Who Eats What, When, Where, and Why?
Microeconomics is all about choices:
It's the study of why individuals choose to buy goods
and services, and how these choices are revealed through
the workings of the market. The study of food choices
is challenging for economists because these choices
are so personal to consumers. Food choices depend not
just on prices and income, but also on such individualized
factors as taste, family structure and traditions, age,
health, and lifestyle. When we economists are asked
how much information we need to research how food choices
respond to changes in socioeconomic conditions, we're
like Oliver Twist at mealtime: Please sir, I want some
more!”
A case in point: New Dietary Guidelines
for Americans have just been released, providing
authoritative advice on good dietary habits that can
promote health and reduce risk for major chronic diseases.
Will Americans follow the recommendations and make healthier
food and lifestyle choices? And if they do, how will
these food choices be reflected in the marketplace?
What will changing food choices mean for American agriculture?
Economic research can help answer these questions.
ERS is meeting this challenge with
a new data-collection initiative. In fiscal year 2005,
ERS received funding to develop an integrated, comprehensive
data and analysis framework of the post-farm food system.
The framework will identify and track changes in food
supply and consumption patterns and help us to understand
those changes. It will also help us explore the relationship
between consumers' knowledge and attitudes and their
eating patterns. We are also developing the Flexible
Consumer Behavior Survey (FCBS) that will complement
the Department of Health and Human Services’ National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which
provides information on food and nutrient intake and
health status. The FCBS will provide information needed
to assess linkages among individuals' knowledge and
attitudes about dietary guidance and food safety and
their economic circumstances, food choices, and nutrient
intakes. Combining the NHANES with this new survey will
allow us to analyze how individual behavior, information,
and economic factors affect food choices, dietary status,
and health outcomes.
The Guidelines tell what
our food choices need to be, but we still need to figure
out how to get there, how long it will take, and what
changes are at stake for American agriculture. Understanding
eating behavior is key to developing a solution to our
Nation's obesity problem. Our investment in people,
tools, and information will help us find the right mix
of policies to move us toward meeting the Guidelines.
Future issues of Amber Waves
will report new findings from our food consumption research,
so stay tuned.
Stephen R. Crutchfield
Deputy Director for Staff Analysis and Communications
Food and Rural Economics Division, ERS |
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