Price Trends Are Similar for Fruits, Vegetables, and Snack Foods

An increase in the price of fruits and vegetables relative to less healthy foods could reduce consumers’ incentives to purchase fruits and vegetables and result in less healthy diets. Whether such a change in relative prices and incentives has occurred in the United States is difficult to prove because of substantial quality improvements in many fresh fruits and vegetables. For commonly consumed fresh fruits and vegetables for which quality has remained fairly constant, analysis of price trends reveals a price decline similar to that of dessert and snack foods. This price trend evidence suggests that the price of a healthy diet has not changed relative to an unhealthy one, although a healthy diet might not include every fresh fruit or vegetable currently available.fresh fruit and vegetable prices, price trends, quality change, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Financial Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Estimating the Impact of Medication on Diabetics' Diet and Lifestyle Choices

The objective of this study is to estimate how differences in diet quality, physical activity, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and bodyweight correlate with whether or not an individual has been diagnosed with diabetes, and whether or not an individual uses medication to manage his or her health condition. Knowing if and how individuals choose to substitute medication for adopting a better diet or a healthier lifestyle provides insight into the welfare effects of changing access to prescribed medication and other proposed interventions to improve diet and health. Knowing how behaviors correlate with socio-economic characteristics also sheds light on ways to improve the efficacy of public health education.Health Economics and Policy,

Food Safety and Spinach Demand: A Generalized Error Correction Model

We estimate an error correction model representing demand for leafy green vegetables but generalize the structure to allow for adjustment to one conspicuous shock. We investigate whether the adjustment rate to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 2006 warning that fresh spinach was contaminated with deadly bacteria was distinct from the overall adjustment rate. Our model allows consumers to correct both for past errors and for any errors in their reaction to the shock. This method yields an estimate of the adjustment rate to the policy shock and points to an improved estimate of the duration of policy impacts.error correction model, adjustment rates, AIDS demand model, retail food demand, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Market Response to a Food Safety Shock: The 2006 Foodborne Illness Outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 Linked to Spinach

In 2006 FDA announced that consumers should not eat fresh spinach in the wake of a large foodborne illness outbreak of E. coli O157:H7. This paper investigates response of consumers to the announcement. We use an AIDS demand model with 5 food safety shock variables and retail scanner data to analyze market response. Even fifteen months after the outbreak, predicted sales of spinach in bags were still down 10 percent from what they would have been in the absense of the food safety shock. After the outbreak, consumers shifted to other leafy greens such as bulk iceberg lettuce, other bulk lettuce, and bagged salads without spinach.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Taxing Snack Foods: What to Expect for Diet and Tax Revenues

Health researchers and health policy advocates have proposed levying excise taxes on snack foods as a possible way to address the growing prevalence of obesity and overweight in the United States. Some proposals suggest higher prices alone will change consumers' diets. Others claim that change will be possible if earmarked taxes are used to fund an information program. This research examines the potential impact of excise taxes on snack foods, using baseline data from a household survey of food purchases. To illustrate likely impacts, we examine how much salty snack purchases might be reduced under varying excise tax rates and possible consumer price responses. We find that relatively low tax rates of 1 cent per pound and 1 percent of value would not appreciably alter consumption - and, thus, would have little effect on diet quality or health outcomes - but would generate $40-$100 million in tax revenues.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Public Economics,

IDENTIFYING PRIORITIES FOR PESTICIDE RESIDUE REDUCTION

Pesticide residues, dietary intakes, dietary risks, fruits and vegetables, Crop Production/Industries,

The Impacts of Food Safety Information on Meat Demand: A Cross-Commodity Approach Using U.S. Household Data

The potential impacts of a food safety event on consumer demand for meat is of significant concern to producers, packers, processors, retail businesses, and the USDA. This study investigates whether publicized food safety information from the printed media on beef, pork, and poultry, impacts the demand for these commodities. A four commodity complete demand system is employed using monthly household level data on meat purchases collected by the Nielsen Company, with separate food safety indices incorporated for beef, pork, and poultry. Results from the analysis indicate that consumers purchase relatively high levels of pre-committed quantities of pork, chicken, and turkey, while beef consumption appears to be primarily from supernumerary expenditures. The results also indicate that seasonal demand patterns are statistically significant in explaining the quantity of meat and poultry demanded. However, the food safety variables are not jointly statistically significant from zero.Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Health Transfers: An Application of Health-Health Analysis to Assess Food Safety Regulations

The authors apply a Health-Health Analysis to risks associated with harvesting Gulf oysters to evaluate that approach to managing health and safety risks

The Effects of Avian Influenza News on Consumer Purchasing Behavior: A Case Study of Italian Consumers' Retail Purchases

To better understand how information about potential health hazards influences food demand, this case study examines consumers’ responses to newspaper articles on avian influenza, informally referred to as bird flu. The focus here is on the response to bird flu information in Italy as news about highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI H5N1) unfolded in the period October 2004 through October 2006, beginning after reports of the first outbreaks in Southeast Asia and extending beyond the point at which outbreaks were reported in Western Europe. Estimated poultry demand, as influenced by the volume of newspaper reports on bird flu, reveals the magnitude and duration of newspaper articles’ impacts on consumers’ food choices. Larger numbers of bird flu news reports led to larger reductions in poultry purchases. Most impacts were of limited duration, and all began to diminish within 5 weeks.Avian influenza, bird flu, consumer behavior, food safety, poultry sales and consumption, risk perception and response, Agricultural and Food Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Relations/Trade,

User-Fee Financing of USDA Meat and Poultry Inspection

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) finances about 13.5 percent of its budget outlays through user fees for overtime and unscheduled meat and poultry inspections. User fees play an increasingly important role in financing government programs, and FSIS has frequently requested expanded authority to charge user fees for more of its operations. Congress has consistently rejected the FSIS requests and has placed important restrictions on fees and the uses of fee revenue at those agencies that have been granted more extensive user fee authority. This report surveys the application of user-fees for financing meat and poultry inspection programs in other countries; reviews user-fee systems in other Federal agencies, particularly those with food and agricultural missions or regulatory responsibilities; and discusses the relevant economics literature on the use and design of user fees. Finally, we suggest several elements that should underlie the structure of user fees for meat and poultry inspection, should such a program be introduced. euser fees, meat inspection, public finance, Livestock Production/Industries, Public Economics,