About

I am an agricultural economist working in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. My research program is focused on applied economic analyses of problems and policies related to the economics of food safety and quality, linkages between food systems and economic development, food system-human health linkages, and the international trade of agri-food products.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Business
• Geography
• Economics
• Marketing
• Social psychology
• Environmental health
• Psychiatry
• Gerontology
• Industrial organization
• Economic growth
• Psychology
• Medicine
• Environmental economics
• Agricultural economics

Selected publications

• Enhancing nutrition availability through international trade: U.S. and global dairy exports to emerging markets

  Food Policy · 2025-03-17 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• The effects of consumer perception of food safety and quality in food purchase decisions

  Burleigh Dodds series in agricultural science · 2023-11-14

  book-chapter

  Consumers expect their food to be safe and of high quality. However, food safety issues can and do occur. This chapter covers a wide range of topics that explain consumer perceptions of food safety and quality and how they relate to subsequent purchase decisions. It begins with a discussion of the numerous factors that consumers consider as they make decisions about what food to purchase. It examines consumers’ intent to purchase specific types of food and how intent is correlated with purchase behaviour per se. Finally, the recent Covid-19 pandemic is known to have affected consumer perceptions of safety in general. This chapter ends with a discussion of how the pandemic has affected consumer perceptions of food safety and, ultimately, their purchase behaviour. Recognizing the broad scope of this topic, the discussion in this chapter focuses on recent studies of purchase behaviour by North American and European consumers.

  PublisherDOI

• Undergraduate enrollment intentions and willingness‐to‐pay for online to in‐person teaching modalities: Capturing heterogeneity across and within universities in the United States during the pandemic

  Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association · 2023-11-06

  articleOpen access

  Abstract This study analyzes undergraduate students' enrollment intentions and preferences for alternate teaching modalities during the pandemic under a range of reopening scenarios and flexible teaching modalities to investigate the value of flexible learning options and campus life offerings for students. Using primary survey data from six land‐grant universities, our findings suggest that there is no one‐size‐fits‐all policy for tackling significant shocks like the pandemic. Business‐as‐usual was the most divisive, with wide differences in preferences both within and across universities. These results have important implications for future responses to major disruptions in higher education.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• U.S. agricultural university students' mental well‐being and resilience during the first wave of <scp>COVID</scp>‐19: Discordant expectations and experiences across genders

  Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy · 2022 · 21 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Gerontology

  The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic's first wave led to declining mental health and life satisfaction outcomes for college students, especially women. While women in undergraduate agricultural programs outperformed men academically prior to and during the pandemic, the achievement may have come at personal cost, especially for those women with fewer personal and environmental resiliency resources. Our research objective was to expand on personal, social, and environmental factors linked with lower mental health and life satisfaction scores for students in agriculture during the pandemic. We measured the influence of such factors across gender-based mental health and life satisfaction outcomes. Our data were collected from 2030 students using an on-line survey across six land-grant university college of agriculture in agriculturally as many distinct regions of the United States. We estimated OLS and Ordered Probit models of their mental health and life satisfaction self-assessments. Our findings reveal students' mental health and life satisfaction were reduced due to a paucity of personal (e.g., less future orientation or graduate school aspirations, food and housing insecurity, and personal health risks) and environmental (e.g., lower quality on-line learning experiences, isolation, family health risk, discrimination experiences) resiliency resources. Our results suggest women were more likely than men to be adversely affected by reduced resiliency resources. These findings suggest university emergency response policies need to address students' needs for housing and food security, on-line course development and delivery, tele health and mental health resources, broad social inclusion and diversity to decrease risk of female attrition and support all students in agricultural degree programs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Exploring Models of Local Food Procurement in Farm to Early Care and Education Programs

  Journal of Human Sciences and Extension · 2022-04-21 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE) initiatives generate similar benefits as Farm to School programs. However, there is a lack of research about local food procurement in Farm to ECE programs. We provide a descriptive evaluation of how 12 child care centers that participated in a Farm to ECE program procured local food. We found that centers purchased low volumes at the beginning of the program, creating challenges for establishing viable relationships with local food suppliers. Centers employed strategies such as building relationships with distributors and retailers, picking up local food, and aggregating demand with other centers and families to create successful programs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The international trade of U.S. organic agri-food products: export opportunities, import competition and policy impacts

  Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · 2022-08-12 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract International markets are an important destination and source of U.S. organic agri-food products. This paper offers new insights concerning the current status and trends of U.S. organic imports and exports U.S. policies relevant to the international trade of U.S. organic agri-food products are described, characterizing specific products and partners. In addition, the impact of organic equivalency agreements (OEAs), which the U.S. has signed with Canada, the EU, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland, are examined to determine the extent to which they facilitate trade. Using highly disaggregated international trade data (HS-10) from the U.S. International Trade Commission and Statistics Canada, this analysis finds that fresh agricultural products dominate both U.S. exports and imports. Between 2017 and 2019, apples grapes, strawberries and spinach were the predominant fresh exports, while tomato sauces, vinegar and roasted coffee are the most exported processed food products. A significant majority of these exports are destined for Canada and Mexico. The most imported organic agri-food products include unroasted coffee, bananas, olive oil and soybeans. There is much more diversity in the country of origin of these imports with Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Spain and Argentina among the major organic food suppliers to the U.S. OEAs allow for mutual recognition of national organic standards between countries. This analysis finds that, while, in aggregate, OEAs were not found to impact U.S. organic imports or exports, results evaluating individual agreements do suggest that they can be effective trade policy instruments. In particular, the U.S.–Canada and the U.S.–Switzerland OEAs were found to be effective in facilitating U.S. exports. Taken together these findings offer important insights into current trade patterns, and U.S. international market and organic policy opportunities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A new food chain: Adoption and policy implications to blockchain use in agri‐food industries

  Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy · 2021-03-29 · 33 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Legislation and regulation proposed to study, fund, and govern blockchain use is emerging among both US federal and state governments. These regulatory requirements, however, are not fully consistent across jurisdictions, which may add further challenge to the adoption of this technology by agri‐food system firms. This study compiles and provides a descriptive overview of legislation and regulations related to blockchain technology. Implications of the current regulatory approach on the adoption of blockchain on the US agri‐food system, and specifically of the wider adoption of distributed ledger technologies on food safety and market access of smaller scale farm operations, are considered.

  PublisherDOI

• Dairy product fraud

  Elsevier eBooks · 2021-01-01 · 8 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Qualitative perspectives of the North Carolina healthy food small retailer program among customers in participating stores located in food deserts

  BMC Public Health · 2021-07-27 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: The North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program (NC HFSRP) was established through a policy passed by the state legislature to provide funding for small food retailers located in food deserts with the goal of increasing access to and sales of healthy foods and beverages among local residents. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine perceptions of the NC HFSRP among store customers. METHODS: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 29 customers from five NC HFSRP stores in food deserts across eastern NC. Interview questions were related to shoppers' food and beverage purchases at NC HFSRP stores, whether they had noticed any in-store efforts to promote healthier foods and beverages, their suggestions for promoting healthier foods and beverages, their familiarity with and support of the NC HFSRP, and how their shopping and consumption habits had changed since implementation of the NC HFSRP. A codebook was developed based on deductive (from the interview guide questions) and inductive (emerged from the data) codes and operational definitions. Verbatim transcripts were double-coded and a thematic analysis was conducted based on code frequency, and depth of participant responses for each code. RESULTS: Although very few participants were aware of the NC HFSRP legislation, they recognized changes within the store. Customers noted that the provision of healthier foods and beverages in the store had encouraged them to make healthier purchase and consumption choices. When a description of the NC HFSRP was provided to them, all participants were supportive of the state-funded program. Participants discussed program benefits including improving food access in low-income and/or rural areas and making healthy choices easier for youth and for those most at risk of diet-related chronic diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Findings can inform future healthy corner store initiatives in terms of framing a rationale for funding or policies by focusing on increased food access among vulnerable populations.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Gap between Perception and Reality: Obstacles to Public School Use of Produce from Small Local Farms in the Southeastern United States

  Health Behavior and Policy Review · 2021-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Objective: Connecting farms to school foodservice operations is complex. Our purposes in this study were to: (1) identify and assess self-reported benefits and challenges to procurement and use of produce purchased directly from small farms in school foodservice operations, and (2) determine if opinions about procurement from small farms significantly differs between those with and without experience purchasing these products. Methods: An online survey was conducted with child nutrition directors from 3 southeastern states in the United States. Statistical tests assessed differences in opinions between those with and without experience purchasing with these products. Results: Directors without experience understood the benefits but significantly overestimated the difficulty in obtaining and using these products. Experience shaped director perceptions regarding perceived procurement challenges related to contract terms, ordering challenges, food safety practices, and ability of small farms to supply foodservice needs. Conclusions: Challenges exist in procuring produce from small farms (eg, lack of coordinated ordering, delivery, and communications processes, insufficient availability of products, and limited value-added processing). Sourcing products directly from these farms is not as onerous as perceived to be. Bridging

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jason H. Grant

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  19 shared

• Elizabeth Canales

  Mississippi State University

  17 shared

• Dawn Thilmany

  17 shared

• Sarah A. Low

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  16 shared

• David B. Willis

  11 shared

• Anne Wilcock

  9 shared

• Carlos E. Carpio

  New Mexico State University

  7 shared

• David W. Hughes

  6 shared

Labs

• Kathryn A. Boys LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Dept. of Agricultural Economics

  Purdue University