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  5. Food Economics: Reaching New Audiences in Public Health, Climate Resilience and Development
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Food Economics: Reaching New Audiences in Public Health, Climate Resilience and Development

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 3, 2025 12:30 PM - 2:15 PM (PST)

Hilton San Francisco Union Square
Hosted By: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
  • Chair: William Masters, Tufts University

Using the Economics of Food to Reach Diverse Students in the Age of Disengagement

Amelia Finaret
,
Allegheny College

Abstract

Higher education in the U.S. is experiencing rapid change, as total undergraduate enrollment continues to decline from its peak at over 18 million in 2010 to under 16 million in 2021, and online distractions continue to limit students’ sustained attention to any one task. This paper describes how new approaches are working to attract and retain interest of both graduate and undergraduate students, overcoming the widespread disengagement from active learning experienced in many schools around the country. Our work uses news stories to show how economic principles can help explain changes in agricultural production, food business, consumer behavior and policy choices, and has students download raw data and make their own charts to see patterns and trends in U.S. and global food systems.

Applied Economics in the Liberal Arts: Teaching about Food, Health, and Human Welfare

Amy Damon
,
Macalester College
Lindsey Novak
,
Reed College

Abstract

We explore the challenges and opportunities of teaching and using economic tools to understand nutrition, health, and agricultural production in the context of two small liberal arts colleges. Students in our classes come with unique, interdisciplinary perspectives, a keen interest in social justice, and often a deep skepticism about economics. We use food and health topics to engage these skeptics and help them realize the power of economic thinking in application to themes they care deeply about and often consider outside the purview of economists. Our paper discusses our pedagogical approaches to these topics as well as some of the classroom challenges and successes we have experienced in this specific academic environment.

The Research Agenda from Food to Development: Keeping up with Structural Change in China

Scott Rozelle
,
Stanford University

Abstract

Policy analysis and empirical research in food economics has diversified rapidly, beyond basic needs and farm employment to rural education and human development. This transition is clearest in the case of China, where 35 years of fieldwork and policy dialogue has followed and influenced societal change in successive waves, from early work on food production to migration, education and health. This paper describes the trajectory of research methods, findings and impacts of work through the current “new era” in China today.

Discussant(s)
Kathy Baylis
,
University of California-Santa Barbara
JEL Classifications
  • A1 - General Economics