The food dollar trap: attitudes driving public support for redistribution

This paper examines how participants from representative surveys in Germany and the United States (N = 2,685) prefer to redistribute a consumer food dollar across supply chain actors, including farmers, how willing they are to support and pay for redistribution, and which attitudes drive each of these preferences. We find widespread support for increasing farmers’ share of food expenditures, primarily driven by the belief that farmers lose from trade and lack alternative trading partners. In contrast, support and willingness to pay for specific interventions are rather shaped by ideological beliefs about markets. These findings demonstrate that folk economic beliefs, such as zero–sum thinking, play a central role in shaping food dollar redistribution. Building on this insight, we develop policy recommendations to help policymakers navigate what we term the Food Dollar Trap: the tension between calls to improve farmers’ incomes and concerns about food affordability.