Over the past 50 years and longer, the supply of food commodities has grown faster than the effective market demand, in spite of increasing population and per capita incomes. Consequently, the real (deflated) prices of food commodities have steadily trended down. The past increases in...

Since 2000, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), has spent approximately $40 million per year to contain and control the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter (GWSS), which spreads Pierce’s Disease (PD). Compliance with the program has cost the nursery industry approximately $7...

Controversy has surrounded the welfare effects of advertising, mainly concerning the consumer welfare effects. Unfortunately, the measures of consumer welfare effects in most studies have been ad hoc and incorrect. The consumer welfare consequences of advertising can be measured consistently...

Food away from home (FAFH) comprises nearly half of all U.S. consumer food expenditures. Hence, policies designed to influence nutritional outcomes would be incomplete if they did not address the role of FAFH. However, because of data limitations, most studies of the response of food demand to...

Whimsy in specification choices leads to fragility of inference in econometric studies of structural change in meat demand. The literature contains a variety of results, with many contradictions, attributable largely to differences in specifications. This article reviews that literature, uses...

A model of the Australian orange growing industry to explain changes in plantings, removals, the number and age composition of trees and orange production is developed and estimated. Most of the variation in plantings is explained by the expected profitability of growing oranges, the current...

Many commentators have claimed that farm subsidies have contributed significantly to the “obesity epidemic” by making fattening foods relatively cheap and abundant and, symmetrically, that taxing “unhealthy” commodities or subsidizing “healthy” commodities would contribute to...