Where the money goes
Eleven point eight cents
That is the farm share of the American food dollar in 2024, according to the USDA's own Economic Research Service. Not an advocacy figure. The government's number, from the government's series.
reached the farm, per dollar spent on domestically produced food, 2024
the marketing share: transport, processing, storage, wholesale, retail
went to labour across the whole food system
Source: USDA Economic Research Service, Food Dollar Series, summary findings for 2024.
What that means at the checkout
On a $100 grocery basket of American-grown food, roughly $11.80 finds its way back to the people who grew it. The rest pays for everything that happened between the field and the shelf. Some of that is real work — refrigeration, trucking, and the labour figure above is not nothing. But it is a long chain, and every link takes a margin.
The chain also explains something people find confusing: farm-gate prices can fall while shelf prices rise. If 88 cents of the dollar is downstream of the farm, then downstream costs, not the farmer, drive most of what you pay.
What buying direct actually removes
It does not remove the work — someone still has to store it and move it. It removes the layers, and it removes the margin each layer takes on the way through. A farm selling you a dozen eggs sets the price, keeps almost all of it, and is not negotiating with a buyer four states away.
That is the entire mechanism. It is not ideology and it does not require anyone to be a villain.
What we take, in full
Commission is charged to the seller on completed orders, published as 5% to 20% by category. Produce, fruit, eggs, dairy, honey, preserves, canned goods, mushrooms, nursery stock and subscriptions are 18%. Crafts, art, flowers and local services are 15%, capped at $250 on crafts and flowers and $500 on services, with an 8% floor on orders large enough that the cap stops binding. Baked goods, prepared food, drinks and restaurant orders start at 20% and step down by slice — 20% on the first $150, then 17%, 14%, and 11% above $1,000. Meat and livestock is tiered the same way: 15% on the first $1,000, then 12%, 10%, 8%, and 5% above $5,000, so a half beef is charged an effective rate around 12% and a bulk order far less.
We never take a floor amount out of a small sale — a $6 order is charged its category rate on $6 and nothing more — and there is no monthly fee. The customer's delivery fee is a pass-through — it equals the driver's payout, and we keep none of it.
People before profits. It is not a tagline if the rate card matches it.
Compare that to the marketing share. We are one link, we publish what we take, and the rate falls on the sales that matter most to a small producer.
This isn't a marketplace. It's a repair.