Food Studies Commons^™

High Bmi Predicts Attention To Less Healthy Product Sets: Can A Prompt Lead To Consideration Of Healthier Sets Of Products?, Christopher Gustafson, Kristina Arslain, Devin Rose

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

While the food environment has been implicated in diet-related health disparities, individuals’ ability to shape the food environment by limiting attention to a subset of products has not been studied. We examine the relationship between BMI category and consideration set—the products the individual considers before making a final choice—in an online hypothetical shopping experiment. Specifically, we focus on the healthiness of the consideration set the individual selected. Secondly, we examined the interaction of a health prompt (versus a no-prompt control) with BMI category on the healthiness of the consideration set. We used linear probability models to document the relationship between …

The Relationship Between Bodyweight Status And Weight Perception Explains Differences In Calories Ordered In A Food Choice Exercise, Jean-Claude Mbarushimana, Christopher Gustafson, Henriette Gitungwa, Eliana Zeballos

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Understanding food choice is critical to be able to address the rise in obesity rates around the globe. In this paper, we examine the relationship between measured (BMI, using self-reported height and weight) and perceived weight status with the number of calories ordered in a controlled online food choice exercise. A total of 1044 participants completed an online food choice exercise in which they selected ingredients for a sandwich from five categories: meat/protein, cheese, spread/dressing, bread, and vegetables. We examine the number of calories ordered by participants and use linear regression to study the relationship of BMI category relative to …

Food Policy: Stability, Sustainability, And Safety, Gary D. Lynne

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Everyone needs to eat, and eat well, as it is essential to the process of slowing down the pace to and time of our death, the point of maximum entropy for each person. As a result, it is perhaps the best example of the need to seek one’s Self-interest. It also puts us in the position, however, to more easily Empathize, walk-in-the-shoes of someone who may not have enough food, or the best kind of food, and help in forming a shared Other-interest, too. As a result, we might choose to support, with our tax money, some kind of a …

Is The World Converging To A ‘Western Diet’?, Azzeddine Azzam

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Objective: To test the nutrition transition hypothesis of global dietary convergence to a ‘Western diet’.

Design: Consumer-waste-adjusted FAO Food Balance Sheets are used to construct for each country a Western Diet Similarity Index (WSI), expressed as a ratio of calories from animal-sourced foods, oils, fats and sweeteners to total per capita calories. β-Convergence and associated speed are estimated by growth regressions using 1992–2013 panel data. Speed of convergence, a non-linear function of income per capita, globalisation and urbanisation, determines the steady-state or long-term global WSI. The long-term global WSI is compared with the WSI of the group of countries with …

Net Return Distributions When Metaphylaxis Is Used To Control Bovine Respiratory Disease In High Health-Risk Cattle, Elliott James Dennis, Ted C. Schroeder, David G. Renter

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This study’s objective was to estimate net returns and return risk for antimicrobial metaphylaxis options to manage bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in high health-risk feedlot cattle. The effectiveness of antimicrobials for metaphylaxis varies by cattle population. How differing antimicrobial effectiveness translates to net return profitability for heterogeneous cattle populations is less understood. Net returns and return risk were assessed using a net return simulation model adapted to allow for heterogeneity in high health-risk cattle placement characteristics and antimicrobial choice to control BRD. The net return model incorporated how antimicrobials modify BRD health and performance outcomes. Health and performance outcomes were …

Tax Policy: Pay The Price, Gary D. Lynne

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Taxes are the price we pay in order to obtain many of the outcomes pursued in the shared Other-interest. So, Metaeconomics in contrast to Microeconomics gives a substantive analytical system for dealing with the tax question, because of recognizing the Other-interest. Metaeconomics clarifies that taxation is about paying for, and thus bringing forth the payoffs from that which we share, like recording deeds and titles to private property; enforcing property rights, which is essential to a Market; licensing, registering, and enforcing patents; military, police, and fire services; road and harbor construction and maintenance; dams and reservoirs to provide for water …

Health Policy: Universal Pre-Existing Conditions, Gary D. Lynne

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Next to food policy, perhaps no domestic policy issue has raised the ire of more people than that related to the healthcare system. The US Affordable Care Act, which was based in and otherwise formulated with a heavy orientation towards the shared Other-interest in health, has been rejected outright by many who see the healthcare system is only to facilitate maximizing one’s own Self-interest. The latter perspective is easily understood, as there is perhaps nothing more in one’s own Self-interest then taking care of one’s health. So, it would be easily expected that many people would consider mainly their own …

Introduction To Metaeconomics, Gary D. Lynne

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Metaeconomics is fundamentally about the problem of having too much emphasis on the Market or too much emphasis on the Government. It is about the essential need to bring empirical reality and ethics into finding balance: It is essential to achieving a good capitalism. Why? Well, because of the natural tendency to excessive Greed. As DeWaal (2009) would have it, we live in an age of Empathy: Ego based Greed is out. The Greed needs to be tempered, balanced, and perhaps bounded, with Empathy-based ethics. And, as Metaeconomics makes clear, it is because there is a dual nature of human …

Consumer Reactions To E. Coli And Antibiotic Residue Recalls: Utility Maximization Vs. Regret Minimization, Elliott James Dennis, Kayode Ajewole, Jason S. Bergtold, Ted C. Schroeder

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Food safety remains a major issue to many consumers. Previous studies examining the economic impact of food safety recalls have focused on Class I recalls. Antibiotic residue in meat products, a Class II recall, has increased in consumer importance yet little is known about how much research and development expenditure should be allocated to reduce antibiotic residue pre- and post-harvest. This study compares demand elasticities and the decrease in willingness to pay in response to either an E. coli (Class I) or antibiotic residue (Class II) recall. We compare and contrast two competing behavioral frameworks, Random Utility and Regret Minimizing. …

The Influence Of Crop Insurance Agents On Coverage Choices: The Role Of Agent Competition, Nathan Delay, Hayley Chouinard, Cory Walters, Philip Wandschneider

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

We examine how competition among crop insurance agents affects coverage choice in the federal crop insurance program. Agents may influence producers’ insurance decisions to maximize their total compensation. We develop a theoretical model of producer–agent interaction to examine how loss potential, agent compensation mechanisms, and market competition affect the coverage level selected. Using crop insurance unit-level datasets from five states, we find evidence that agent market concentration and agents’ market share matter in the insurance coverage decisions of producers but that the economic significance of the influence is relatively small. Agent influence over coverage level, premium, and liability choice is …

Wildlife Viewing: The Impact Of Money-Back Guarantees, Takahiro Kubo, Taro Mieno, Koichi Kuriyama

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Wildlife sightings are not always guaranteed. To address this risk, tour operators often offer a money-back guarantee as a refund mechanism. However, studies have overlooked the influences of such refund mechanisms on tourists' tour participation decisions and tourism revenue. We conducted choice experiments to examine the impact of such mechanisms using a case of Amami rabbit tourism in Japan. We found that the guarantee significantly influences the tourists’ decision-making and tour revenue. In particular, we found that the expected tourist participation rate and tour guide revenue vary drastically depending on the probability of the rabbit encounter. The maximum expected revenue …

Value Of Arrival Metaphylaxis In U.S. Cattle Industry, Elliott James Dennis, Ted C. Schroeder, David G. Renter, Dustin L. Pendell

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Although several studies have estimated economic impacts of antimicrobials for growth promotion, little is known about economic impacts of the common animal health management strategy known as metaphylaxis: administering antimicrobials to groups of animals to prevent disease. This article develops a new framework to map animal disease to producer profitability and determine societal economic impacts surrounding metaphylactic use of antimicrobials in beef cattle production. Results indicate the direct net return value of metaphylaxis to the U.S. fed cattle industry is at least $532 million. Beef producer surplus losses of $1.8 billion would be associated with eliminating metaphylaxis.

Measurement Of Commodity Price Risk: An Overview Of Brazilian Agricultural Markets, Daniel Henrique Dario Capitani, Fabio Mattos

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This study explores different procedures to estimate price risk in commodity markets. Focusing on Brazilian agricultural markets, the paper proposes to assess both dispersion and downside risk measures using five different approaches (volatility, coefficient of variation, lower partial moments, value at risk and conditional value at risk). Results suggest that some commodities have large price variability but small downside risk, while other commodities show small price variability and large downside risk. Thus, there is no single answer to the question of which commodity exhibits more price risk, but rather distinct answers depending on how risk is perceived by different individuals. …

Introduction To Risk Management: Understanding Agricultural Risks, Production, Marketing, Financial, Legal, Human, Laurence Crane, Gene Gantz, Steve Isaacs, Doug Jose, Rod Sharp

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This handbook is designed to improve the risk management skills of American farmers and ranchers. There is a broad array of established risk management tools ready to be used and new tools are always being developed. By learning about and using these tools, crop and livestock producers can build the confidence needed to deal with risk and exciting opportunities of the future.

Contents

Overview of risk management planning

Steps in risk management planning

Manging production risk

Managing marketing risk

Managing financial risk

Managaing legal rtisk

Managing human risk

Externalities From Roaming Livestock: Explaining The Demise Of The Open Range, Terence J. Centner, Ronald C. Griffin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Fence-in laws in most states require ranchers to pay for fences to keep their livestock from trespassing onto others' property. Some states, or jurisdictions within states, have a fence-out rule that requires ranchers' neighbors to pay for fences to keep livestock out. Both rules are Pareto optimal. Using a potential Pareto criterion, we show that a preference for fence-out in some areas may end as conditions change, such as increased nonranching land uses. Changed conditions may have legal consequences. Specific fence-out and fence cost-sharing provisions may be potentially Pareto inefficient and may be challenged for being unconstitutional under the due …

Obligations And Penalties Under Lemon Laws: Automobiles Versus Tractors, Terence J. Centner, Michael E. Wetzstein

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Distinctive new provisions of tractor lemon laws which create obligations and provide penalties for defective self-propelled agricultural equipment are contrasted with provisions of automobile lemon laws. Lemon-law obligations involve both producers' guarantees to provide consumers with a serviceable vehicle and producers' promises to remedy defects. Due to fewer manufacturer obligations under the tractor lemon laws as opposed to automobile lemon laws, tractors may be expected to have more defects than automobiles. Yet the tractor lemon laws contain fewer penalties in the form of restitution remedies. The inconsistences of these obligations and penalties suggest tractor laws may be inefficient.