Theme Overview: Weighing Healthy Choices for the School Meals Program

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Consumer Issues and Demand

Consumer/Household Economics, Livestock Production/Industries, D12, F13,

Overview: Globalizing Food Chains: Producer, Company, and Policy Responses

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

Measuring Food Safety Control in U.S. Hog Farms Using a Composite Indicator

Consumer demand for reliable food product quality and safety is growing. This trend, together with increased public regulation and attention to the legal liability of food processors and retailers creates derived demand for food safety assurance in farm production. In consequence, farms have adopted different measures, voluntarily or compulsorily, in their production practice to ensure reduced food safety risks from the farm product. Multiple individual indicators exist which reflect different facets of food safety practice. In fact, it is likely that production of a safer product is a result of several factors. However, little is known about what practices effect greater food safety control at the farm level, or how farms that take greater food safety control fare in comparison to other farms. This study develops a composite food safety control indicator by aggregating data from a set of individual indicators of food safety control and investigates the variation in food safety practices across farms. Moreover, we show how some relevant variables may influence farm food safety control, thus provide empirical evidence for the design of food safety-enhancing agricultural policy measures.food safety control, hog farm, composite indicator, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Lithuania's Food Demand During Economic Transition

The linear approximate version of the almost ideal demand system (LA-AIDS) model is estimated using data from the Lithuanian household budget survey (HBS) covering the period from July 1992 to December 1994. Price and real expenditure elasticities for 12 food groups were estimated based on the estimated coefficients of the model. Very little or nothing is known about the demand parameters of Lithuania and other former socialist countries, so the results are of intrinsic interest. Estimated expenditure elasticities were positive and statistically significant for all food groups, while all own-price elasticities were negative and statistically significant, except for that of eggs which was insignificant. Results suggest that Lithuanian household consumption did respond to price and real income changes during their transition to a market-oriented economy.

SPANISH HOUSEHOLD DEMAND FOR SEAFOOD PRODUCTS

Consumption of seafood products in Spain has increased recently. Data from a nationally representative household budget survey are used. A double-hurdle model, applied to expenditures on fresh and processed seafood, shows the value of women's time, income and demographics to be determinants of participation and expenditure on seafood products.Consumer/Household Economics,

Effects of Food Safety Information on Meat Demand: A Comparison of the United States and Canada

In addition to the traditional economic factors such as income level and prices, food safety has a potentially significant impact on consumers' meat preferences. Therefore, understanding the consumers' responses to food safety information is important to policy analysts and the meat industry. As the U.S. and Canada have both experienced cases of BSE, it is useful to compare U.S. and Canadian consumer responses to food safety events to better understand factors that influence consumer response. The objective of this study is to compare both own- and cross-commodity impacts of publicized food safety information on U.S. and Canadian meat demand by setting up individual food safety indices for each meat product including beef, pork, and poultry using monthly data. This study provides valuable information about the consumer responses to food safety events in both the U.S. and Canada. Its new contribution is through use of recent and monthly data, construction of unique food safety indices and the ability to compare consumer responses in the two countries.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

EATING OUT: AN IMPORTANT SOURCE OF FOOD FOR THE POOR AND THE FOOD INSECURE

Food consumption behaviors in food secure and food insecure households are compared. A two-stage budgeting and a double-hurdle model are used in the estimation. The results of the paper show that both food away from home and food at home are normal goods for both food secure and food insecure households. However, the effects of family structure on food consumption differ for the two household types. For food secure households, having one more child or one more working family member results in a larger marginal increase in food consumption than that for food insecure households. In addition, households with married heads of household are more likely to eat out in food secure households but less likely to eat out in food insecure households compared to households with unmarried heads of household.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Marketing Agreement, Food Safety and Contract Design

Recent outbreaks of food-borne illness related to fruit and vegetables have led to increased concerns about the safety of produce. In response, the industry has adopted marketing agreements to ensure consistency of product safety. Contracts now are widely used between processors and growers to specify product safety attributes. This paper uses a principal-agent model to examine how the inclusion of a marketing agreement influences the behavior of growers and processors under processor-grower contracts. We conclude that: (1) the processor offers a contract with a higher premium and a lower base payment under the contract with a marketing agreement (2) contract parameters change in similar manner under the two contracts (3) under a contract with a marketing agreement the processor earns less profit. The individual contract scenarios are discussed in detail.contract, food safety, principal-agent, market agreements, GAPs, on-farm inspection, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,

Does the Food Stamp Program Affect Food Security Status and the Composition of Food Expenditures?

This article considers interaction among participation in the Food Stamp Program (FSP), food security status, and the composition of food expenditures. A quadratic almost ideal demand system with a bootstrapping two-step method of estimation is applied to data from the Current Population Survey–Food Security Supplement data and used to estimate the model and account for endogeneity between the FSP participation and food insecurity. The results show that FSP participation is endogenously related with food security status and significantly affects total food expenditure and food-away-from-home expenditures.food away from home, food insecurity, food stamps, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Q18, R21, I32,