Over the last decade, new information has been developed and collected to measure the extent of food insecurity and hunger in the United States. Common measurement of the phenomenon of hunger and food insecurity has become possible through efforts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop a set of survey questions that can be used to obtain estimates of the prevalence and severity of food insecurity. We evaluated the measurement of food insecurity and the effect of household variables on measured food insecurity. The effects of demographic and survey-specific variables on the food insecurity/hunger scale were evaluated using a generalized linear model with mixed effects. Data came from the 1995, 1997 and 1999 Food Security Module of the Current Population Survey. The results generally validated the model currently used by the USDA. In addition, our approach made it possible to consider the effect of demographics and several survey design variables on food security among measurably food-insecure households, as well as interactions between these factors and the food security questions. The analysis of the expanded model with the 1995 data found results similar to those reported based on the Rasch model used by the USDA. Even though the sample size was reduced and a number of screening and questionnaire changes were introduced in 1997 and 1999, the results for those years appear mostly unchanged and confirm the robustness of the scale in measuring food insecurity. There is some evidence that interpretation of questions may vary among different demographic groups.
China's admission in the WTO and commitment to cut tariffs on alcohol related goods provide a considerable opportunity for the USA, Europe and other countries. The present study examines Chinese consumer behaviour with regard to alcoholic beverages (wine, wine cooler and beer) using a Chinese household survey data. The results show that beer and wine cooler are normal goods while wine is still a luxury good in China. The price elasticities of wine and wine cooler are larger than that of beer.
We examined four evolution paths of the biofuel sector using a partial equilibrium world agricultural sector model in CARD that includes the new RFS in the 2007 EISA, a two-way relationship between fossil energy and biofuel markets, and a new trend toward corn oil extraction in ethanol plants. At one extreme, one scenario eliminates all support to the biofuel sector when the energy price is low, while the other extreme assumes no distribution bottleneck in ethanol demand growth when the energy price is high. The third scenario considers a pure market force driving ethanol demand growth because of the high energy price, while the last is a policy-induced shock with removal of the biofuel tax credit when the energy price is high. Standard results hold where the biofuel sector expands with higher energy price, raising the prices of most agricultural commodities through demand side adjustment channels for primary feedstocks and supply side adjustment channels for substitute crops and livestock. On the other hand, the biofuel sector shrinks coupled with opposite impacts on agricultural commodities with the removal of all support including the tax credit. Also, we find that given distribution bottlenecks, cellulosic ethanol crowds marketing channels resulting in a corn-based ethanol price that is discounted. The blenders' credit and consumption mandates provide a price floor for ethanol and for corn. Finally, the tight linkage between the energy and agricultural sectors resulting from the expanding biofuel sector may raise the possibility of spillover effects of OPEC's market power on the agricultural sector.
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