Dietary guidelines issued by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) form the basis for nutrition policy in Federal food, education, and information programs (Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010). This article presents alternative policy options regarding the implementation of the...

A number of microbial contamination incidents have continued to raise questions regarding the safety of the U.S. food supply with calls for improved food safety control initiatives and standards by both the private and public sectors. As a reaction to these incidents, there have been increased...

This study investigates the potential impacts of food safety outbreaks on domestic shipments, imports, and prices of the produce industry. Three case studies were analyzed to assess these potential impacts: the cantaloupe outbreak of March–April 2008, the spinach outbreak of September...

While there is increasing interest in reducing obesity, relatively few of these efforts focus on rural communities. A multi-tiered model to reduce obesity risk factors was developed and implemented to change food behavior and health awareness in a rural West Texas community over a one year...

This paper investigates the relation between household income level and individual alcohol consumption behavior. Data from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) are tested utilizing a multinomial Logit method. The results show that alcohol consumption frequency positively correlates...

This paper explores the potential for the Georgia’s schools to participate in the Farm to School program. Primary and secondary data were used to establish a correlation between Farm to School, obesity, and food hardship. The results indicate that schools are more influenced by food hardship...

This paper examined cost efficiency differences between rural hospitals participating in the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Program and a group of non-converting, prospectively paid rural hospitals using both a two-stage semi-parametric approach as well as stochastic frontier analysis (SFA)....

Worksite wellness programs improve the health and quality of life of workers, and result in higher productivity. Data from a regional health survey suggests that more than $32 million of labor income is lost annually because of poor health, effectively increasing unemployment by more than 40% in...