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Food Security, Food Demand, and Household Food Waste

Xu, Lei
http://orcid.org/0009-0006-6876-9061
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721147212324172

Abstract Details

2024, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics.
My three essays are designed to explore household food security, food demand, and food waste. These three topics are related because understanding food demand and food waste can support achieving food security. This dissertation consists of three essays and explores critical dimensions of food economics and policy, emphasizing the intersection of social programs, consumer behavior, and waste management. The first essay evaluates the associations between Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation and food security in rural Southeast Ohio, and also explores the relationship between SNAP participation and fruit and vegetable consumption. We use novel household-level data on food insecurity and SNAP participation in rural Southeast Ohio, collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. To correct for self-selection bias, we employ the nearest neighbor matching method to match treated (SNAP participants) and untreated (SNAP nonparticipants) groups on observable characteristics. We find that participating in SNAP is associated with a significant increase in the probability of being food secure by around 26 percentage points after controlling for primary food shopping patterns. We do not find any significant association between SNAP participation and estimated intake of fruits and vegetables. The second essay calculates local apple price premiums, estimates the elasticity of demand for local apples, and uses a structural model with the estimated elasticity to simulate the impacts of increasing demand for local apples on the price and consumption of local and undifferentiated apples. Consumers often perceive locally grown foods as fresher and of higher quality. The Farm to School (F2S) program significantly increases demand for local food commonly purchased by School Food Authorities (SFA) and provides a reliable market for local farmers. We employ SFA transaction data and data from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service to calculate the local apple price premium in Michigan and Oregon, then estimate the elasticity of demand for local apples purchased by SFAs using the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System Model (QU-AIDS). We then simulate the impacts of increasing demand for local apples on the price and consumption of local and non-local apples, as well as the welfare impacts on local producers. We find the price and quantity consumed of local and non-local apples are impacted by increasing demand, and the magnitudes of the impacts are different across market segments. The third essay estimates the price elasticity and expenditure elasticity for food waste across two food classifications: foods purchased for at-home preparation and consumption vs. food purchased away from home, and for foods divided into eight types of food (e.g., proteins, potatoes, etc.). Billions of pounds of food are wasted each year, causing enormous economic losses and environmental damage and motivating the need for this study. Through the application of the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QU-AIDS) model, I find that at-home food waste exhibits expenditure inelasticity, while away-from-home food waste is expenditure-elastic. Furthermore, at-home food waste demonstrates unitary price elasticity, contrasting with the price-elastic nature of away-from-home food waste. Upon exploring waste patterns across eight food categories, I find a prevailing trend of unitary expenditure and price elasticity across most categories, except for grain, protein, and beverage waste. Moreover, by leveraging the QU-AIDS model, I investigate elasticity disparities among households based on various characteristics, including enrollment in critical nutrition programs. To conclude, these essays provide an overview of several current challenges and opportunities in food security, local food economies, and waste reduction, offering valuable policy recommendations and practical strategies for improving the sustainability of food systems.
Brian Roe (Advisor)
195 p.
Demographics; Economic Theory; Economics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Xu, L. (2024). Food Security, Food Demand, and Household Food Waste [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721147212324172

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Xu, Lei. Food Security, Food Demand, and Household Food Waste. 2024. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721147212324172.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Xu, Lei. "Food Security, Food Demand, and Household Food Waste." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721147212324172

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1721147212324172
92
© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.