Abstract In 2019, more than 7% of seniors (ages 60+) lived with a child under the age of 18. We examine how the presence of children in senior households relates to food insecurity and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation. We find that seniors living with children are more food insecure and have higher SNAP participation than other seniors, even after accounting for poverty status and other observable characteristics. The prevalence of multi‐generation and skip‐generation households explains, statistically, a small share of race/ethnicity gaps in food insecurity and SNAP. Changing living arrangements are an important consideration in addressing food insecurity among seniors.

Abstract This study investigates optimal grassland easement acquisition strategies with a focus on the roles of environmental benefit additionality and spatial spillover effect of grassland conversion. Numerical analysis shows that the optimal solution under a targeting strategy that does not consider any spatial spillover effect may secure less environmental benefit additionality than does a heuristic algorithm that considers spatial spillover. Moreover, heuristic algorithms that consider either conversion probability or spatial spillover can generally achieve more than 97% of environmental benefit additionality obtained under the optimal solution of a targeting strategy that considers both additionality and spatial spillover.

Abstract This article reviews the empirical economics literature on food safety, reputation, and regulation. Producers have strong private incentives to provide safe food, largely related to reputation, especially the negative demand effects seen in response to food‐safety problems. Mandatory disclosure of information about food safety can change demand and improve safety outcomes. Private incentives led producers and marketers to adopt private and collective standards for produce safety prior to the implementation of similar government regulations in the United States. Private and collective standards and government regulations all have distributional effects. The article concludes with some policy suggestions informed by the literature.

Abstract Antitrust policy in the United States has recently gained an unusual amount of political and media attention—including with regard to the application of antitrust to the agricultural sector. There are critics who have argued that a major overhaul of antitrust policy is needed. This paper argues that instead there are some important but more modest changes that could go a long way toward significantly strengthening the role that antitrust can play in keeping the US economy competitive, vibrant, and innovative.

Abstract The European Commission plans to reduce pesticides and fertilizer use in agriculture substantially under its Green Deal's Farm to Fork strategy. Policy alternatives are needed to overcome these input reductions, for instance by allocating R&D towards commodities most affected by climage change and improving the precision of input use. Since climate change is likely to impact agriculture negatively, productivity measures that account for all inputs and climate change impacts can help to weigh such policy responses. We adopt U.S. farm‐level data and a multi‐output and multi‐input production technology to estimate relative farm productivity performances with climatic effects. Exploiting long‐term weather patterns, we find comparative advantages among some crop farms and ample productivity improvement potential across all of them.

Abstract A decline in the monarch butterfly population led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to acknowledge monarchs should be listed under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. This research evaluates farmer interest in restoring monarch habitat on their non‐cropped acres to help circumvent such a listing. Results suggest that efforts to promote habitat restoration on non‐cropped acres should focus on voluntary participation and make programs as easy as possible through design and technical assistance. The results also suggest that even a successful program can only provide a small fraction of the habitat needed to meet current restoration goals.

Abstract We investigate consumers' willingness to pay premiums for environmentally sustainably produced meat and plant‐based meat substitutes. We conducted a randomized control study coupled with an incentive‐compatible experimental auction. Treatment consisted of information nudges concerning the environmental and health externalities of meat production and consumption. Results show that demand for sustainably produced beef and a plant‐based meat substitute is inelastic. We elicited participants' time preferences to analyze whether consumer behavior varies with their time preference. Present‐biased treated female participants were willing to pay a significantly lower premium for sustainably produced beef compared to the present‐biased control female participants. Future‐biased treated participants had a higher probability of being willing to pay a premium for a plant‐based meat substitute compared to the control group. We discuss the policy implications and relevance of information nudging, such as labeling, and how the effect of such nudging varies with participant characteristics.

Abstract This article builds on new institutional economics to characterize the functions played by meso‐institutions in bridging the gap between the macro‐institutional layer at which general rules are established and the micro‐institutional layer within which transactions are organized. The argument is substantiated through a comparative analysis of the regulatory settings designed to secure the safety of raw milk in Brazil, Canada, and Italy. We show that similar rules may lead to very different operational impact, depending on the arrangements through which these rules are implemented. The analysis also points out some consequences for the organization of supply chains and public policies.

Abstract In the US, elderly households are more food secure than younger households. A possible explanation is that increased time availability enables elderly households to adopt strategies to improve their food security. Using time use data, we find elderly households spend more time in meal preparation and eating time than younger households. Creating a matched dataset of household time use and food security, we find that meal preparation and eating time have a small contribution to differences in food insecurity between older and younger households. However, these relationships are heterogeneous depending upon marital status and age cohort of the household head.

Abstract This study aims to investigate consumer preferences for social sustainability labeling for wine. We explored the potential demand for a fair labor label that certifies wine produced through the fair treatment of workers in Italy, since the exploitation of migrant labor has become a preeminent issue in the country. We conducted a choice experiment on a sample of 500 consumers. Results indicated that they were willing to pay a considerable premium for wine produced by wineries that respects workers' rights and that there is a wide heterogeneity in consumer preferences for sustainability labeling according to the different dimensions underlying the label.