Progress 01/01/24 to 12/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:In the current reporting period, we werenot able to share any of the findings from the project with other members of the public or with government officials but wehave done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future. We were not able to share findings for reasons described in the "Changes and Problems" section of this report. To put it briefly: we encountered long delays in obtaining the data necessary for the first stages of the project, and all results must undergo review by NASS before we can share any results with the public. In the past, we have worked with the Virginia Departmentof Environmental Quality and Virginia Departmentof Agriculture and Consumer Services to develop a survey on food waste and recovery at commercial establishments and given presentations about the economics of food waste in general. In 2025, the first research paper that will result from this project will be presented at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists annual conference and has been submitted to the European Association of Agricultural Economists Congress. (Neither submission contained any numerical summaries of the data or any research results.) Changes/Problems:PD Bovay was originally authorized to access the farm-level Census of Agriculture and Vegetable Survey data in 2020, just after the start of the pandemic. At that time, Bovay would have had to access the data in a NASS lab, and these labs were closed for quite some time after the pandemic started. As the two-year anniversary of theoriginal approval approached, Bovay had to apply for renewed access, but at that time, traveling to a lab was no longer required---the preferred approach became using a virtual data enclave, which requires a subscription fee and special security measures related to researchers' physical workspaces. As reported previously, there was a delay of about 9 months in 2022 because the process to renew thedata access approval was so slow and another 5 weeks in 2023 because the VT comptroller did not pay the fee to renew thedata subscriptionon time. In 2023, PDs Bovay and Zhangdetermined the need to import additional data into the virtual workspace. Because policies had changed since theoriginal request was approved, the approval process was particularly slow (NASS needed to find a way to handle the request that reconciled the two processes). Westarted the data request/amendment process in January 2024 and did not receive all of the data requested until the end of November 2024. (Also during 2024, NASS granted access to the data workspace to co-PD Zhang.) NASS has set a firm deadline of June 2025 for usto complete the analysis, after which time ourvirtual data enclave will be closed. We will thus have all the results we need to submit a paper for publication around June 2025, and wehope to submit earlier. We also have plans to write a follow-up paper that uses some of the results from the first paper. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the reporting period, despite the delays, the project has provided opportunities for graduate student training in the form of literature review, development of methodology for the second paper, and some auxiliary data collection and cleaning. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We anticipate completing all analysis for objective 3 in March or April 2025. NASS DADRB must review the output for disclosure risk before we can export results from the ADRF portal. As soon as the results are cleared by NASS, we will complete a paper for submission to a top agricultural economics journal and begin work on objective 4.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: We refined our approach to estimating components of on-farm food loss and waste. In particular, we are focusing on three components, derived from data in the NASS Vegetable Survey and ARMS:(1) the gap between acres planted and acres harvested;(2) the gap between quantity harvested and quantity sold; (3) astochastic frontier estimate of the difference between maximum achievable yield, conditional on inputs, and actual achieved yield; in other words, inefficiency. The stochastic frontier approach follows the approaches ofYu and Jaenicke (AJAE, 2020) and Smith and Landry (AJAE, 2021) to estimating household food waste. Objectives 2, 3, and 4: These objectives have been delayed considerably because of data-access problems. On November 25, 2024, we finally received access to all the data we had requested for analysis within the ADRF portal. As a result of the delay, we were not able to accomplish any of the objectives outlined above during the reporting period. However, at the end of 2024, we made some progress in cleaning the data sets---including theVegetable Survey and ARMS data, in addition to price, weather, and crop insurance data---for use in regression analysis.
Publications
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Progress 01/01/23 to 12/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Audience: Academic Researchers -- PD Bovay gave a progress report presentation at the NIFA Project Directors' Meeting in Washington, DC, in July 2023. Changes/Problems:Obtaining access to the additional data sets described above slightly delayed the project (by less than one month) in 2023. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Mentored and trained a graduate student by reviewing the relevant literature on the economics of food loss and waste and research methods applicable to the research project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we will obtain additional restricted-access data sets from NASS to be used as covariates in the econometric analysis of objective 2. Specifically, we will obtaindata from the NASS Chemical Use survey, ARMS, and several non-NASS data sets that will be merged with the data previously accessed. We expect to complete analysis and a draft journal articleduring the next reporting period.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Under objectives 1 and 2, established preliminary measurements of on-farm loss and waste for about two dozen vegetable commodities by connecting restricted-access NASS datasets. Drafted the first half of a research article (~4000 words), which outlines the context and background, relevant literature, econometric modeling approach, and data. The second half of the article will be written after obtaining access to all data, conducting additional analysis, and obtaining clearance to publish tables from NASS.
Publications
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Progress 01/01/22 to 12/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:PD Bovay gave a presentation on the economics of food loss and waste to attendees of the Virginia Tech Lifelong Learning Institute on March 23, 2022. In July and August 2022, PD Bovaygave feedback to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services on a survey that led to the creation of a"Report on Food Waste Reduction Strategies" mandated by the Virginia Governor's Executive Order 17, "Recognizing the Value of Recycling and Waste Reduction". The target groups for the survey includedlarge-scale suppliers of food targeted by the executiveordersuch as food manufacturers, schools, hotel and banquet facilities. Changes/Problems:The first stage of the project (objectives 1 and 2)depends on PD John Bovay accessing and analyzing farm-level data sets from USDA NASS, specifically, the 2017 Census of Agriculture and several years of the Vegetable Survey. Bovay's approval to access these data sets was granted in 2020 for a two-year period but because of the pandemic, he never actually accessed them under the initial approval. Bovay applied for a renewal (with some modifications) in 2022, and finally obtained access to these key data sets in October 2022. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?PD Bovay has worked with graduate students in his department to explore possible strategies for pursuing objectives 3 and 4. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?PD Bovay gave a presentation on the economics of food loss and waste to attendees of the Virginia Tech Lifelong Learning Institute on March 23, 2022. A video recording of this presentation is available athttps://video.vt.edu/playlist/dedicated/1_6yvdlaab/1_y0zcc1ia What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In 2023, work will continue on Objectives 1 and 2. Preliminary results from Objectives 1 and 2 should be ready for presentation at the 2024 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) meeting and other conference venues in 2024, and a draft journal article covering Objectives 1 and 2 should be ready for submission by the end of 2024. The project team anticipates hiring multiple research assistants to begin fleshing out a literature review and the methodological approach to Objectives 3 and 4 in Summer or Fall 2023. Preliminary results from Objectives 3 and 4 should be ready for conference presentations in 2025 and draft journal articles should be ready for submission by the end of 2025.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the reporting period, PD Bovay linked the project's key data sets with each other and with additional data sets in order to begin the analysis described in objectives 1 and 2 of the project proposal.
Publications
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