Consumers responded to the Food and Drug Administration’s September 2006 warnings to avoid eating spinach because of possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7. While spinach expenditures fell, consumers turned to other leafy greens as substitutes. The longer term drop in retail...

Adverse publicity about contaminated food exports and growing domestic concerns have prompted China to improve overall food safety. Producing safer food for export is expensive and reduces China’s cost advantage. Only a small portion of Chinese production for the domestic market meets the...

The U.S. fruit and vegetable industry is labor intensive, pays higher wages than are paid in many other countries, and increasingly operates in a global economy. U.S. fruit and vegetable farms rely on seasonal workers who are likely to be unauthorized immigrants; any future immigration reform...