That’s the title of a new paper I’ve co-authored with Amelia Ales and Vincenzina Caputo that has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association . It has long been conjectured in economics that goods that are more similar will be stronger substitutes, but there is surprisingly scant evidence for this assertion. To explore this issue, we turn to a…
That’s the title of a new article I’ve published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research . A couple months ago, the FDA approved the use of genetic engineering to gene edit pigs to make them resistant to a disease that has ravaged the industry for decades: porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). Pork producers have a number of key questions and concerns about the new…
I was excited to see that my colleague, Richard Sexton, a Distinguished Professor at UC Davis, has a new book hitting the shelves next month: Food Fight: Misguided Policies, Supply Challenges, and the Impending Struggle to Feed a Hungry World . Richard is one of the most respected agricultural economists in the world, and has consistently produced some of the most interesting and impactful work in…
Tyler Cowen recently posted a good question: Why isn’t there an economics of animal welfare field. As someone who has conducted research on this topic for more than a decade, I found the two sentences in Cowen’s post a bit amusing: “ I do understand there is plenty about animal welfare in ag econ journals and departments, but somehow the way the world is tiered that just doesn’t count. Yes that is…
I had the pleasure to read an early release version of the new textbook: Food Economics: Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health by Will Masters and Amelia Finaret. A description is below. “ Food Economics and its accompanying online resources are designed for advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate courses in agriculture, food, and nutrition policy. The book covers the standard diagrams taught…
Below are a few new papers I’ve co-authored with a number of colleagues over the past couple months. The effect of the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS) on consumer preferences and acceptance of bioengineered and gene-edited food with Vincenzina Caputo and Valarie Kilders. Abstract: The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard in the United States mandates disclosure…
Agricultural Extension services around the country are continually trying to find new ways to provide useful science-based information to the public in the modern ways people search for and gather information. OSU Extension is no different, and against that backdrop, I’m pleased to link to our new ExtensionBot . By now everyone is likely familiar with the AI driven large language models like…
Yesterday I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion focused on gene editing hosted by the Farm Foundation. The main speakers included: Allen Van Deynze, Ph. D., Director, Seed Biotechnology Center and Associate Director, Plant Breeding Center, University of California, Davis Richard Lawrence, Ph.D., Head of Genome Editing, Yield, Disease, and Quality Research, Bayer Crop Science Fan-Li…
That’s the title of a new paper co-authored with Vincenzina Caputo and Dan Blaustein-Rejto. Here’s the abstract: “ Evidence regarding whether consumers view plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) as substitutes or complements to animal-based meat is limited; however, the ultimate effect of increased demand for plant-based meats on poultry and livestock production depends on this relationship. While…
That’s the title of a new paper co-authored with Joe Cooper, Vincent Breneman, Meilin Ma, Josh Maples, and Shawn Arita that was just published in Food Policy . Here’s the abstract: “ This paper quantifies the impact of the COVID-19 disruption on U.S. meatpacking production. We employ a confidential plant-level meatpacking plant data set from USDA that gives daily livestock (cattle, swine,…
That’s the title of a new article by David Just released by the European Review of Agricultural Economics , and the subject of David’s keynote at the European Association of Agricultural Economics Meeting this week in France. He writes: “ Throughout the early 2000s, many departments of agricultural economics reduced their faculty size and some prominent departments began to generalise their focus…
That’s the title of a new study I conducted with Brandon McFadden and Trey Malone for the United Soybean Board through the Center for Food Demand and Sustainability. We surveyed 1,200 U.S. consumers earlier this year and asked about a variety of perceptions related to soy-based products with eye towards how consumers view soy protein and soy oil relative to the alternatives. There’s a lot in the…
The July 2023 edition of the Consumer Food Insights survey is now out . I want to draw attention to one set of questions we added that delved into consumers’ beliefs about beef vs. plant-based, cell-cultured, and lab grown alternatives. Each respondent was only asked one set of these questions. Cell-cultured and lab-grown refer to the same thing, but we were curious if the the alternative labeling…
With the Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability (CFDAS) at Purdue, we’ve been working on a project funded by the United Soybean Board and the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research to explore the impacts of various investment alternatives on soy farmer profitability. To undertake the economic modeling, we need to understand consumer demand for a variety of soy-based foods, and…
I’m excited to announce that I will serve as the next Vice President and Dean of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University, beginning early August. It has been an honor and privilege to serve as the head of the Agricultural Economics Department at Purdue University, and I will miss my friends and colleagues in West Lafayette. Now it’s time for a new…
The May 2023 edition of our monthly Consumer Food Insights survey is now out . A few highlights: Consumer food spending is at its highest level since our survey began in January 2022. Food insecurity ticked up to 16%. There has been a decline in the length of time individuals report being on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (conditional on being in the program) Some good news: we…
That’s the title of a new publication from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine summarizing the outcomes from a workshop on alternative proteins. I served on the planning committee and gave a talk about the market prospects for alternative proteins. The report (pages 23-30) summarizes my talk. Here are a couple excerpts from my portion: “ Jayson Lusk, Purdue University,…
The latest edition of our monthly Consumer Food Insights survey is now out . They report conveys the results of the survey conducted in the latter part of April 2023. Here are some of the main findings. 55% of consumers shopped at a dollar store in the past 30 days Most commonly (30%+) bought snack foods, candy, beverages About 25% did not purchase food Consumers tend to live closer to a dollar…
We continue to add new dashboards on our Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability (CFDAS) web page. We have added two new dashboards added in the past week. One on spending at dollar stores (includes Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar) and another on general retailers (includes Walmart, Target, and K-Mart). Here is an example of the general retail dashboard with Walmart…
The latest edition of our monthly Consumer Food Insights survey is now out . We continue to see a fall both in the share of consumers who say they can’t find certain foods when shopping (i.e., stock-out rates are falling; see also my post last week on new research about stock-outs) and who are buying groceries online. This month, we asked some questions about trust and importance of different food…