Until recently, many restaurants and fast-food places did not offer nutrition information at the point of purchase. This is expected to change because the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires that nutrition information be posted in many of these venues. Once the law is fully implemented, it will be important to understand how it has affected consumer behavior. To establish a baseline against which to measure changes in the use of onsite nutrition information about food away from home (FAFH), we examine the demographic characteristics and dietary behaviors of U.S. consumers...
Until recently, many restaurants and fast-food places did not offer nutrition information at the point of purchase. This is expected to change because...
In the United States, climate change is likely to increase average daily temperatures and the frequency of heat waves, which can reduce meat and milk production in animals. Methods that livestock producers use to mitigate thermal stress-including modifica-tions to animal management or housing-tend to increase production costs and capital expenditures. Dairy cows are particularly sensitive to heat stress, and the dairy sector has been estimated to bear over half of the costs of current heat stress to the livestock industry. In this report, we use operation-level economic data coupled with...
In the United States, climate change is likely to increase average daily temperatures and the frequency of heat waves, which can reduce meat and milk ...
Data from the 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) and ERS cost of production accounts present a snapshot of the production costs, production practices, and characteristics related to U.S. corn production in 2010. This study found consider-able variation in the operating and ownership costs for corn, ranging from an average of $1.74 per bushel for low-cost producers to $3.88 per bushel for high-cost producers. In 2010, high corn prices meant that most producers covered their corn production costs from harvest-month prices. The Heartland continues to be the major corn...
Data from the 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) and ERS cost of production accounts present a snapshot of the production costs, prod...
The recession of 2007-09, the deepest of the postwar period, has had large and long-lasting effects. Using data from the 2005-10 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, this study compares a number of measures of food intake and diet quality for the cohort of working-age adults born between 1946 and 1985. During the period, consump-tion of food away from home (FAFH) declined, as measured by total daily calories, share of daily calories, and the number of FAFH meals and snacks. At the same time, diet quality improved slightly, with a lower share of calories coming from fat and...
The recession of 2007-09, the deepest of the postwar period, has had large and long-lasting effects. Using data from the 2005-10 National Health and N...
In 2008, wheat futures prices spiked and then crashed along with prices for other agri-cultural and nonagricultural commodities. Market observers offered several theories to explain this common movement, or comovement, in prices, and have proposed policies to address the perceived problem of excessive price volatility. The design of an appropriate policy response would benefit from a better understanding of the cause of the observed price movements. This study uses an econometric model to decompose observed wheat prices into a set of economic factors and measure the relative contribution of...
In 2008, wheat futures prices spiked and then crashed along with prices for other agri-cultural and nonagricultural commodities. Market observers offe...
This report is a primer on the use of debt by U.S. farm businesses for policymakers, researchers, and others interested in the financial well-being of U.S. agriculture. It pres-ents data on basic debt-use patterns by farm businesses (in 2011, over 900,000 farms oper-ated as farm businesses based on their size, organizational structure, or the occupation of their principal operator) and explores key trends over 20 years. U.S. farm debt use varies widely by farm size, specialization, operator age, and other farm characteristics. Large-scale farm businesses, farm businesses with younger...
This report is a primer on the use of debt by U.S. farm businesses for policymakers, researchers, and others interested in the financial well-being of...
Food prices across the world rose dramatically between 2006 and 2008. The causes of the price rise were complex, and the event has led to heightened concerns regarding the implica-tions of rising food prices on the prevalence of food insecurity and household welfare, particu-larly in developing countries. Given widespread and chronic malnutrition in India and the country's large share of the world's total food-insecure population, this report estimates how Indian households coped with the rise in domestic food prices that accompanied global price patterns in 2006-08. Exploiting differential...
Food prices across the world rose dramatically between 2006 and 2008. The causes of the price rise were complex, and the event has led to heightened c...
Recent volatility in agricultural commodity prices and projections of world population growth raise concerns about the ability of global agricultural production to meet future demand. This report explores the potential for future agricultural production to 2050, using a model-based analysis that incorporates the key drivers of agricultural production, along with the responses of producers and consumers to changes to those drivers. Model results show that for a percentage change in population, global production and consumption of major field crops respond at nearly the same rate. In response...
Recent volatility in agricultural commodity prices and projections of world population growth raise concerns about the ability of global agricultural ...
More than 15 years after their first successful commercial introduction in the United States, genetically engineered (GE) seeds have been widely adopted by U.S. corn, soybean, and cotton farmers. Still, some questions persist regarding the potential benefits and risks of GE crops. The report finds that, although the pace of research and develop-ment (measured by the number of USDA-approved field tests) peaked in 2002, other measures show that biotech firms continue to develop new GE seed varieties at a rapid pace. Also, U.S. farmers continue to adopt GE seeds at a robust rate, and seed...
More than 15 years after their first successful commercial introduction in the United States, genetically engineered (GE) seeds have been widely adopt...
About 1 in 4 Americans participates in at least 1 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) 15 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs at some point during the year. Together these programs, which vary by size, type of bene ts provided, and target population, form a nutritional safety net for millions of children and low-income adults. These programs account for over 70 percent of USDA's annual budget. USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) conducts studies and evaluations of these programs. This report uses preliminary administrative data from USDA's Food and Nutrition Service...
About 1 in 4 Americans participates in at least 1 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) 15 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs at...
