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...

Americans are increasingly overweight, with the number of obese adults and overweight children doubling between the late 1970s and early 2000s. Several studies of the health consequences of Americans’ weight gain indicate that health care costs and the number of premature deaths...