The food economy is in the grip of forces transforming the economic and business landscape and the lives of ordinary people. The roots of the economic changes affecting society and the food industry are diverse: technological, organizational, ideological, and psychological. However, they have a common theme, in that they all contribute to the emerging dominance of coordinated markets, where
... [Show full abstract] nonprice information plays a growing role in coordinating these markets (Manchester). In this paper, we plan to reexamine the traditional interest in the 'farm value of the food dollar' from the perspective of coordinated markets, in which prices play a smaller coordinating role than in the past. In the traditional view, the food consumer's retail spending starts a series of price signals back up the food distribution, processing, assembly, and raw farm product production chain that coordinate the economic activities needed to continue to deliver those food products that the consumer desires and for which they are willing to pay. Streeter, Sonka, and Hudson propose a more contemporary view of the food system's coordination. In their view, the energies of retailers focus on identifying consumer preferences and adapting product attributes in response to consumer demands. These adaptations often lead to the procurement of raw farm products and related inputs that allow the production of these special products. In this paper, we review some forces changing the food system and describe the Marketing Bill economic series developed by the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the economic intelligence provided by them. The Marketing Bill economic series was developed, and continues to be used, to monitor the farm share of the food dollar and the cost of the additional economic activities used to assemble, process, and distribute the raw farm products to produce food for domestic consumers. However, this series was based on the traditional views of the food system. We re-examine the series using the more contemporary perspective of the food system that includes the contributions of all sectors of the economy to the food system.