Do Changing Retail Markets Mean Higher
Food Prices?
ERS has begun to use micro-level household and store scanner data
to measure the effect of changing retail store formats on food prices.
Increasingly, retail food markets are consolidating, leading to
concerns that reduced competition will cause prices to rise. Counterbalancing
this effect is the increased market share of warehouse and supercenter-type
stores that often compete with standard supermarkets by offering
lower prices and volume discounts. This project will also examine
if, and to what extent, the changing landscape of retail outlets
influences the CPI for food. Ephraim
Leibtag
How Does Fast Food Fare in Urban Areas?
ERS is examining whether access to fast food and fast food prices
depend on where one lives. Some have argued that residents of "poor"
or "minority" neighborhoods in urban areas pay higher
prices and do not have reasonable access to food retailers. ERS
researchers have collected prices of representative meals in the
Washington, DC, metro area and are analyzing how cost and demand
differences across the area affect the number of outlets and prices.
Hayden Stewart
Five a Day?
ERS is working with the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the economic
and demographic determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption.
The collaboration will use data from USDA and CDC to classify fruits
and vegetables by their nutritional profile, by how they are prepared,
and by where and when they are consumed. The study will also identify
the characteristics of individuals who are more or less likely to
follow their physicians' recommendations for increasing fruit and
vegetable consumption, leading to better design and targeting of
diet and health information campaigns. Biing-Hwan
Lin
Why Are Contracts Increasing?
The growth in contracting between agricultural processors and producers
has been contentious. Some have argued that these arrangements enhance
market power of processors at the expense of independent farmers,
while others argue that consumer demand can be targeted more efficiently.
ERS is examining potential efficiency-enhancing motives for contracts
in pork industries. In those markets characterized by investments
in branding programs requiring specific genetics, complex carcass-merit
grading programs, unobservable product quality attributes, and team
production of quality attributes, contracting arrangements may be
an efficient organizing tool. Steve
Martinez
Can We Protect Against Invasive Species?
Expanded international trade and travel is beneficial to the U.S.
and global economies, but also facilitates movement of invasive,
alien crop pests that threaten U.S. agricultural production and
exports. ERS is cooperating with USDA's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service to incorporate economics in decisionmaking and
risk assessment for invasive pest issues. Dennis
Shields
What Impacts From Diverting Water
From Agriculture?
ERS is analyzing the effects on irrigated agriculture in the western
river basins of Federal decisions to reallocate water to protect
endangered species. This work is being done in cooperation with
the Bureau of Reclamation, and nine universities, including the
University of California-Davis, Willamette University, University
of Nebraska, Oregon State University, New Mexico State University,
Washington State University, Colorado State University, Iowa State
University, and George Mason University. USDA's Risk Management
Agency funds the project. Noel
Gollehon
Economics in the Farm Bill Conservation
Title?
ERS economists are playing an integral role in shaping several
key provisions of the Conservation Title. Roger
Claassen is helping craft the new Conservation Security Program
(CSP), a form of the program he analyzed in Agri-Environmental
Policy at the Crossroads: Guideposts on a Changing Landscape (AER-794).
Andrea Cattaneo is a
key architect of the cost/benefit analysis for the new rule implementing
the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), revised and
expanded in this Bill. Marlow
Vesterby is playing a similar role in the cost/benefit analysis
of the Technical Service Provider rule, which governs how third
parties can help farmers plan and implement conservation practices
paid for by USDA conservation programs.
