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 | Food and Nutrition
2018 Farm Bill: Two big steps forward and the top five issues for conference
By Jonathan Coppess, Gary Schnitkey, Nicholas Paulson and Carl Zulauf on July 9, 2018 in Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Policy
On June 28, 2018, the Senate overwhelmingly passed its version of the 2018 farm bill with an historic 86 to 11 vote (U.S. Senate, Roll Call Vote 143). Senate passage followed on the heels of a very narrow, party-line re-vote in the House on June 21st finally passing the bill 213 to 211 (U.S. House […]
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 […]
Designing a Health Service Program for Rural Uganda: Application of Expected Utility Theory
Introduction: A large proportion of the population in rural East Africa live beyond walking distance to a clinic. Their access to healthcare is further compromised by poverty, limited health infrastructure, lack of health information, severely limited qualified health personnel, and lack of familiarity with the practices, assumptions, and culture of modern health care. This has […]
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 […]
Some Strings Attached: Cash Transfers and Brazil’s Continued Response to Poverty
For Brazil’s poor, systemic poverty, inequity, and corruption shape the landscape of the country. Even the picturesque beaches of Rio de Janeiro offer high-rise luxury apartments that sit neatly across from dilapidated slums in an ironic homage to a country holding some of the highest rates of economic inequality in the world. The fight to […]
The Potential Implications of the False Belief that SNAP Participants are more likely to be Obese than Eligible Non-Participants
Hunger and its accordant consequences were serious problems in the United States 50 years ago. In response, the U.S. government established the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, then known as the Food Stamp Program). Fifty years later, more than one in seven Americans received benefits at a cost of over $75 billion. (See Bartfeld et […]
Economics Behind a 5,000 Percent Price hike
Conventional pharmaceutical companies have a specific business strategy. They usually stay unprofitable for decades until their drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration to enter the market. Then they start to raise their drug price gradually at a rate above inflation every year. For instance, according to Deutsche Bank, Merck and Pfizer raised […]