Food and Nutrition Economics Fundamentals for Health Sciences

Winner of the 2017 Quality of Communication Award presented by The Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

As the importance of food and nutrition becomes more widely recognized by practitioners and researchers in the health sciences, one persisting gap in the knowledge base remains: what are the economic factors that influence our food and our health?

Food and Nutrition Economics offers a much-needed resource for non-economists looking to understand the basic economic principles that govern our food and nutritional systems. Comprising both a quick grounding in nutrition with the fundamentals of economics and expert applications to food systems, it is a uniquely accessible and much-needed bridge between previously disparate scholarly and professional fields.

This book is intended for upper level undergraduates, graduate students, and health professionals with no background in economics who recognize that economics affects much of their work. Concerned because previous encounters with economics have been hampered by math hurdles? Don't be; this book offers a specialized primer in consumer economics (including behavioral economics of food consumption), producer economics, market-level analysis, cost-effectiveness, and cost-benefit analysis, all in an accessible and conversational manner that requires nothing more than middle-school math acumen.

Grounding these lessons in contemporary issues such as soft drink taxes, food prices, convenience, nutrition education programs, and the food environment, Food and Nutrition Economics is an innovative and needed entry in the rapidly expanding universe of food studies, health science, and their related fields.

George C. Davis is a trained economist and a professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise and Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. His teaching and research programs both are interdisciplinary as he works with health scientists to understand issues at the intersection of nutrition, health, and economics.

Elena L. Serrano is a trained nutritionist and associate professor in in the Virginia Tech Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise. She is Director of the Virginia Family Nutrition Program, aimed at promoting healthy eating among SNAP-eligible audiences throughout Virginia, and her research has focused on identifying and testing different programs, initiatives, and strategies to improve dietary quality and prevent childhood obesity among low-income youth.

Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Preface

Part I: An Introduction to Nutrition Preface

1: Food, Nutrients, and Health: An Overview
2: Food, Nutrients, and Health: Some Data

Part II: The Economics Food Consumption Preface

3: Income and the Foundations
4: Income and the Importance of Substitution
5: Prices
6. Convenience and Time
7: Information and Preferences
8: Now or Later
9: Insights from Behavioral Economics
10: Neuroeconomics: Pointing Toward a Unifying Framework for Decision Making

Part III: The Economics Food Production Preface

11: An Overview of the Food System, Economic Systems, and Systems Theory
12: Profit and Supply for Farms and Firms
13: Production and Profit Beyond the Farm Gate

Part IV: The Determination of Food Prices and Quantities in Competitive Markets Preface

14: Demand and Supply: Prices and Quantities in a Competitive Market
15: Horizontally and Vertically Related Competitive Markets

Part V: Cost Effectiveness and Cost Benefit Analysis Preface

16: Cost-Effectiveness and Cost-Benefit Analysis

Appendix: Economic Methodology 101
References
Index