The consumer is often said to be the backbone of the U.S. economy, and that looks to be a positive factor for the food and agricultural sectors. The U.S. Census Bureau recently released its monthly advanced estimates of retail and food service sales, which are widely encouraging from a macroeconomic perspective. The data show broad-based sales increases, largely driven by robust consumer spending. Consumer spending, of course, is nearly always good for the economy, provided it isn’t financed with unreasonable debt/income ratios. Total retail sales in February were down slightly from January but up 2.8 percent from February 2018. While year-over-year growth has slowed since the 7 percent spike in mid-2018, the trend remains positive a...