THE GROWING ELDERLY CROWD AND THEIR FOOD HABITS

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,

EMERGING TRENDS IN THE NEW FOOD ECONOMY: CONSUMERS, FIRMS AND SCIENCE

Seven trends that emerge in the new global economy will be identified followed by a discussion of how they evolved and what they imply for public policy and for various types of firms and consumers. Some have called it the "brave new world" of food production and consumption. Some dislike what they see, others fear it, and many embrace it. The new food economy involves many non-food firms that provide ancillary services and products. They go way beyond the familiar farm input suppliers to consulting firms for software and data analysis, to electronic system designers, to engineers of food and packaging, to biological and physical scientists who redesign the food itself. Together, they make the food system work for consumers and for those firms that are receptive to new technology and new ways of doing business.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization, International Relations/Trade,

DOES FOOD SAFETY CONFLICT WITH FOOD SECURITY? THE SAFE CONSUMPTION OF FOOD

This paper concludes by saying no, food safety and security reinforce each other. It combines food safety and food security into the concept of "safe food consumption." Unsafe food consumption occurs when food contains known substances that lead to short or long term illness or death (botulism) and suspect substances that are believed to lead to delayed diseases (pesticides). It also occurs when hunger or over eating contribute to long-term illness and shorter life expectancy. The costs of illnesses related to obesity are six to fourteen times as great as the costs attributed to food born illnesses caused by microbial contamination. The implications for health care costs due to Type 2 Diabetes alone make this a health crisis in slow motion. Obesity is not a problem unique to westernized countries. On balance, 8.2 percent of the world's population is obese while 5.8 percent are underweight. The magnitude of these dual food and diet issues clearly poses new challenges for global food policy and food security. Unsafe food eaten by poor people jeopardizes their health as surely as too little food. These concepts operate in tandem. Hunger and being overweight often co-exist in the same household which jeopardizes ones ability to earn income and in turn, purchase healthy food. Safe food consumption is compatible and consistent with food security in all parts of the world. The costs of illnesses related to obesity are six to fourteen times as great as the costs attributed food born illnesses caused by microbial contamination. The implications for health care costs due to Type 2 Diabetes alone make this an health crisis is slow motion. Obesity is not a problem unique to westernized countries. On balance 8.2 percent of the world's population is obese while 5.8 percent are underweight. The magnitude of these dual food and diet issues clearly poses new challenges for global food policy and food security. Unsafe food eaten by poor people jeopardizes their health as surely as too little food. These concepts operate in tandem. Hunger and being overweight often co-exist in the same household which jeopardizes ones ability to earn income and in turn, purchase healthy food. Safe food consumption is compatible and consistent with food security in all parts of the world.Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,

MODELING THE VALUE OF HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION AND LEISURE TIME: AN HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Consumer/Household Economics,

DISCRETE DEPENDENT VARIABLES: A GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE ESTIMATING TECHNIQUES WITH AN ANNOTATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LOGIT ANALYSIS

Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Childhood Overweight and School Outcomes

This paper investigates the association between weight and elementary school students’ academic achievement, as measured by standardized Item Respond Theory scale scores in reading and math. Data for this study come from the 1998 cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten-Fifth Grade (ECLS-K), which contains a large national sample of children between the ages of 5 and 12. Estimates of the association between weight and achievement were obtained by utilizing two regression model specifications, a mixed-effects linear model and a student-specific fixed-effects model. A comprehensive set of explanatory variables such as a household’s motivation in helping the student learn (e.g. parents’ expectations for their child’s schooling and levels of parental involvement with school activities), teacher qualification, and school characteristics are controlled for. The results show that malnourished children, both underweight and overweight, especially obese, achieve lower scores on standardized tests, particularly for mathematics, when compared to normal weight children. The outcomes are more pronounced for female students compared to male students. These results emphasize the need to reduce childhood malnutrition, especially childhood obesity.Childhood overweight, academic achievement, ECLS-K, Consumer/Household Economics, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF PORK: U.S. AND CHINA

Consumers in the United States consume 53 pounds of pork per capita per year. Forty percent of that pork enters the market by way of a contract with a packer or an integrated supply chain arrangement. Chinese consumers consume 37 pounds per capita. Eighty percent of that pork is produced in the backyards of millions of households all over the countryside. The supply chain that brings pork from hog to human is clearly different in these two countries, but both are moving in the same direction. In the United States, pork breeding produced leaner but heavier hogs by the late 1990's. This was largely in response to consumer demand for leaner meat and processors demand for less waste. Stricter sanitation regulation and quality control by food manufacturers led to a more integrated supply chain. Food companies contract with farmers for hogs with particular characteristics being demanded by consumers and retailers. Half of fresh pork and forty percent of processed pork is sold through foodservice establishments in the U.S. Consumers need for time-saving food is revealed by the portion of pork they eat away from home (42% of $35 billion sales) and by the mix of fresh (27%) and processed (73%) pork purchased in retail stores. The emphasis in the U.S. supply chain for pork is on delivering consistent quality of safe meat to consumers all the time. There is considerable research into new pork products. The top ten processing plants handle 43 percent of the total output. China is the largest pork producer in the world slaughtering 526.7 million hogs in 2000, over five times as many as the United States. Although commercial operations and specialized households are growing they provide only about twenty percent of all China's pork. Lower quality and sanitation standards prevent pork produced in backyards from entering the westernized/commercial supply chain but it is an important source of meat in the inland and rural areas of China. Coastal cities have more commercial and imported pork. For example, in Beijing sixty percent of production is from commercial farms. The advent of retail supermarkets and higher incomes in China foretell an increase in commercial pork operations. Direct foreign investment by key Western food companies and retailers are leading the standards for food safety and handling in the larger cities. Based on current pork consumption at various income levels, it is estimated that pork consumption will grow more than seven percent in Chinese cities and 1.5 percent in the countryside over the next ten years. This translates into an additional 12 million pounds of pork in 2011 with the urban consumption surpassing the rural consumption. The pork industry will be driven to emphasize quality, sanitation, and convenience in China as they already do in the United States. With China entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) more pork imports can be expected. Exports will depend on meeting the quality and safety standards of importing countries.Industrial Organization, Livestock Production/Industries,

ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY: NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND NEW DEMANDS FOR RETAIL FOOD STORES

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

CHANGING FOOD MARKETS: IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE

Marketing,

WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE: THE U.S. EXPERIENCE

Labor and Human Capital,