The dramatic rise in world food prices since 2007 has commanded the world’s attention. However, in recent months, world food prices have fallen almost as rapidly as they had risen in late 2007 and early 2008, yet as is demonstrated in this report, domestic food price levels in many eastern and...

Zambia’s maize crop grew by roughly 48% between the 2009 and 2010 harvests, leading to the largest crop recorded in recent history. The 2009 maize harvest was also very good, making the 48% rise in 2010 even more remarkable. The forces driving that increase, however, remain widely debated....

Key Points • Zambia’s maize crop grew by 48% between the 2009 and 2010 harvests, leading to the largest crop recorded in recent history. • Yield growth accounted for 59% of the maize production growth between 2009 and 2010. Expansion of area planted to maize explains an additional 23%,...

Food and social safety nets have a history as long as human civilization. In hunter gatherer societies, food sharing is pervasive. Group members who prove unlucky in the short run, hunting or foraging, receive food from other households in anticipation of reciprocal consideration at a later time...

Africa has inherited highly arbitrary political borders that vastly complicate current efforts to accelerate agricultural growth and reduce hunger. Because Africa’s inherited political borders arbitrarily partition agro-ecological zones and natural market sheds, current country borders serve...

This paper examines potential consumer demand for ecolabeled apples. Since apples are purchased by 90% of U.S. households, we are able to investigate the choices of a large and diverse cross section of consumers. Focusing on a single agricultural product such as apples enables us to investigate...

This article presents a theory and empirical estimates of consumer demand for ecolabeled apples. The effect of varying comprehensiveness of environmental claims and amount of proof supporting claims is examined. Data are from telephone interviews with 893 randomly selected U.S. households....

The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA) transforms the regulation of pesticide residues on food in the United States. Three changes are prominent. First, under the FQPA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is authorized to develop uniform pesticide residue tolerances for both...

US ready-to-eat breakfast cereals entered the Chinese market in the mid-1990s. In the past years, this all-American food has been generating business losses. Such underperformance calls for prompt strategic modification by the cereal investors. This study focuses on foreign entry strategy and...