What is the cost of food as a percentage of gross income in the US as
compared to other countries in the world?

Since 2005 has only recently ended, statistics have not yet been
compiled and published for this year. In 2004, about 9.5 percent of
the income of the typical resident of the United States was spent on
food. As shown by this table, that percentage has (with a few
fluctuations) dropped with the passage of time:

Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/CPIFoodAndExpenditures/Data/table7.htm

"U.S. consumers spend approximately nine percent of their income on
food compared with 11 percent in the United Kingdom, 17 percent in
Japan, 27 percent in South Africa and 53 percent in India."

Ag Day: Profile of The Farmer 
http://www.agday.org/tc/tc-knowledge.html

"Americans, on average, spend 9.3 percent of their income on food, the
lowest percentage in the world. India spends 53.1 percent, Venezuela
spends 34.3 percent, Italy spends 25.7 percent, Japan spends 19.1
percent, France spends 16.3 percent and the United Kingdom spends 11.5
percent."

Utah Agricultural Education: About American Agriculture
http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/ate/Ag/agr/facts.html

"High-income countries in the sample spent an average of 16 percent of
their private consumption expenditure (PCE) on food, while middle
income countries spent 35 percent and the low-income group spent 55
percent. Of the countries included in the study, the U.S. spent the
smallest share of its PCE on food at home - only 9 percent - while
Tanzania, with the lowest per capita income, spent the highest share -
71 percent."

Economic Research Service, USDA: Agricultural Outlook
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/agoutlook/jul1997/ao242e.pdf

Here you'll find links to tables containing detailed information on
food expenditures by American households:
 
Economic Research Service, USDA: Food Expenditure Tables 
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/CPIFoodAndExpenditures/Data/

Tables providing figures on world food consumption patterns may be accessed here:

Economic Research Service, USDA: International Food Demand 
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/InternationalFoodDemand/

It should be noted that the Economic Research Service of the United
States Department of Agriculture, which is the source of the figures
cited above, is still using the results of a 1996 study in its
computation of world food expenditures. Although tables and webpages
have been updated by the USDA, the age of the data may make it
advisable to take these figures with the proverbial grain of salt, and
to refer to them as approximations or estimates.

My search strategy in locating this information began with a visit to
the website of the USDA's Economic Research Service. I also used these
Google search strings:

Google Web Search: "percent of their income on food"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22percent+of+their+income+on+food%22

Google Web Search: percent OR percentage income "on food" 
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=percent+OR+percentage+income+%22on+food

Google Web Search: "food expenditures" world
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22food+expenditures%22+world

I hope this is helpful! If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

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Request for Answer Clarification by squintero-ga on 04 Jan 2006 18:31 PST

Dear Pinkfreud-ga,
Thank you for your excellent work.  You got exactly what I requested.  

The natural follow-up to my question is: Is the lower percentage due
to a lower cost of food?  How does the cost of food in the various
countries compare?

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Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 04 Jan 2006 18:55 PST

Thank you very much for the five-star rating and the nice tip (and the
Pink Floyd quotes)!

Regarding the matter of the cost of food in various nations, this is
beyond the scope of my initial research; I suggest that you post this
as a separate question.

Best,
Pink

Another brick in the wall for pinkfreud.  We don't need no education.