Agricultural Economics最新文献

Agri-food systems around the world are facing a sustainability crisis. Addressing the many interconnected issues requires fundamental transformations, moving beyond incremental improvements of various details toward broader and more profound systemic change. In this article, which is also the introduction to the ICAE 2024 Special Issue, we explore the role of our agricultural economics profession in shaping these transformation processes, examining how our discipline contributes to understanding agri-food system dynamics and identifying opportunities to enhance sustainability and resilience. We argue that agricultural economists can and should play a more central role in international agri-food systems research and policy initiatives by integrating multiple sustainability goals and metrics with rigorous economic analysis. Interdisciplinary cooperation with colleagues in agronomy, nutrition, environmental sciences, social and political sciences, and other relevant fields is necessary, as is the further development and use of data-driven approaches. However, equally important is maintaining strong theoretical foundations to develop hypotheses and understand behavioral mechanisms. Close exchange with nonacademic stakeholders at all system levels is key for policy relevance. We also provide an overview of the plenary papers presented at ICAE 2024 on various facets of agri-food system transformation and sustainable development.

Since 2020, the World Bank, FAO, and others have measured a population's access to sufficient nutritious food for an active and healthy life using a new metric known as the Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diets (CoAHD). This new kind of data measures food access using market prices of the least expensive locally available items that would meet nutritional criteria adopted by national governments, as summarized in a Healthy Diet Basket (HDB) level of intake balanced among six complementary food groups: starchy staples, vegetables, fruits, fats and oils, animal source foods, and legumes, nuts and seeds. CoAHD reflects the definition of food security introduced during the World Food Summit of 1996, and complements the earlier measures of global food security notably Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) based on total national availability and intake distribution of calories, and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) based on survey data asking whether a household ran out of resources to acquire their usual diets. This paper briefly discusses the evolution of global food security measurement, then highlights updates to the methods used to compute CoAHD indicators and presents newly available CoAHD data obtained using this methodology and updated price data.

The United States authorized unprecedented investments in agri-environmental programs in 2022, dedicating over $19 billion to soil and water conservation practices with climate mitigation and adaptation benefits. We examine historical funding patterns, new funding allocations, and evaluation approaches for these programs. Our analysis reveals four key findings: (1) Nearly 40% of prior conservation funding has supported climate-beneficial practices, with increasing shares reflecting growing producer demand; (2) Although enrollment of historically underserved producers (HUPs) has increased, variation across programs and higher contract non-completion rates among this group suggests enhanced pre- and post-enrollment support services could be valuable; (3) A shift toward partnership-style programs facilitate locally-tailored agreements and market linkages, potentially broadening producer participation while enabling more durable incentives for sustained practice adoption; (4) current evaluation approaches primarily focus on implementation metrics paired with biophysical modeling and could be strengthened through rigorous impact evaluation design. Promising techniques include conducting randomized experiments and integrating geospatial data with program records to assess the impacts on producer behavior as well as program outcomes over time and space. Such approaches can build evidence for strategic conservation finance and de-risk future investments for other types of financial services—accelerating transformation toward sustainable agri-food systems in the United States and beyond.

This study introduces a new concept and framework called Climate Resilient Development for Agriculture (CRDA) to serve as a roadmap for agricultural transformation in the face of climate change. It also explores how to address gender inequity in agriculture during this transformation process. Unlike Climate Resilient Agriculture (CRA), which focuses solely on adjusting farming practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maintain agricultural production in the face of climate change, CRDA takes a more comprehensive approach by integrating a development perspective. Its goal is to leverage synergies among actions, programs, and policies to achieve climate change mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable development goals while also addressing climate change induced loss and damage in the agriculture sector. The CRDA framework outlines potential pathways leading to either high or low CRDA futures and emphasizes the importance of gender equity in its structure. Additionally, the study highlights the potential for actions under the CRDA framework to either exacerbate or mitigate gender disparities and proposes five key actions that can contribute to a gender-inclusive and climate-resilient future for the agriculture sector.

Technological advancements, such as online grocery shopping, have significantly transformed consumer retail environments and experiences. Effectively studying consumer behavior in these new environments requires the use of novel methodological approaches, which will also aid in developing interventions to encourage sustainable consumption. This paper begins by providing an overview of the current literature on novel approaches to analyzing consumer behavior, then provides an empirical application by examining consumer decision-making pathways within an online grocery shopping platform. Specifically, the paper focuses on exploring the consumers' digital footprints, such as page visits, product additions and removals, and interactions with information labels to identify patterns and interests in consumer responses to healthy and sustainable consumption. Findings highlight the potential benefits of integrating consumer search tracking data with environmental design to facilitate informed and conscious food choices.