As food waste issues are attracting increasing attention from research and policy arenas, regulation changes regarding date label use on food items in the United States have been proposed because of concerns that date labels may confuse consumers about the quality and safety of food items and hence cause waste. For instance, the proposed 2016 […]
Archive | Consumer
The Japanese beef market’s lessons for trade policy
By Steve Burak, Kathy Baylis, Jonathan Coppess and Qianting Xie on February 1, 2018 in Agriculture, Commodities, Consumer, Economics, Food and Nutrition, International
For ten consecutive years, Japan has increased its meat consumption; consumption increased by 3.4 percent last year over the previous year to produce the highest level of growth in five years. Beef consumption, in particular, is expected to grow nearly 4 percent this year after two straight years of decline. Japan is already one of […]
Juggling bills may be key at-risk indicator for food insecurity
Pawning family valuables or paying one bill while letting another bill slide may be warning signs that someone is at risk for being food insecure. A new University of Illinois study uses data collected from people who visit food pantries to show that these financial coping strategies can help identify people who are very […]
The Economic thinking behind Walmart’s New Investment Strategy
Walmart, which was founded in 1962, has been the bellwether of the retail industry for over 50 years. Apparently, they are not satisfied with the current traditional retail industry, because the company is planning to rely more on its e-commerce sector. In October 2016 the investors of Walmart were informed that the company would cut […]
The risks that U.S. fuel Industry is facing under the background of climate change: in the form of a slump in fuel price
Introduction Climate change, exhibited as global warming and frequent extreme weather events, has a great impact on our world, including the U.S. fuel Industry. Recently, there has been a debate between the energy industry and public about whether or not we should price the risk from climate change in the energy production industry. According to […]
Flood insurance – who needs it?
Hurricane Harvey is a tragedy. One college friend of mine lost his house completely, and another the roof, floors, and drywall. Both are wonderful men, Texas Tech graduates. The thought on my mind tonight is flood insurance. I hope they both had policies in force, but am afraid to ask. Most homeowners carry a form […]
Coffee farmers face dangerously low profits, experts warn at 6th Consultative Forum on Coffee Sector Finance
By Federico Ceballos Sierra on August 18, 2017 in Agriculture, Commodities, Consumer, Economics, International
Coffee prices have always been a source of uncertainty for all the agents of the value chain, especially small coffee farmers that have seen their livelihoods worsened every time prices drop. The most recent Consultative Forum on Coffee Finance took the subject of price volatility and increasing production costs as its main focus, seeing how […]
Transforming a competitive market into an imperfect market by cooperative power
By German Mandrini on June 13, 2017 in Agriculture, Commodities, Consumer, Economics, Food and Nutrition
Introduction The US milk market is characterized by five links. Farmers, who produce the milk and sell it through cooperatives to huge dairy processors, who transform it into the different products, like packed fluid milk, cheese or yogurt. Then retailers sell those products to consumers. In this market we can find a combination of government policies […]
Reducing costs of meeting a cellulosic biofuel mandate with perennial energy crops: potential roles of energy crop insurance and establishment cost subsidies
By Ruiqing Miao and Madhu Khanna on May 8, 2017 in Agriculture, Commodities, Consumer, Economics, Energy
Cellulosic biofuel production in the United States has been growing since 2014 with establishment of a few commercial scale bio-refineries and increasing total production. According to the 2016 Renewable Fuel Standard Data of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), total production of cellulosic biofuels in the United States reached 192 million gallons in 2016.[1] EPA’s proposed 2017 […]
Why will the coming years see more interest for interstate food supply linkages?
By Sandy Dall’erba and Zhangliang Chen on December 8, 2016 in Agriculture, Consumer, Economics, International
Why should a cattle rancher in Texas care about a severe drought hitting the Corn Belt states? Although genuine sympathy could be part of the answer, the main reason might be less charitable: cattle farmers in Texas are major buyers of corn from the Midwest. A drought in the Corn Belt would increase the corn […]