Does the Price of Groceries Change the Amount of Wasted Food?
AAEA Member research published in AEPP
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), recently announced their new agreement “Winning on Reducing Food Waste” inititative. The new inititative is to help improve education, communication and other impacts of reducing food loss and waste. While nearly one-third of all food is wasted within households, another third is wasted at retail level. With these facts in mind, a couple of researchers published in Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy (AEPP) to examine how food price and expenditure affect the demand for food waste.
Craig Landry and Travis Smith from the University of Georgia test their theories in “Demand for Household Food Waste.”
Smith says, “Due to the inherent difficulty in collecting food waste data, previous research has relied on stated preference information (i.e., hypothetical scenarios). Our estimates are the first to use nationally representative data of actual meal production and consumption in the household.”
The article, “Demand for Household Food Waste,” is now available online for a limited time. If you are interested in setting up an interview with Travis Smith, please contact Allison Scheetz in the AAEA Business Office.
ABOUT AAEA: Established in 1910, the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) is the leading professional association for agricultural and applied economists, with 2,500 members in more than 60 countries. Members of the AAEA work in academic or government institutions as well as in industry and not-for-profit organizations, and engage in a variety of research, teaching, and outreach activities in the areas of agriculture, the environment, food, health, and international development. The AAEA publishes two journals, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy, as well as the online magazine Choices. To learn more, visit www.aaea.org.
Contact: Allison Scheetz
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Email: ascheetz@aaea.org