Fresh from the Field, Aug. 23, 2018

Farmers and Consumers Benefit from Market Match in California

A recent study shows that California Market Match simultaneously reduced diet- related illness of California’s low-income shoppers and stabilized farming communities in some of the United States most economically devastated farming regions.

Researchers found changes in dietary intake likely to result from such financial incentives as matching were sufficient to result in a 1.7% reduced incidence in type 2 diabetes, which in California translates into a healthcare savings approaching $469 million a year.

Direct-to-consumer sales means farmers and their communities get the full financial benefit of their sales, rather than less than 20% of the dollar return in a traditional retail operation, according to the National Farmers Union Farmer’s Share Report. And Market Match at farmers’ markets returns early twice as much money to California farmers and farm communities as do sales at national chains, according to a 2016 study.

Researchers there found that farmers selling locally create 13 full time jobs for every $1 million earned versus three jobs for those selling in other markets.

NIFA supports the research conducted by the Berkeley California Ecology Center, as well as the California Market Match program, through the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Grant Program. 

Read the full impacts report here. USDA photo.

Food Waste in the Sharing Economy

Wasting food affects our ability to achieve economic goals in terms of food security, environmental sustainability, and farm-financial security. Most of the waste reduction ideas proposed to date involve either behavioral nudges or administrative regulations that are either too paternalistic or piecemeal to represent viable solutions. In this study, Arizona State University  investigated the potential for commercial peer-to-peer sharing economy firms to emerge as market platforms for the exchange of surplus food. If such a platform is able to develop in a self-sustaining way, then the market prices they create will generate sufficient incentives for all actors to manage surplus food more efficiently.

NIFA supports this research through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

Learn more about the economics of food waste at Science Direct. USDA Photo.

Groundbreaking Poplar Study Shows Trees Can Be Genetically Engineered Not to Spread

The largest field-based study of genetically modified forest trees ever conducted has demonstrated that the spread of trees developed through genetic engineering can be contained by inherent traits that prevent new seedlings from establishing.

The “containment traits” that Oregon State University (OSU) researchers engineered in the study are important because of societal concerns over gene flow – the spread of genetically engineered or exotic and invasive trees or their reproductive cells beyond the boundaries of plantations.

“There’s still more to know and more research to be done, but this looks really good,” said corresponding author Steve Strauss, distinguished professor of forest biotechnology at OSU. “It’s very exciting.” 

NIFA supports this research through the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grant Program and the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

Learn more at the OSU Newsroom. Photo: OSU