The US population now leads the world in obesity rates. The estimated societal cost of the overweight and obesity issue exceeds $115 billion. Policy may play a role if economically justifiable but conflicting interests exist.

This paper investigates the factors affecting product class involvement for food. Factors affecting specific aspects of involvement are also explored. The aim is to determine the factors that affect involvement with food and sketch the profile of consumers more likely to be involved or not...

We assessed the consumer welfare effects of two generic food miles labels: carbon dioxide (CO2) emission label and number of miles label. Using data from a choice experiment, our results generally suggest that a mandatory labeling policy for either type of label would have a positive welfare...

Over the last several years, there has been an increase of several chronic diseases that are linked to dietary and lifestyle factors. Obesity, especially, is rising at an alarming rate in several countries. Due in part to increasing diet related health problems caused, among others, by obesity,...

Enterobacter sakazakii, a pathogen that can be found in powdered infant milk formula, can cause adverse health effects on infants. Using Vickrey auction, this study examines parents' willingness to pay (WTP) for a quality assurance label on powdered infant milk formula. The influence of...

This paper focuses on estimating consumers' willingness to pay for and willingness to accept irradiated food using a non-hypothetical experiment utilizing real food products (i.e., irradiated ground beef), real cash, and actual exchange in a market setting. Single-bounded and one and one-half...

Consumer willingness to pay for a mandatory country-of-origin labeling program is assessed. A consumer survey was conducted during 2002 in several grocery stores in Boulder, Denver, and Fort Collins, Colorado. Econometric results indicate that surveyed consumers are willing to pay an average of...

Changes in lifestyles and higher caloric consumption are contributing to increasing obesity rates around the world. This article discusses the role of these and other socioeconomic factors and the magnitude of societal costs caused by the increasing prevalence of obesity.

Country-of-origin labeling is now being considered as an alternative by the U.S. Senate. Research is still needed to determine what attributes consumers value in domestic versus imported beef, and to quantify the value that consumers place on country-of-origin labels. Preliminary results suggest...

In this paper, we assess consumer willingness to pay for a mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) program applied to beef ribeye steaks, chicken breasts, and pork chops, all labeled as “Certified U.S.†products. A consumer survey was mailed in spring and early summer 2003 to...