDA ERS’s Food Dollar Series answers a broader question: how consumer food expenditures are allocated across the supply chain. AFBF reports that 15.8 cents of the average food dollar went to farm production in 2023. Under ERS’s updated methodology, the 2024 allocation was 2.5 cents for crops, 3.3 cents for livestock, and 0.9 cents for forestry, fishing, and agricultural services. ERS says these three categories replaced the former single farm-production industry group. They describe sector-wide allocation, not the share for a specific item such as a jar of salsa.
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Food Dollar allocation and Price Spreads estimates are related but distinct measures. A comparison is meaningful only when its product, year, geography, numerator, denominator, and method are clear. For example, a dollar amount per item is not the same measure as a percentage of retail price or a sector’s share of aggregate food spending.
What farmers can evaluate to improve their economics
The evidence supports considering product mix and marketing route, but it does not establish that one strategy raises net income for every farm. NFU president Rob Larew described the gap this way: “Super Bowl weekend is one of the largest grocery retail events in the country, yet family farmers and ranchers are left out of the profits.” That is NFU’s advocacy framing; a farmer’s own decision still depends on the economics of the specific operation.
Compare products on a like-for-like basis
- Separate fresh products from processed products instead of assuming they yield the same farm share.
- Identify what the figure measures: dollars per item, the farmer’s share of retail price, or an allocation across the food supply chain.
- Keep the product, date, location, brand, and source attached to any comparison. The Agriculture.com examples are historical; NFU separately notes that its retail prices are Safeway products in the Washington, D.C., area, so that separate basket should not be merged with the article’s figures.
Assess local and direct routes against their added costs
USDA NASS identifies marketing routes that include farmers markets, community-supported agriculture (CSAs), roadside stands, restaurants, food hubs, retailers, institutions, and intermediaries such as distributors and wholesalers marketing locally branded products. These are channels to investigate, not guarantees of a higher margin. Direct selling can also require more labor, packaging, marketing, delivery, compliance, and spoilage management; the cited sources do not quantify those costs or compare net returns between channels.
A useful farm-level comparison is therefore expected sales revenue minus the costs of producing, packing, marketing, delivering, and selling each product through each route. A channel that returns more of the retail dollar may still leave less net income if it requires substantially more work or expense.
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Keep newer Super Bowl numbers in their own year
The National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics estimated total Super Bowl 2026 spending at $20.2 billion and $94.77 per person. NRF says its survey of 7,791 adults was conducted January 2–8, 2026, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points. These are 2026 survey estimates, not updated versions of the 2024 figures cited in the February 2025 article.
USDA NASS says it began mailing its 2025 Local Food Marketing Practices Survey in January 2026 to 64,496 producers, asking about 2025 marketing practices. That page describes data collection, not results from which a farmer can yet infer a more profitable channel.
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